As the title suggests, I would like people's input on what is a good budget for a gaming PC. I do apologize for the fact that I am not well versed in PC tech knowledge. Also if this is the wrong forum, sorry.

But since watching gameplay videos from the leaked beta, I know I want a badass computer to run this game when it releases next month.

*Looking around that Newegg site, and kind of cherry picking. Any help and info is greatly appreciated. As people have suggested I am setting a price ceiling at $1500, however I could go to $2000 if necessary. Also would like the computer to last a good two years worth of future gaming purchases with only light ancillary upgrades needed. (WIP)

CPU: Intel Core i7-950 Bloomfield 3.06GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor BX80601950 ($299, And what is a Sandy Bridge?)

I heard HD 5770 or GTX 460 should be good mid-range cards

Are you building it or buying it? If you're not too computer savvy I would suggest buying one, but the price is going to be a little steeper.

About $1000 for an complete build.... but the most important parts will do just great trust me, considering you already have the PSU,HDD and the case.>>> i5 2500k SB (Sandy Bridge) +a decent 1155mobo+3GB DDR3+ GTX 560=Good gaming PC

GuMp AkC yep damn these so many sockets xD

I have a friend who is going to teach me how to build it, he's compiling a list of good parts too. But I figure the more options the better... right?

@Stalker
I need everything, I have a personal laptop for business/personal use and GOG. Though it runs Warhead, just not great.

without keyboard/mouse/monitor and without w7
if you build it around 800bux with a 955/6950 will max 99% of games out
and play crysis very high with avrg around 38-40fps
add w7 n monitor be like 1050-1100

Heh you're on a Crysis forum with people who built their PC specifically for the first game (like myself). I see you're relatively new at this so that's not much of a problem if you ask me, it depends on how much you're willing to learn and how determined you are to achieve getting yourself a new rig put together. I've been putting together computers for 18 years. I remember upgrading my PC in 1993 so I could run DOOM when it came out.

I originally spent about $1800 on my PC in late 2007 (which I have continued to upgrade rather than outright replace since then). It was just good enough to play the game [Crysis 1] on Very High at about 25-30 fps continuously, hitting maybe as low as 20 fps in certain spots on a few maps.

I could go on about my rig but it's not anything spectacular now (Q6600 @ 3.0, 4gig DDR2 ram Win7 etc). Last changed I made were my 8800GTX -> GTX280 and putting in high performance SSD for my OS and a few choice games and a 1080p 21.5" monitor. I expect i'll run Crysis 2 fairly well, though if you're looking to build a rig with the kind of money I spent then on today's technology, you could get something better than I have, as is the nature of PC gaming.

It really depends on what you spend; Establish a budget ceiling to start off with. I build my own pcs from pieces as that's the best way to get the bang for your buck. I used newegg.com

I would say you would need between 1200-1500 for a good rig that could run the game well. Obviously you could spend more than that and get an even better rig, but it also depends on if you're able to build it yourself and what kind of brands you're going to buy. It's fairly involved, but if you're up for the challange I would begin doing some research and take a month to gather together information before you buy any parts. A really good PC will last you for years if you do it right.

I'm sure there are other folks on here that are a bit more versed in the absolute latest stuff. I always take time to read about the latest technology whenever i'm in my upgrade cycle before I purchase anything.

As i said for an complete build, $1000 is pretty enough and will run games good enough for 2-3years.

It really depends on what you spend; Establish a budget ceiling to start off with. I build my own pcs from pieces as that's the best way to get the bang for your buck. I used newegg.com

I would say you would need between 1200-1500 for a good rig that could run the game well. Obviously you could spend more than that and get an even better rig, but it also depends on if you're able to build it yourself and what kind of brands you're going to buy. It's fairly involved, but if you're up for the challange I would begin doing some research and take a month to gather together information before you buy any parts. A really good PC will last you for years if you do it right.

I'm sure there are other folks on here that are a bit more versed in the absolute latest stuff. I always take time to read about the latest technology whenever i'm in my upgrade cycle before I purchase anything.

Also he is very right

About $1000 for an complete build.... but the most important parts will do just great trust me, considering you already have the PSU,HDD and the case.>>> i5 2500k SB (Sandy Bridge) +a decent 1156mobo+3GB DDR3+ GTX 560=Good gaming PC

1155 bro lol. I know...it's a pain in the ass to remember all the sockets when they're so familiar.

Don't forget he's going to need software; That's something a lot of people forget when putting together a budget. I purchased a 'system builder' edition of Windows 7 to reduce the cost (it does not come with retail software support from Microsoft, something i'd never use and thus saved 100 bucks not purchasing a retail edition).

EDIT: Interesting on Sandy Bridge (something I was not aware of, ol' quick google search takes care of that). Ah second generation corei7 processor architecture released in Jan of this year. Isn't that the chipsets that had that recall? I remember hearing about that recently but didn't think much of it since it didn't affect me. Apparently it's going to be replaced sometime this month. Heh it just means my rig is yet another version out of date

@Knight Kin
I would like the best bang for my buck. But I don't mind spending a little extra if it gets me that arcade feeling of 60FPS. I have only built a computer once before, coincidentally it was also with the friend who is going to be teaching me now.

