Getting a new PC in July

[Valmy]

It will be primarily for gaming purposes and I want to keep costs down. It has been almost six years since I bought a rig so any suggestions?

[Caliga]

Intel-ASUS-Nvidia.

[Valmy]

Intel-ASUS-Nvidia.

Thanks!

[Caliga]

My last two builds were Intel CPUs, ASUS boards, and then Nvidia video cards and everything has gone perfectly.  I don't know your budget so I can't give you specific suggestions but for all three of those items there's stuff priced someplace that should meet your budget.

I would suggest getting a Haswell CPU at least.

[Liep]

AMD-Gigabyte-ATI

[Valmy]

AMD-Gigabyte-ATI

Way to confuse me

[Liep]

AMD-Gigabyte-ATI

Way to confuse me

Ignore me, I know nothing so I was mostly trolling. Although I am very happy with my cheaper amd processor.

[viper37]

It will be primarily for gaming purposes and I want to keep costs down. It has been almost six years since I bought a rig so any suggestions?

AMD is cheaper, faster on everything but gaming.
Intel is faster, more expensive, slower on everything except for gaming where it blazes through just about any games.  It's a pain to copy large files from one hard drive to another and it brings your gaming rig to its knees trying to do that, i.e. forget about trying to play while you copy some files or rip a Blu Ray, unless you have that 1000$ i7 cpu.

And AMD 290x is a good card (try to pick the MSI TwinFrzr) or an Nvidia GTX 970, it really depends on wich price you can get them.
AMD has the Mantle API, Dragon Age Inquisition uses this and makes the game smoother.  I want your experience of DA:I to be absolute so it makes for a better AAR
Early DX12 reports gives an advance to AMD cards, but we won't know for sure until Win10 is out for a few months, with a couple of drivers release.  I doubt Nvidia will lag behind so much for very long.

If you want the absolute best and don't care about costs, Intel i7 and the latest or second latest Nvidia video cards (Titan X) like a Gigabyte Windforce.

If you're on a budget, AMD CPU + AMD video card like the 280x.

If you're willing to compromise, Intel i5, maybe the 4670k, maybe a bit higher and an AMD video card like the 290x or a GTX 970.

Use this site to build your pc:
https://pcpartpicker.com/

[viper37]

If you want specifics, I'd go for an Asus Maximus VII hero for MB and Intel i7 4670k for CPU.  Depends on what you can afford.  Don't compromise on the board though, go for an Intel i5 or switch over to AMD with one of the top line Asus MB like the Sabertooth 990FX.

Go for one DDR3-1866 16gb so you can easily add another 16gb down the road.  No need to go insane on the RAM, Intel doesn't support anything above DDR3-1600 without overclocking.

Video card:    Gigabyte WINDFORCE 3X GTX 970 or MSI Twinfrzr Radeon 290x (check the prices&specials when you're ready to buy).

Powersupply: full modular 750w.  Like the OCZ-FTY750W.  Or any other good brand like Antec, Thermaltake, Silverstone.  Go for the bronze one.  Unless power prices are insane, it will take you 15 years to recuperate your investment in a "gold" power supply (more energy efficient).

[Berkut]

I've been kicking around the idea of a new PC as well.

The Asus Maximus VII Hero seems very expensive to me for a MB at over $200. What am I getting for that price compared to the slew of MBs in the 125-150 range?

I generally think for most components there is a value "sweet spot" above which the price/performance ratio really starts getting prohibitive, and my experience, perhaps dated, is that motherboards tend to come in around $150 or so for a good, high feature, high quality board that isn't the absolute latest and greatest where you are paying a premium for marginal increases in performance/functionality.

[viper37]

The Asus Maximus VII Hero seems very expensive to me for a MB at over $200. What am I getting for that price compared to the slew of MBs in the 125-150 range?

Overclokcing capabilities (it's very easy to do in the BIOS interface, lots of options for voltage regulations, notably), no fans on the MB, very low operating temperature, Z97 chipset, LEDs, outstanding audio card, cool colors, USB Bios flashback, more SATA connectors (8, instead of 4 as usual), Keybot is a nice feature but of doubtful utility.  But there are LEDs.  Nice red LEDs.  And blue ones too.  Oh, 3 year warranty, but some other Asus boards offer 5 years.
So, basically, this board has LEDs, the others don't.  Easy choice.

[Valmy]

Intel i7 4670k for CPU

You mean Intel i5 4670K right?

[viper37]

Intel i7 4670k for CPU

You mean Intel i5 4670K right?

yes, i5, sorry.  I think it's a tad slow outside of gaming, but it's a good processor to game.  I have this and I have no problems cranking the performances.
The i7 4790k would cost you at least 200$ more and I'm not sure it's worth it.

[Valmy]

Here is my problem Viper my budget tops out at $700 and I find that hard to get with your recommendations  . I am going to go by Fry's tomorrow to see what they have and recommend.

Also I find assembling the parts and putting it together a big intimidating. But I guess so long as I have done it before it should be straight forward. It has been awhile though. Though all the fans and modern cooling systems is a little 

[Grey Fox]

Viper doesn't build cheap system.