What luck but to have a friend offer his old graphics card. A Gigabyte Radeon HD 7870 2GB.

He wants me to join him in some PC master racing, like I used to roam. Now, i know I'm not doing this right away as I'm spending too much right now with a PS4 Pro and new TV possibly in the works. I figured I'd write a topic and stir up discussion.

So far I'm using pcpartpicker to sift through options and builds. Aside from this GPU I have nothing outside of a HDD floating around. Mostly trying to pin down a CPU and motherboard.

GPU: HD 7870 2GB

CASE: A case isn't really ever an issue. I'm seeing easy enough choices all around but hey share.

PSU: I know the PSU will need to be at least 500-550, probably want to get a decent rated one or possibly go higher.

CPU: I am leaning towards an intel i5 but wasn't sure what the best value is, especially if it would just be something I could replace in the future or something I should dedicate more to now.

RAM: Haven't looked at this yet. I'm told cheap RAM has issues and I've seen there are different RAM speeds among DDR3.

STORAGE: That HDD might work. If so than a SSD to pair. If not then a Hybrid.

MOBO: I hear getting a newer motherboard will guarentee levels of compatibilty and connections. Not too sure about what's going on with motherboards right now. Guess I can just start examining them.

It's been 11 years since I've had a desktop pc. It wouldn't hurt to get into it with a decent PC I can expand on in the future. One thing though, this card is inbetween PS4 and the PS4 Pro. That's a great start for an entry rig for games that mostly aren't going to be cutting edge.

All this means nothing if you don't name your budget.

The GPU is pretty outdated, 2GB Vram is struggeling and its deffenitely not top-line anymore, with games being more and more demanding, it will not last you a long time.

Luckely its quite easy to replace it later.

Since power demand on Videocards is lowering you should get a 500W power supply, which was the recommended for your 7870 and it should last you long enough, try to get a 80+ bronze certify on it, any known brand will be fine.

Since you don't have the money for a SSD just get a normal drive and buy a SSD later, hyvrid drives are nice, but its better to just get a lot of storage so you can reuse it later.

A fast I5 should be enough for almost anything since its much faster then the processors in consolers, but in some games with bad optimization they might struggle a little because they have 4threats instead of 8 (console and i7)

ANY motherboard by a known brand with a PCI-e lane for your GPU and a socket for your CPU should be fine!

Try to get a motherboard with 4 ram sockets so you can get 8GB ram, if the motherboard only has 2 slots, get 16GB ram

I'm also considering building my first gaming PC. I have a budget of approximately $1000. My requirements are that I be able to run Rift/Vive from day one, and that I have decent ungradability for the next few years. I'd like to hear some opinions as to how I should spend my $1000.

Dump that card unless you can't afford anything much really, that card will hamstring your whole setup

Suggestion if you can squeeze out a some bucks is a GTX 1060 6GB, then build cheaply around it

Any i5 or i7 you can afford with 4 cores and hyperthreading (i7 only)

At least 8GB of RAM upto 16GB if you can stretch it

Any branded MoBo thats compatabe with everything you want in it (ASUS is a good brand)

Just a big HDD for now, get the SSD later

This setup with a GTX 1060 6GB will last you a long time

In your case I would buy a pre-built for around 400usd? with an i5 and with integrated graphics and slap the GPU in it and be done with it.