Please help a COMPLETE newbie not ruin his first build!

[RadicalDreamer89]

Hello all! After far too long of browsing Steam and thinking "Boy, I wish I could play that", I have decided to build my first gaming PC. I'm nowhere near ready to build, as I've only just started saving.

Like the title says, I am a COMPLETE newbie to this. I have general rudimentary knowledge of computers, but I have no experience building or tinkering with a PC, save for swapping out a HDD or some RAM on my laptop. I've been trying to do my homework and learn as much as I can, but it's a bit overwhelming all at once (I've been Googling a LOT of acronyms). I'm easily a few months away from building, so hopefully things start to sink in by then. I've been watching How To videos and reviews/descriptions of various parts, mostly from the Newegg series on YouTube (if there's a better/easier way to learn please point me that way!).
The PC I'm looking to build is going to be used for the standard stuff (browsing, streaming video, etc.), but primarily for gaming. I'm not really looking for an absolute god-tier machine. I don't need/want to run Skyrim and Crysis simultaneously at max settings (not even sure how that would work. . .), but I'd like to be able to run anything that might tickle my fancy at least on normal settings.

Here is what I've got after a few days of research and Googling about:

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2Lc08

So, please, critique the hell out of me! Any recommendations for less expensive and/or comparable parts is also very welcome (a few dollars difference doesn't matter).

One question that I was asked elsewhere; I don't have a specific 'budget' in mind. It isn't so much "I have $XXX to spend" as much as "These are the parts that fit my needs/wants best, so I'll have to save up for XX amount of time". I don't have X-amount saved and ready to go, I am planning to save bit by bit and order parts as I go. Ideally cheaper and comparable parts would be better, but if what I have is good then it just means waiting a little longer before completing the build.

Also, in case it's a factor, I have no immediate interest in overclocking (maybe in the future, when I have a more firm grasp of what I'm doing).

Thanks to you who haven't backed out of my wall of text yet. I'm really excited about this, and any and all help/criticisms are more than welcome!

 

[miniminc98]

the graphics card that you have will be able to play on max settings 1080p for a lot of games.. if you want to save some money you can go with a cheaper graphics card. and your RAM is unecessarily pricey.. you can get the same spec'd RAM for $20 cheaper. And if you want your pc to feel a lot speedier, i'd reccomend getting an 128gb SSD and running your OS on it. Hope this helps!!! GOOD LUCK! and welcome to the glorious pc gaming master race.

 

[animal]

Several things I will mention/recommend. First, I strongly suggest you buy all of your parts at once. There are a few reasons:

1. Your warranty starts when you buy a part. So if you get something that has a 1 yr warranty and it takes you six months before you are able to build, you have lost half of your warranty coverage.
2. It's always best to discover DOA items as soon as you can as most retailors/e-tailors only have a 30 day window to return product for replacement or refund. Also, there is nothing more frustrating than having waited 6 months to get all your parts only to discover one of them is faulty and have to wait even longer before your rig is up and running.
3. You may get a better deal/price for some parts 6 months from now.

Secondly, if you are planning to overclock, I'd suggest spending/allocating the extra money for a "K" series CPU. You can start out using the stock cooler and add an aftermarket cooler later (when you can afford it) and then experiment with overclocking.

Thirdly, you may want to check out some gaming motherboards, I'd recommend the Asus "Hero" as a potential candidate. Many newer gaming/oc'ing motherboards come with a version of OC'ing software that simplifies basic overclocking.

Finally, you may want to hold off on getting your monitor now as new G-Sync monitors should be available soon.

 

[madrude]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/2LefO as far as Monitors go I agree with Animal I would wait for a G-Sync Monitor.Peripherals are personal preference so I didnt include a headset but i did pick out a mouse and keyboard my brother uses and he loves them.
I picked out the newest i5 (Haswell) unlocked and a good cpu cooler so you can overclock when you feel comfortable. you can change out the ram also I like corsair but its a little pricey but it matches well with the Motherboard. The ssd is a great one I would but your OS on it and maybe your favorite game.