Hey everyone I'm looking for a gaming pc with a top range in my budget of $1,100
Basically all I need is the case and everything inside as I will use my current monitor/mouse/keyboard etc
I always went with AMD mobo and processors before, but I have heard current talk that they aren't what they used to be, and intel has taken over as far as gaming goes
So if you can make intel work in my budget that's great, if not, I'm completely fine with AMD
I also do not need a copy of windows

I'll be playing games such as league of legends, Guild wars 2, Firefall, Crysis, etc.
I also use photoshop, adobe illustrator, and ArcGIS for my major and they can be intensive
I'm hoping with black friday coming up, I can get most the things I want for under budget

Some basic needs/wants:
Memory - 8-16 gigs of ddr3 2400 ram or close to this quality
Hard Drive - 256+ gig SSD
Video Cards - Looking preferably at the R9 video cards. Prefer 280, 280x, 290 or better. Must have HDMI or display port, preferably both
Mobo/Processor - Intel mobo/processor (if it can fit in budget), but if AMD drops the prices by a decent chunk, while still giving good performance that's preferred
Case - Would prefer a mid tower, but if full is the only way to fit certain parts, that is fine. Would also like 2+ front side usb ports (3.0 preferred).
Power supply - Whatever works
Cooling - Would prefer after market cooling for processor and obviously will need fans if the case does not supply any/enough
CD-ROM drive
Would like a hub with sd card reading etc

Offering up to 500 fg for the best and yet most budget costly build. Would prefer to keep the cost under 1,000.

This needs to be built and shipped by January 1-4
My shipping zipcode is 84604 in Utah

set your actual purchase date
computer component parts change all the time.
and btw, ram speed does not mean quality... odds you will notice a difference are pretty small between 2 ram speeds.
btw a nvidia graphics card would be better since cuda cores.

For some reason I can't edit my posts?

So I need a purchase date by December 15th to gurantee delivery by January
Is there a large price difference to change to an Nvidia card? Do you have recommendations on which one?

970, with fx8320

Basically this.
8320 and even 8350 have really nice speeds for their price.
If you consider going with an Intel nontheless, maybe try the Xeon E3-1231 V3.

This would be a build using a Xeon as well as a GTX 970, including SSD and an additional 1TB regular HDD for storage and it's still below 1000$ (if you can find a case ~50$)

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/BGggqs

This post was edited by aneas on Nov 19 2014 06:08pm

Question about Mother boards

I'm leaning between the following 3:

Asus m5a97 r2.0
gigabyte 990FXA UD3
or the MSI 970 gaming

Do any of you have a preference and explanation as to which might be better
Likely going to go with sexksii's recommendation of the gtx 970 along with the fx8320

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/LDYjbv

can change a bunch to the build since ur budget is flexible,
like get 8320E, evga's 970, higher mhz ram to ur liking, samsung evo SSD, add a 1tb hdd if u need the extra space etc.etc.
^none of this would matter in about few weeks cos the prices change, but it's just a guide for you to think about

all 3 mobo above are great,
990fxa ud3 is slightly a tier above the other 2 boards, for $10 extra after MIR.
asus is the go to board, but u wont be able to SLI in the future with another 970 if u ever plan on doing so.
msi 970 is also GG at the current price and its sex red/brack

This post was edited by Secksii on Nov 19 2014 07:15pm

This is probably a stupid question, but is there much a difference going with MSI vs say Gigabyte for the graphics card? And would you recommend one over the other?
I think I'll definitely narrow it down to the MSI 970 and the 990fxa depending on which is the best deal for black friday/cyber monday deals.

One more quick question. I know nothing about the different types of SSD's. I have one and love it, but I know they have advanced a lot in the past year alone
Are there certain configurations I should look for or stay away from?

This post was edited by blackice5679 on Nov 19 2014 07:24pm

This is the current build I'm looking at as per the advice so far
http://pcpartpicker.com/p/rKwsjX
I'm open for changes on the ram, the ssd (heard the newer ones by samsung are awesome but don't know which ones), the power supply wattage, and cpu cooler
I also am taking ideas on a mid tower case.