Thanks! Do you specs of your build by any chance? Did you build yours recently?Overclock.net was where I went. Really good community but I feel 100 percent at home on macrumors. They're pretty anti-apple but for PC builds they really know their stuff. That's where i'd go.
For gaming, the general rule is to spend most of your budget on GPU.
A fast quad i5 or i7 is all you really need. Unfortunately, bang for buck dual core processors do not work on certain games such as Far Cry 4. AMD processors are considered good value for gaming too but I am not familar with these.
I like Overclock.net too but I personally don't see the point in overclocking my processor, games are no where close to taxing it. Anything more than 4 core is generally a waste for gaming unless of course you have other needs. I think that the advice on such websites its generally good but they often overspecify the power supply required. My rig below could easily get away with 400 W but I wasn't sure whether to go 980 SLI or Titan X at the time.
My personal rig is:
i7 4970K
Cooler Master 412S
16 GB Kingston HyperX Fury DDR3
ASUS Z97-AR Motherboard
Intel 730 SSD
Nvidia Titan X
Seasonic 660 W Platinum power supply
Sharkoon T9 Value case
5 x Delta PMW fans (2900 rpm)
WD essentials USB 3 external HD
I don't have experience but a few websites/forums report on deals available (partpicker?).
CPU overclocking can make a difference but it depends. Especially if the card(s) are not top of the line. That topic is too big to discuss in a post so I recommend googling it. My system is getting old but I saw a boost in graphics performance and I seem to recall there was a boost in my grid computing performance but I would have to look at my logs to be sure. Don't bother with any less than 4GB vram on your graphics cards even if you find a "deal" on an old card. I currently run three 680's and two of them will edge out a single 980 but the 680 lags behind if the vram is maxed which is becoming more common these days. Like I said my build is getting long in the tooth, lol. FYI nvidia 700 series are basically overclocked 600 series and are getting old so I wouldn't bother with them unless you get some for say, a dollar lol. The 900 series has been out for a while now but I haven't heard when the next gen will be released. I am skipping the 900's just because I built my rig somewhat beastly and is still doing what I need it to do; cad/cam/cae simulations, grid computing and perhaps some *cough* gaming here and there.
BTW when you first power up your system and are anxiously awaiting a successful POST you might want to clear the bios the very first thing you do. My first build wouldn't POST and I didn't know about resetting the bios right from the get go; would've saved me a lot of time.
Was there a particular reason as to why you couldn't get into pc gaming?I had a 27 inch 1440p crossover monitor i7 3930k / 16GB 1866mhz ddr3 / 2x GTX 680's / asus rampage, etc. My build was extreme overkill. For gaming you're fine with an unlocked i5. Sold my build when the PS4 came out because I just for the life of me can't get into pc gaming.
Was there a particular reason as to why you couldn't get into pc gaming?
Did you first start gaming with a pc or with a console?
I had a 27 inch 1440p crossover monitor i7 3930k / 16GB 1866mhz ddr3 / 2x GTX 680's / asus rampage, etc. My build was extreme overkill. For gaming you're fine with an unlocked i5. Sold my build when the PS4 came out because I just for the life of me can't get into pc gaming.
Was there a particular reason as to why you couldn't get into pc gaming?
Did you first start gaming with a pc or with a console?
Console