Total noob decides to build a PC. Hilarity ensues...

dryl77

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Jun 12, 2014
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As the title suggests, I'm a 25 year old total noob/console slave turned eager PC gamer wannabe. After witnessing the sweet capabilities of what good systems can do gaming-wise at a friend's house, I realized how wrong I had been all my life sticking to consoles and decided to turn back before it was too late. The bad news? I got no freaking idea about the shi! what all you people speak! It's a whole new ball game for me but I am willing to learn. I have no idea how to place the components in their right place, apply thermal paste, even install windows, access bios, install drivers, run stress tests (if I decide to OC and stuff), I mean I am atm a lost cause but I am willing to learn and I will learn! So, I need some general help from anyone willing to give me their 2 cents and help me get on to become a full fledged pc gamer and afficinado.

I decided to start by going on the venture of building my own PC. Now, this is a ridiciluous task for me and I believe I'm gonna mess some shi! up, but frack it, Imma do this the right way and won't settle for some pc I can get from Xotic or something. I need to learn from the basics. So, after some research I came up with this (partpicker was of great help) -

CPU = I5 4570K
CPU Cooler = Corsair H100i
Motherboard = MSI Z87I GAMING AC Mini ITX
Memory = Corsair Vengeance 8GB (2 x 4GB) DDR3-1600
Storage = Samsung 840 Pro Series 256GB SSD, WD 1 TBH 7200 RPM HDD
Video Card = MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR (I am at a loss here!)
Case = BitFenix Prodigy (White) Mini ITX
Power Supply = Corsair CX 600W 80+ Bronze
Operating Sytem = Windows 8.1
Optical Drive = Asus DRW-24B
Case Fan = BitFenix Spectre Pro LED 230mm Fan, BitFenix Spectre Pro LED 140mm Fan

I live in Canada and this whole thing totaled to 1500$, shipping included.

I am hoping to play most of the modern releases at the highest settings, yet I see that I won't be able to go ultra on some titles (Metro, Crysis 3, Watch Dogs, etc). Do you think this system is enough for 1080p gaming with a single monitor setup for games like Skyrim with the top graphics mods, Bioshock, Titanfall, Diablo 3 and upcoming 2014 games? I am a single player gamer but why not go for online gaming now that I have a PC?

Also, I have a hard time trying to choose a GPU. A single 780 ti superclocked is worth 800 bucks here! Yet, the card I chose is only 300$, offering a somewhat close performance. I am aware I can crossfire this in the future, but people keep saying that some games don't support Crossfire and there are micro stutter issues and that I should stick to one GPU for now. Also, is NVIDIA worh that much considering options it offers, better game supports, etc? Another issue here is that I am trying to choose among these three for my GPU.

MSI Radeon R9 280X 3GB TWIN FROZR - 300$
XFX Double D R9 280X Black Edition - 280$
ASUS Radeon R9-280X DirectCU II - 310 $

I can't find benchmarks for these cards. As I've stated guys, I don't know how to OC, never done it, clueless, plus I don't know about the temps and if the case fans I'm thinking of installing will be enough for it, etc. Which card do you think would give me the best bang for buck? Also, do you think I should just spend a little more and go for one of these? Would it be worth it performance wise, the swich from 280x to 290? OC capability (user friendly?), heat issues, etc?

XFX Radeon R9 290 4GB Black Edition Double Dissipation - 390
Asus Radeon R9 290 4GB DirectCU II - 400 $

Other than that, I am open to all suggestions regarding any part of this build. I also need you guys to tell me if I can pull this off and build the system without any issues, if there are up-to-date guides on how to build, install the necessary drives, do the bios stuff, oc guides, etc. Think of me as your retarded little brother whom you have to patiently explain everything :)

Thanks in advance for your comments and suggestions.
 
If you already purchased that motherboard you cannot crossfire or SLi, it only has one PCI-Express 16x slot (used for video cards). You would be best off purchasing one gpu.

You can read through this article to get an idea on GPU's and best bang for the buck:
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107.html

Here is a guide for building a PC. I believe newegg also has youtube videos with instructions as well.
 
Solution

Pondering

Honorable
Dec 7, 2013
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What is multi-player console lag like?

Generic way to learn is to start changing out parts on your current computer or are you using a mobile phone to make this post? (Get the unlimited data plan on a provider that provides the unlimited mobile phone plan since wireless phone providers make most of their money from minutes and data overages along with all those extra goodies that cost more money and what not)

The most performance gain is from upgrading your power supply to one that can handle the 280x and then upgrading to a 260x first since it is way cheaper since most gaming lag is artificial as in created on the server side so that you will feel incompetent and will want to upgrade your hardware for smoother performance. I have never played multi-player console games over the internet (Only Halo parties with 8 people, 2 xbox's and that syncing cable) so I am not sure what console people do since there isn't any hardware upgrades available

The need for a super gaming computer is often associated with emotional immaturity since marketing turns everyone's mind into mush. I ended up watching 'stuff' on all my pc's anyways rather than gaming.

Send me a private message after you spend all that money on the hardware and games and find yourself emotionally exhausted and frustrated. Take care.