Thinking of Building Gaming PC, What is everyone running?

I'm curious to know what people would recommend for building a gaming PC, as well as knowing what people are currently running?
Budget is probably gonna be $1000 and Under for just the PC

A steel plated toaster. It's running the old gtx 760 heater and a FX-9370 processor.

FX-6300 + Xigmatek GAIA (HSF)
HD 7850 2GB
16 GB DDR3
Seasonic 520W 80+ Bronze
Samsung 840 EVO 250 GB
NZXT Phantom 410

Comments:
Cost me about $600-700 at the time. Somewhat poor performance for newer AAA games but for what I play it does quite well. I play mostly older games and indie titles at 1080p, 60Hz.
You can get significantly better for about the same amount now.
If your budget is higher you can expect to max a lot of games at 1080/60. If your budget is much higher you might be able to max something like 1440p/60Hz.
Boot drive SSD is recommended if it fits your budget.
16 GB is still unnecessary for average users. 8 GB is still the current "sweet spot".
If you're new to building I strongly recommend spending at least a few weeks browsing /r/buildapc on reddit.

I can't really recommend anything without knowing the budget for the build. If you can set a budget that will give people more of an idea of whats viable.

What I'm running:
Corsair Air 540
Asus Sabertooth Z87
Intel 4770K
16GB Kingston HyperX Beast 1866mhz
MSI GTX 780 TF2
Asus Xonar Phoebus
Cooler Master V1000
120mm Liquid CPU Cooler
Corsair Neutron GTX 120gb
WD Velociraptor 500gb

Probably Under $1000, but just For the PC, Not including Display or Keyboard or Mouse

I am also looking into buying/building a new gaming pc, with a similar budget, i found some of the following sites helpful, maybe you will too?

number one, i was told to use new egg to find a build i wanted, as their search options are amazing, but new egg isn't always the best for price/shipping etc, so get the build there, then shop around.

number two, once you get a build run it through here:
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/
to do a test to see if the parts are compatable.


and guides for picking out computer parts:
http://www.cnet.com/how-to/what-you-need-to-know-before-building-your-own-computer/
http://www.custompcreview.com/pc-computer-builds/
http://www.pcworld.com/article/2839376/build-a-hellacious-pc-with-intels-devils-canyon-and-amds-dual-gpu-graphics-monster.html (like the article but the other guides and howto videos may actually be more helpful... check it out in any case.)


hope you find some of this helpful, when you find a build you like post it up and lemme take a look i'm interested for my own build ^_^;


Also. i don't have any other part of the computer picked out for my own build yet, but it MUST have this case:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811124160



also, if your interested, gimme an idea of what you want your computer to do and I'll go make a few builds and run it past my computer genius friend before posting them... lol =] i have actually been finding this quite fun!

Use pcpartpicker

@kbyte-928997 it would also be prudent to browse the buildapc subreddit. Not only can you find helpful advice, you can also find out information you might not easily get elsewhere. For example, this post here suggests that a lot of GTX 970s suffer from coil whine. There's a lot of stuff people don't normally think about too, such as your RAM being too large for your heatsink. Also I recommend against trusting Newegg or Amazon reviews. Anyone building a computer should do very thorough research. I personally recommend doing a google search for a particular part you're interested in. For some parts you can find something like an owner's club where you can check out what kind of experience people are having with a particular part.

Naturally you're going to run into a lot of anecdotes on the internet and not everyone's input will be helpful, this even applies for trusted review sites. But it could also save you a lot of grief if you know what to expect.

+1! that helps me too so ty. i don't normally check reddit for... anything. it would not have occurred to me so ty.

Current set up (laptop):
Video: GeForce GTX770M
Processor: Intel i7-4800MQ @2.7GHz
Memory: 16 GB RAM

No regrets with this machine. Everything runs maxed out.


Ideas for builds:
General info: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4Js2A1qdB8

$750: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh2_fry7E70
Another $750: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=srmmt0-vrD8
$600-$800: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsiHegrG3gs
$400: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KUpRXRGVHU

PC name: Foxwell

CPU: Intel i5 4670K
MOBO: ASUS Maximus VI Formula
RAM: Corsair Vengeance 1600Mhz 2x4gb memory kit
Cooling Unit: Corsair H100i
Case: Corsair 500R Mid tower case (White)
PSU: Corsair RM series 750W 80 Plus gold
OS drive: Samsung 850 EVO 250Gb SSD
Storage Drive: Western Digital 1TB Caviar Blue
GPU: ASUS GTX 970 STRIX
Optical Drive: ASUS 24x DVDR/W
OS: Windows 8.1

-Peripherals-
Keyboard: Logitech G510S
Mouse: Logitech G600
Xbox One controller for PC (for fighting and certain games like MGS)
Monitor: ASUS MX279 28in 1920x1080p Monitor
Headset: Corsair H2100 wireless headset

Yeah I'm pretty much a Corsair and ASUS fan given what I've listed.

Thank You for all the information, I'm slowly picking and buying my part ! :D

The Skylake CPUs are coming out in Q3 2015. If you're on the hunt to buy parts to build a rig I suggest you wait until Intel officially releases them.

Here's a link: http://wccftech.com/intel-6th-generation-skylake-s-processors-officially-confirmed-core-i76700k-core-i56600k-coming-q3-2015/

Can't believe no-one has posted these yet:
Tom's Hardware - Graphics Card Hierarchy Chart - 2015
Tom's Hardware - Gaming CPU Hierarchy Chart - 2015

Picking a good GPU/CPU is a real headache, since buying the something from the "newest line" won't necessarily get you the strongest card for your $.

I used to stare at those charts a lot but I've stopped. Honestly I don't think comparing up and down is very useful when you're trying to make a purchase decision. I think their actual buying guides are a bit more helpful and if you actually want hard data Anandtech's benchmarks are my reference of choice.

Here is what I am running.
Case: NZXT Elite 210... its a cheap case, functional, but its too narrow for the cpu cooler I ended up using, should go with wider case if you uncomfortable running a large cooler with your computer's guts hanging out.
CPU: AMD FX-8320
CPU Cooler: Cooler Master Hyper 212 EVO Pretty good cooler, much quieter than the stock,which sounds like jet engine every time something mildly demanding comes up.
RAM: Corsair Vengence 16GB Dual Channel
MOBO: ASUSTek M5A97 LER2.0 (I don't recommand this one, its a bit old now. it doesn't have a suitable USB3.0 header for the front USB port available on the case)
GPU: Nvidia Geforce GTX 970 (Reference)Probably should have gotten an branded one instead.
SDD: 250GB Samsung 840 EVO
HDD: Western Digital WDC 2TB
BLU-Ray Disk: ASUS BC12b
Power Supply: Cosair 600M So far so good.

This WAS my budget build, I started with a GTX750 shorty, its actually quite a good card.

I was curious what are your guys take on Water Cooling vs. Fans?

I wouldn't go with water unless I wanted a significant overclock. Otherwise fans. I would also consider water for any very cramped configurations. Water is pretty fancy and keeps things cooler but most people probably don't need it.

Intel and AMD graphics go hand in hand in my world. Also cheap too.

But watercooling VS fans.

I like quiet stuff.

So i like water cooling more.

I'm running a microwave with an Intel Core I3, 8 gb of ram, 1TB Hard Drive, a GTX 750Ti (Gigabyte), and with two fans