I know its not exactly off the beaten path on these kinds of sites, but I would love to get into PC gaming,however, I need some advice. I have searched the web but it seems like there are dozens upon dozens of choices and it is overwhelming. I have never actually built one myself and I think its high time I learn how to do it, especially considering what age we are living in. Any advice is much appreciated, so go ahead and give me your 2 cents please.

Thanks.

@busto1299: Do you know what specifically you want to get out of the build, or what sort of budget you'd have?

@pcorb: I want to have something that can run recent games moderately well, and my budget is around 1000 USD

@busto1299: At 1080p, I assume? Do you need that budget to include a monitor?

@pcorb: Yeah 1080p would be nice. The monitor is in the budget.

The gist is get an i5 and all the other parts that have good reliability/price ratings (i.e. shoot for cheap and reliable) then buy the best video card you can get within the budget.

There are lots of sites that put together builds that work well according to budget. Try pcpartpicker.com and check out their builds.

@busto1299: Here's a rough guide of what you can expect at that budget: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/k8WCTW

And this is a decent build guide: https://youtu.be/ea_bs5G1yYU

@rollingzeppelin: OK I will check it out thanks.

@pcorb: I've been mulling over getting my first gaming pc for Fallout 4/Just Cause 3/Xcom 2 and this looks really promising, thanks.

@pcorb's posted build looks pretty solid, but you'll probably need to fit an operating system into your budget. And an optical drive, if you need one (about $20). An aftermarket CPU heatsink is an option, but the included stock heatsink should be fine for a first build, especially if you're not overclocking.

I'm sticking with Windows 7 and 8.1 (more control over updates, less privacy intrusion), but I'm sure most will recommend Windows 10. For info on cleaning up privacy settings in Windows 10, and removing data collecting windows updates in 7 and 8.1, see: https://fix10.isleaked.com/

I always send friends who want to get into building PCs this link.

http://techreport.com/review/29012/system-guide-current

I think I'm ready to take the plunge on this setup, any advice before I go forward with it? Thinking about just getting 16GB of RAM just for the fuck of it. 120GB of SSD seems like plenty for the OS and a few games but I've seen a lot of people saying that 240 is the way to go.

Kind of worried that I get all this then installing Windows is the stumbling block. Or that I'll not get something about the basic assembly right and just have no idea what to do about it.

I'd pick a better SSD and 240gig should be minimum.

http://www.anandtech.com/show/9799/best-ssds

Definitely get the 240 SSD. I have a 120 and after installing the OS i have room for exactly 1 game.

Yeah, as well as 120GB being a bit on the small side you may want to look at different brands of SSD. Kingston are a bit of a shady company. I'd generally recommend Samsung, Intel and SanDisk drives.

Also, Corsair's CX range isn't all that great. They're not, like, Raidmax bad, but there are significantly better units out there for not much more money.

Installing windows is a piece of cake, honestly, and as far as the assembly is concerned, if you ever played with Lego you pretty much already have the basics down.

@pcorb: @mic_d: @hmoney001: Thanks Duders, I didn't see the tip about power supply before buying so I've got a Corsair but I did opt for a 250GB Samsung SSD which I thought was a steal at £59. I also got 16GB of RAM since that also had a deep discount.

So Microsoft is pressuring me to update to Windows 10 - the website seems to let me put that update on a USB drive. Any idea if I can do that, use it as the install and continue to use my laptop as is? Failing that I might consider getting Windows by shady means but that's presumably going to complicate things where I'd be better off just biting the bullet and buying a new license.

@walkertr77: You mean using the same license on two machines? You could try it, sure, but I'd be surprised if it worked. You can get a legit Win 7 key for around 20 quid anyway.

Get some cable ties if possible. Cable management is never easy your first time around, and being able to secure some out of the way once everything is set up so you can maximize your cooling, and also just make the most of your space, is incredibly handy.

You'll be glad you opted for a 250GB SSD instead of 120GB. Especially if you're planning to use it both for OS and games. 120GB would get filled up pretty fast, and SSDs run better with some free space.

SSDs slow down as you fill them up because the drive will have a lot of partially filled blocks, which are slower to write to than empty blocks. It’s tempting to fill up an SSD to the brim, but you should leave some free space on your SSD—plan on using a maximum of 75 percent of the drive’s capacity for the best performance.

You may want to make a post on reddit.com/r/buildapc or reddit.com/r/buildapcforme. I'm sure there are some knowledgeable people on here, but this isn't the sort of thing you want to get wrong, and some people can definitely lead you astray.

For a $1000 budget, you could build a moderately decent PC.

Having that monitor in the budget is constraining the PC though.

if i was going in cold, i would definitely suggest looking at everything you want to be doing with it first. Considering its not just a gaming platform, but a computer in general, whats the plan? If your going to be recording, or do you do any type of work on it.

But you can't really go wrong focusing on the parts that imo, matter the most. an i5 is always a great choice, especially with the 4 cores as opposed to a dual core with hyper-threading. There is the new chip set out right now that uses DDR4, so you might be able to get a i5 unlocked (K) processor to take advantage of any overclocking. (most motherboard manufacturer's have built in OC utilities, its brainless to do it), and a decent gigabyte/asus/msi board that supports ddr3 ram, which also would be a bit cheaper. Look at some cards like a 970 or 960 depending on what your doing, with the geforce experience being great to make your games run well if you don't want to tinker too much with them, and an appropriate power supply. mouse, keyboard, and peripherals is mostly personal preference, and as far as a monitor, you can end up spending 2000 bucks on one if you really wanted to. There's so much to look at. But you can probably get a half decent 1080p 24"-27" for a reasonable price. Again, worry about the main stuff, and all the other garbage can change daily it doesn't matter much.

for a half decent one, your looking at 1000USD at least

@walkertr77: actually the update tool is great. i used it on two computers and was up and running on 10 in no time. I didnt even bother with the usb, i just went to the create media creation tool page thing, and it started to update on my desktop no problem. restarted a few times, and BAM all good to go. Its great too, if you have a laptop and desktop or multiple computers they all sync together for the most part. Pretty seamless, and dont waste money on a new liscence

@luca717: Ok but if I have a brand new computer that I've assembled, all I have is the BIOS right? Are you saying I can I use the update feature from there or just that I can put like, Windows 7 on it then update?

@walkertr77: oooooooo I'm sorry I thought it was an existing pc. If you have a Windows 7 liscence I would install that then update right away to keep it free. If you don't I guess buy it and make the USB. Unless you can install with the USB and use the 7 liscence to activate?

@luca717: Oh I see what you are saying because I heard you can install Windows 7 for dirt cheap then get the free upgrade to 10 right?

If you're just using it for gaming consider using a TV as a monitor to start and then maybe get an actual monitor if you find the TV lacking. If I was you I'd rather use the money on the PC itself. Depends on the kinds of games you are interested in.