@PredatorRules: But the 970 is better than the 290, right? Can you point me towards benchmarks or something which show their performance in various games? That would be great.

@Xtasy26 Well, actually, getting a $1000 laptop was my first priority. I wanted a laptop that could destroy every new game at 1080p at high-ultra settings. But then I realized that I wasn't being realistic; Portable HD gaming at 1080p wasn't going to be easy.

Currently I own a 4 year old Toshiba Satellite L655-10U. It used to run most games at max in its time, but now it struggles to run any new game at 6-8 fps. It's funny and sad at the same time.

Now I don't want to get a laptop because of three reasons. One was made obvious in the previous posts that a $1000 desktop is much more powerful than a $1000 laptop. Second reason is that I don't want my new laptop to stop running the latest games after a couple years. I want my PC to be upgrade-able so that I don't have to invest a huge-ass amount every 2 years. Lastly, from my past experience, I don't think I really need a gaming laptop. That is because I've never moved my current laptop around much. It just sits at this desk 11 months out of 12. And the 1 month during which it isn't sitting at this desk, it sits at another desk, for the whole month. Heck, even my laptop's battery life has decreased from 4 hours to 1 hour because I've never discharged it.

It's pretty obvious that I don't need a gaming laptop. A desktop is a much better match for me. As for portable gaming, I already own an iPad mini 2 and that'll suffice for now. If need be, I'll get a cheap $400-$500ish laptop or hybrid later on.

I've got a $1000 budget and since I don't already own a 1080p monitor or a "gaming" mouse/keyboard, I want that included in that price range as well. I'd say my budget is more like $1100-1200 but I don't live in the US and where I live, most of the components are 20-25% more expensive. But say $1000 because I've got to accommodate that increase in price when I buy it locally or get it shipped here.

It'd be very great of you people to suggest $1000 builds which according to you are perfect for gaming and upgrade-ability.

Thanks.

Speccy

It has an option which allows you copy the entire details of your PC into a long text file. Maybe copy that and paste it here.

Instead of pasting directly, because it's too long, paste it at PASTEBIN and then post the link.

@sSubZerOo: I totally agree. Prices of much older CPUs is still at par with new ones. A 4 year old i5 costs about the same as the 4690k.

Why don't many people mention the 290X? Isn't that in the 970's price range too?

@highlander0659: Glad to know it worked. It was fun reading this topic. Thank you for that.

Anyone else wants to propose a $1000 desktop build that includes a monitor and keyboard/mouse?

@insane_metalist But the price of the G1 is $20 more than that of the WindForce version.

The MSI looks many times better than the EVGA, so I think I'll go with that.

Why do you say that the overclocking potential of the cards cannot be determined? I've heard the same for CPUs. They say it's because of the silicon. I don't get it. What does that mean?

In short, if I buy the MSI Twin Frozr V or the EVGA ACX 2.0, I'll be getting everything the 970 has to offer. Is that right?

But since the EVGA card comes pre-overclocked and the MSI card doesn't, does it mean that the MSI card can be overclocked to perform better than the EVGA card?

And what's wrong with Strix? In all the comparisons that I've seen, the Strix is always placed at the bottom. That makes me think not to buy it.