League of Legends should run just fine even on a much weaker, budget-friendly graphics card. An AMD APU would probably be a solid choice here. Personally, I think you're better off putting that money toward a higher quality monitor instead.
Personally, I’d probably lean toward an Intel + Nvidia setup. While the GTX 970 might pull ahead by maybe 10-15% in certain specific titles, I suspect having a longer warranty period is actually more important than such a minor bump in performance—especially since MSI offers a 3-year warranty compared to what you'd get from EVGA 2.
1 x Intel Core i5-4460 Processor (3.20GHz, 1MB, 6MB, 84 W, 1150) Box 1 x Asrock H81M-HDS, s1150, Intel H81, M-ATX, dual Channel 2 xDDR3 1 x MSI GTX 960 Gaming, 2GB GDDR5, Twin Frozr V, GTX 960 GAMING 2G 1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, Value, 1600MHz, CL11, KVR16N11/8 1 x Seagate 1TB HDD, Serial ATA III, 7200 rpm, DESKTOP SSHD, 8GB SSD 1 x Fortron 500W Power Supply, Hyper, PPA5005003, 12cm fan 1 x Zalman T5 mini tower case. 170(W) x 427(H) x 348(D)mm. 1 x LG GH24NS DVD Burner, DVD±RW, 24x DVD±R ,8x DL , 40x CD-R $1832
The GTX 300 comes with front-panel USB 3.0 support, which makes it a pretty solid case for the price point. And honestly, I guess that Gigabyte board is a bit better than the ASRock one.
I guess you'd probably want a beefier graphics card if you're planning on playing FALLOUT 4. This particular Fallout 4 price reflects an option to pay online via 12 monthly installments.
SSD 250.0 GB Samsung 850 EVO Basic 550W Power Supply, COOLERMASTER G550M, ANTEC GX300 Case, MIDI, black, no PSU Hard drive 1000.0 GB SEAGATE ST1000DM003, ASUS B85M-D3H Motherboard PCI-E ASUS GeForce GTX 970 Strix Graphics Card, Intel Core i5 4460 box $1000 Processor
It’s possible you applied a bit too much thermal paste. Usually, I find that if you just put a small amount—roughly the size of a grain of rice—right in the center and then seat the heatsink on top, the pressure will spread it out naturally. Also, I don't think you should have gone tearing that GPU apart so quickly, especially if it's still covered by a warranty. My own card has been running for over five years now and I haven't felt the need to swap anything out yet since the temperatures have stayed right where they should be.
$167 is a 120GB SSD. It’s a total no-brainer. I suppose you could go with Skylake if your budget is high enough and there isn't much room for significant upgrades in the rest of your components.
At that resolution, I suspect a more powerful CPU might actually be more important than the graphics card itself. You'll probably end up using your current case, hard drive, and 2GB of RAM for this build. Let me know what kind of power supply you're working with; there's a chance you won't even need to buy a new one.
1 x DDR3 4GB (1x4GB) Kingston, 1600MHz, CL11, Value 1 x Intel Core i5-4460 (3.20GHz,1MB,6MB,84 W,1150) Box 1 x Asrock H81M-VG4 R2.0, Intel 1150 Socket H81 1 x XFX R7-260X-CNF4, Core Radeon R7 260 x 1100 m boost 2GB DDR5 1 x FORTRON 400W, HEXA Plus 400, 12cm fan $1101
It looks like everything will run a bit north of $16k, though I suppose having this particular monitor would make the whole experience feel pretty top-tier
1 x AMD Ryzen 3 system 1 x Motherboard with B85 chipset 1 x AMD Radeon RX series 1 x Kingston DDR3 (8GB, 1600MHz) CL11 1 x Western Digital 1TB HDD, 7200rpm, 32MB 1 x Crucial BX100 120GB SSD, Micron 16nm MLC SATA 2.5” 7mm (with 9.5mm adapter), Read/Write: 535 MB/s / 185 MB/s, Random Read/Write IOPS 87K/43K, retail 1 x Fortron Raider S PSU 650W, 80+ SILVER 1 x Zalman Z3+, USB3.0 black 1 x Genius Gaming KB-G255 keyboard, USB, black 1 x Sharkoon FireGlider optical gaming mouse, USB 1 x Genius HS-G550 gaming stereo headset with microphone
1 x Raijintek Metis Case, plexiglass, USB 3.0, black 1 x Samsung 120GB 850 EVO Basic SSD 1 x Seagate 3TB HDD, 7200rpm, SATA III 1 x Fortron Hexa+ 400W, 80+ 1 x Asrock N3150B-ITX 1 x CL9 SODIMM 1.35 V HyperX impact Black Series total 8GB 1600MHz DDR3L
What kind of budget are we talking about here? I guess you don't even really need to bother with a GTX 720, since pretty much any integrated graphics chip should be more than capable of handling movie playback just fine.
The whole point of the Google 390 vs 970 debate is that, in the end, the 970 still comes out on top. I mean, you aren't seeing a massive difference in actual FPS, but Nvidia gets a huge edge because of the lower power draw—which can be pretty significant—directly impacting heat and noise levels. As far as I can tell, the VRAM on the 970 is plenty for both 1080p and 1440p gaming. Asus really messed up the cooling on their 390 and 390x versions, so I’d probably suggest avoiding those altogether. If you were leaning toward the 390, then the Sapphire nitro would definitely offer much better cooling performance. Maybe swap out that Blaze SSD for something else; I don't know, it just doesn't quite feel right in this build to me...
If you ask me, the GTX 970 feels like a more complete package. Even if the R9 390 manages to pull higher FPS in certain scenarios, most people probably wouldn't even notice since they're essentially in the same performance tier anyway. Besides, the GTX 970 is way better when it comes to managing temperatures, power draw, and noise levels, not to mention it comes with some pretty decent features. Regarding the Skylake build, it’s fine, I suppose, but I feel like it might be a bit of a waste of cash. Personally, I’d rather sink that money into better peripherals, a solid SSD—like an 850 EVO, which really should be part of a budget like this—or maybe something else entirely.
In that case, you might as well just pick up a decent monitor. For playing League of Legends, an Intel processor is going to be a much better bet, and I suspect it would handle Adobe software reasonably well too.
1 x Adobe 1 x Samsung LS24D590PLX, 23.6" LED, 16:9 (AD-PLS), 1920x1080, D-Sub 1 x Intel Core i3-4170 (3.70GHz,512KB,3MB,54 W,1150) Box 1 x Asrock H81M-HDS, s1150, Intel H81, M-ATX, dual Channel 2xDDR3 1 x MSI GTX 750 Ti 2GB GDDR5, N750Ti-2GD5/OCV1, Dual-link DVI-D x 1 1 x DDR3 8GB (1x8GB) Kingston, Value, 1600MHz, CL11, KVR16N11/8 1 x Power Supply FORTRON 400W, HEXA plus 400, 12cm fan 1 x Kingston 120 GB HyperX Fury, 2.5", SATA 3 6G 1 x Zalman T5 mini tower case. 170(W) x 427(H) x 348(D)mm.