As I said earlier he's compiling a few lists of parts as well, but I would like to truly learn the ins and outs. I don't just want to be spending money for a quick fix, I want to build a good computer that lasts. And then when it comes time to upgrade, I can do it all myself.

http://i54.tinypic.com/fbhj85.png
816 in total harddrive has a 10$ promo code pretty good price for 1.5tb
add windows 7 64bit+100 add 1080 24inch monitor +170
this puter lets you add another 6950 when you want to and the chance to unlock 6950 to 6970(google how)
plus when bulldozer comes out you can put that in
its pretty cheap and very powerfull

Don't forget he's going to need software; That's something a lot of people forget when putting together a budget. I purchased a 'system builder' edition of Windows 7 to reduce the cost (it does not come with retail software support from Microsoft, something i'd never use and thus saved 100 bucks not purchasing a retail edition).

EDIT: Interesting on Sandy Bridge (something I was not aware of, ol' quick google search takes care of that). Ah second generation corei7 processor architecture released in Jan of this year. Isn't that the chipsets that had that recall? I remember hearing about that recently but didn't think much of it since it didn't affect me. Apparently it's going to be replaced sometime this month. Heh it just means my rig is yet another version out of date

Yeah they're starting to roll out RMA's and notifications now. Essentially, get your sandy bridge rigs ready if you want a new motherboard type of deal. We wont get our new boards until the end of February like you said. I may not even bother, the percentage of the problems with eSATA 3Gbps is only 5% and I used the 6 anyways.

Is this sandy bridge going to be worth it?

@urbanshaft
Thanks for the list of parts.

And to the rest if I don't get a chance to "@ you", thank you very much for helping out.

in gaming nope
its a beast for crazy multitasking photo editing/video editing
955 still king in gaming for the price

This may sound dumb, but in the min specs it talks about a duo core processor. Will Crysis 2 utilize quad core processors to their fullest?

nobody knows how many cores cryengine3 can support
but since crytek works with intel itll prob be atleast 6cores supported

Sandy Bridge rocks at gaming. The person who said the 955 is still king...go look at the benchmarks. I personally destroy 955's in 3DMarkVantage to the point where we're not even in the same category. Overclock it slightly and you're already faster than the 980.

1.5K should get you a beast of a machine, including a SSD and a storage drive.

I just bought one myself for just under 1.5K. rips through everything.

thing is tho, wait until the new sandy mobos come out. the ones out now svck balls.

i would not recommended a sandy bridge yet, there arent much motherboard out there for it at the moment, beside sandy bridge only support dual channel. just stick with a lga1366 intel 950 would be a best idea. most would say 920/930 for best overclocking.

this is one cheap comp imo that would last at least 2 years or so that would. this is just my opinion, the brand the you prefer is up to you. 850watt is best to use, also if you sli 560 ti, it will pass the single gtx 580.

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Sandy Bridge rocks at gaming. The person who said the 955 is still king...go look at the benchmarks. I personally destroy 955's in 3DMarkVantage to the point where we're not even in the same category. Overclock it slightly and you're already faster than the 980.
3dmark isnt a game you fool

Hey mate, don't buy i7-950. That's just a waste of money. You can get the power of i7-980 by purchasing i7-940 and overclocking it(which btw. is really easy) to 3,6 ghz - 4ghz. I payed about 1600 for my rig, which has 6 gigs of ddr3 ram running at 1667mhz, windows 7 64 bit, i7-920 @3,8ghz, 750Watt PSU, and ati radeon hd 5970 GPU. I bought this an year ago and back then it was only 1,6k so the prices of these parts should have gone down a bit. I recommend these exact parts if u want the best price and performance.

Srry for being out of date.... but you can go with last gen and save...not saying you'll survive tommorow but you'll be set for a while. get a quad core from the 775 series with a really nice mobo, the mobo will go for about $50 around this time and the cpu's for about $200, get med range video cards and sli them together, nice case with fans and overclock the snot out of your cpu, youll be able to keep up with the rest of todays normal standard gaming PC's and save about $500

As the title suggests, I would like people's input on what is a good budget for a gaming PC. I do apologize for the fact that I am not well versed in PC tech knowledge. Also if this is the wrong forum, sorry.)

Do you already have a desktop? I'm gonna assume that you do. Assuming you do, there are parts of that PC that we want to keep in order to save money. Keeping these parts will save you between 500-1000 dollars. These parts are:

Monitor
Keyboard
Mouse
Hard Drive
CD Drive
Sound card
GPU

Now, buy these parts in this exact order:

PSU: PSU = 2nd most future proof part of PC. Get at least 750W for extra future-****. Buy any PSU listed in Tier 1 or Tier 2 of this thread: http://www.eggxpert.com/forums/thread/323050.aspx

Case: Case = most future proof part of PC. Buy a FULL TOWER case. NOTHING ELSE. They're easier to work with, let you put what ever you want inside, and provide better cooling. The standard is the HAF 932.

CPU: Just get this...
http://www.amazon.com/Intel-i5-2500K-Processor-Socket-LGA1155/dp/B004EBUXHQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1297597020&sr=8-1

Motherboard: Get this: ASUS P8P67 or this: GIGABYTE p67a-ud4

RAM: Just get this: 4GB Corsair XMS3 PC3-12800 1600MHz

This will eat up maybe $800, but this will be a VERY HIGH END PC. You will be set FOR YEARS. Grab yourself a ATI Radeon 5870 for like 250$ and this will DESTROY Crysis 2. You can live with crappy peripherals for now.

@cuad
I have a monitor, mouse, and keyboard. But everything else I would need to get initially as well. My current personal computer is actually a laptop.