There has been a lot of movement in the PC gaming hardware recently on the GPU front, but the CPU side of things remains fairly stable. If you’re aching to put together a new gaming system capable of running BattleField 4 and other games at their highest settings then you’ve come to the right place.
Previously, we’d taken a look at the $650 US dollar build. which gives plenty of bang for the buck. This time around, the extra cash allows us to go for slightly better quality parts, fit in a high end Intel CPU, and go for a slightly meatier GPU.
I’ve selected Intel with this system due to the fact that currently, pound of pound, Intel out perform AMD for games. The I5 selected below is the unlocked version, and has reasonable overclocking potential. Should you decide on heavy overclocking, I’d recommend buying the Corsair CPU cooler too. You’ll keep your temps in a much more comfortable range.
At this price range, we’re just out of range of being able to purchase the super high end GPU’s such as the AMD Radeon R9 290X 4GB
I’ve not given a case or DVD burner recommendation because: For the case, everyone likes different designs. I personally get go for a cheap and quiet case, I’m not to worry about flash. Others prefer huge cases for water cooling for instance. For the DVD Burner – let’s face it, at this point in their life span, pretty much anything will do the job. I barely use DVD’s now anyways, games are all installed via Steam / Origin / Some other digital means.
| Component | PC build components | Second option / Extras |
| CPU | Intel Core i5-4670K Quad-Core CPU $219.99 |
|
| Motherboard | ASUS Z87-K LGA 1150 $115 |
Gigabyte Z87 LGA 1150 2-Way SLI OC $186 |
| RAM | Kingston Hyper X Blu 8 GB 1600MHz DDR3  $79.99 |
Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 1866 97.99 |
| Graphics Card | AMD Radeon Gigabyte R9 280X GDDR5-3GB $299.99 |
EVGA GeForce GTX770 SuperClocked $408 |
| Hard Drive | WD Blue 1 TB HDD 7200 RPM SATA 6 Gb/s $65 |
Samsung SSD 840 EVO-Series 120GB $99.99 |
| Case | Case of your choice $30 – $100 | |
| Power Supply | Corsair Enthusiast Series 650-Watt 80 PSU $89.99 |
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| Optical | Any DVD Burner $15 Dollars | |
| CPU Cooler | Stock | Corsair Hydro Liquid CPU Cooler H60 $59.99 |
| Total Cost | $935 US Dollars (with a $50 dollar case) | $1227 US Dollars (if ALL optional parts are bought) |
