Technology X Tomorrow's Technology Today!
Hey everybody, we’re back this week with another Build Of The Week, this time doing a GTX 960 Gaming Rig under $900. We originally wanted to do a build featuring the Nvidia GTX 960, What we ended up with is a system capable of doing Ultra/Max settings at 1080P 60FPS
GTX 960 GAMING RIG UNDER $900 BUILD SPECIFICATIONS
This build will be focused on being upgradable, overclockable and giving great gaming performance out the gate. Leaving certain options up to you such as upgrading to an i7 if you plan on doing video editing, streaming or really any intensive productivity tasks, adding a HDD for more storage, going with a different case or adding a CPU cooler.
CPU: INTEL CORE i5 4690K 3.5GHZ QUAD CORE – $239
The Intel Core i5 4690K features four Intel Haswell based processing cores, a base clock frequency of 3.5GHz which boosts to 3.9GHz, with a fully unlocked multiplier and Intel’s new Devil’s Canyon Thermal Interface making this CPU capable of extreme overclocking. As well as 6MB of Intel Smart Cache, for robust multi-tasking and heavy workloads.
The main reason we went with this CPU is because it is the best CPU for gamers right now, while the AMD FX 8320/8350 are a bit cheaper and keep up in gaming performance, the 4690K is the go to chip for a reason. It can hit 4.0GHz easily which is good enough for most games to keep any bottlenecks away.
CPU COOLER: ANTEC KUHLER H2O 650 – $57
The Antec Kulher 650 is a solid cooler designed for smaller form factor systems, but it should cool just fine to get us to 4GHz. For a few bucks more the Kulher 950 or H60 is a better value if you want to go for higher clock speeds.
MOTHERBOARD: GIGABYTE Z97 HD3 – $105
Supporting up to 32GB of RAM, 6 Sata 3.0 Ports, a single PCI-E x16 slot, in addition to a x4 slot, two x1 slots for soundcards and other add in cards as well as a legacy PCI slot. It also features up to 8 USB 2.0 ports and 6 USB 3.0 Ports (4 USB 3.0 and 2 USB 2.0 on the back) for the full specifications check here
The Gigabyte Z97 HD3 is one the cheapest Z97 boards out, and for this system we don’t really need an expensive feature packed board. This will get us to a decent overclock, have plenty of room for more storage and a decent number of USB ports.
RAM: KINGSTON HYPERX FURY 8GB (2×4) DDR3 1866 MHz – $70
Kingston’s HyperX Fury is their mid-ranged Gaming RAM, providing acceptable overclocking, with ease as it runs at the standard 1.5V, with a 1866MHz clock speed and a CAS latency of 10-10-10 which is all about what you would expect for performance RAM at this price.
Right now at below $70 this is the RAM to buy. It also comes in assorted colors, Red, Blue Black and White which are all around 70-75 dollars, we think Black or White would be the best choices here. This is solid reliable memory that will give you the performance you need in games.
GPU: GIGABYTE GTX 960 MINI-ITX (2GB) – $199
We went with the Gigabyte GTX 960 Mini-ITX version because it is currently the only card selling for under $200 right now. The Asus Strix GTX 960 will overclock better and should run a bit quieter for another $10. That being said this is a card that will run almost all current games at 1080P at Ultra with high to max anti-aliasing
STORAGE: OCZ ARC 100 (240GB) – $95
The OCZ ARC 100 is another one of OCZ’s long line of high quality consumer grade SSDs with TRIM support 256Bit AES encryption and rated for 20GB per day of host writes for its 3 year warranty. Its 490MB/s read and 460MB/s write is very competitive with the higher end SSDs for the full review check out our review at The SSD Review here
For less than $100 this is an extremely high value SSD, we strongly recommend you pick this up, alternatively you can get an HDD but we recommend you put an SSD to begin with and add a HDD like the WD Caviar Blue or Seagate Barracuda either at time of purchase or adding on later on, as adding storage drives is rather easy compared to having to move an OS to a new drive.
CASE: NXZT S340 – $70
The NZXT S340 is a mid-range to budget midtower that is a step above the Source 210 Elite with a 90% Metal chassis and one of the better sub $90 cases out there. It is feature packed, with dust filters in the front panel and underneath the case for the PSU. It also supports up to 280mm rads like the Kraken X61 and is available in white or black
The case is a solid case for those looking to water cool and not looking for the highest end case. It is available in White or Black
PSU: ROSEWILL ARC 650W – $60
The Rosewill ARC 650W is a 80+ Bronze rated PSU with a single 12V rail with two 6+2 power cables and is capable of handling a heavy overclock on both your GPU CPU and additional drives and fans you may throw in your system
We went with this PSU because of the price its at, this will be able to handle Crossfire if you decide on upgrading later on and overclocking your CPU. While the PSU is not modular, it doesn’t affect performance and the S340 should allow enough room to cable manage well.
Overall our goal was to give you something capable of playing games at max/ultra settings at 1080P with some upgradeability in the future. All in all we think this is something that fulfills that well. Tell us what you think of our Gaming Rig Under $900 in the comments and be sure to check out all our other articles and future Builds of the Week.