(Inexperienced) Looking for new PC

"tough games" to me says: Witcher 3, Far Cry 4, Crysis 3, GTA V, etc.  and for that you're gonna  want at least a GTX 960/R9 280 ($200 range) for medium-high settings at 1080p in these titles.  a GTX 970/R9 390 ($330 range) would be more preferable (to max out 1080p); and a GTX 980/R9 390X and R9 Fury ($550+ range) would insure it. 

the last set of cards i listed also begins the "high end" sector and is the base of a 1440p config.  however, getting real about 1440p, i would suggest a single GTX 980ti or R9 FuryX ($650 range).  while Titan X is available (at $1000) it is essentially in the same performance category as the GTX 980ti and R9 FuryX and a price-to-performance loss.  if you want 4k gaming you'll need to 2 of the above cards. 

the cheapest processor you can buy from DS is a $205 I5-6500.  for $25 (or whatever DS' markup is) more you get a slightly faster cpu with the ability to over clock.  the real difference is that for $220 more (between the Vanquish level 2 and 3) you get a graphics upgrade. 

you can come in under/at your budget with a Vanquish line choice.  or you can stretch a little and build in a Slade, which offers more expansion possibilities, with the same component choices that would go into a level 3 Vanquish.  configurator's down for me, but something like this to get you started:

Slade level 1:
I5-6500 (downgrade from 6700K saves money and enough perf not to bottleneck)
Z170 SLI-ready mobo (room to expand with another 970)
GTX 970 (covers most of your max 1080p gaming needs)
750W psu (enough psu for sli 2x970)
8GB system ram (enough for gaming, can expand in future if needed)
250GB ssd (good enough for OS+some games, can expand in future)
cpu cooling: Air Stage 1
OS: Windows 10 home

this should get you close to the top of the line Vanquish model price.



 

  


Edited by db188 - 20 Oct 2015 at 3:14pm

Did not expect such helpful people! Thank you!. Just to clarify I have a few more questions.
Just 1 GTX 970 would be enough for medium graphics on those games?
Vanquish lvl 3 and 4 both have 1 GTX 970, but have different processors (which you implied that it won't have much of an impact), and 16 instead of 8 RAM. Does the RAM play much of a factor/impact?
If the graphic card isn't enough, I would go for the slade lv 1 customized with everything you recommended, but should I go for one high end graphics card (the ones you suggested) or 2 GTX 970s?

system ram only comes into play when you don't have enough graphics vram. system ram is much slower than the vram.  you don't want this situation ever.  your game performance will suffer mightily for it.  that being said, unless you're going for higher resolution than 1080p, current games don't push graphics cards beyond 4GB (3GB really).  8GB of system ram should be sufficient for running the rest of your computer's tasks/apps/programs while you game (my ram usage never exceeds 6GB).

none of the current I5 or I7 will bottleneck (hold back) the performance of one high end video card.    

Edited by db188 - 21 Oct 2015 at 4:18pm