Looking to build my first PC...

[Juste Ducky]

Hey there. For years, I've wanted a decent gaming PC. For months, I've wanted a PC that could handle video recording and editing, so I can start yet another youtube show where a white guy in his early 20's talks about video games. I've been saying since then, "Man, if only I had, like, $1500..." Yesterday, I went to a casino with friends, and won exactly $1500. I'm taking that as a sign that it's finally time to pursue my ambitions.

I have no idea where to start though. I took a CS intro course my freshman year, so I know the basic components of a computer, and I helped a friend build a PC over the summer, so I know how things go together. I'm not super into hardware, so I don't know what's good. What do you guys think of this build that Google suggested?

http://www.pcworld.com/article/2054663/how-to-build-a-killer-windows-8-1-gaming-pc-for-under-1000.html

I'd like to keep it cheap as possible while still being good. I don't care how pretty it is.

I also have a couple miscellaneous questions (which I may end up adding to

1. I've heard that Windows 8 is awful for gaming, but that 8.1 fixed a lot of the problems. Should I go with 8, or stick with 7?

2. I'm transferring into a new college this semester, and will be moving in around the 18th. Should I order all the stuff this week and build it before I leave, wait a few weeks into the semester to see if I can handle the workload/trust my roommate before starting such a project, or wait until the summer?

Thanks for reading/helping!

 

[SnowyGamester]

Seems like a pretty solid build...if I had to replace my desktop now that's essentially what I'd go for, and once I upgrade my graphics card in the near future my current rig will become pretty much identical to that aside from not having the latest generation of i5 processor. As for your questions, Windows 8 is fine for gaming and I believe will give you marginally better framerates compared to 7 in most cases...I can only imagine 8.1 is comparable, I haven't looked into the statistics, but it's working perfectly fine for me.

As for when you put it together, that's entirely up to you. Expect it to take at least a few hours to assemble, install Windows, and install all the updates and drivers, not to mention any other software you want to get on there.

 

[DoPo]

As for when you put it together, that's entirely up to you. Expect it to take at least a few hours to assemble, install Windows, and install all the updates and drivers, not to mention any other software you want to get on there.

I'd call it a day, if you are fairly lenient towards it and not in a rush. I think it's OK to overprovide a bit.

Usually, when I'm installing Windows from scratch, I mentally book a day, though that would be something like "Some time after I wake up" to "midday-afternoon-ish" depending on when I wake up. More realistically it's probably...dunno, in the region of, say, 4-5 hours. Somewhere there. That includes installing Windows, going over the drivers, installing other software, checking if other stuff works, and configurations tweaks. Honestly, a lot of the time is trying to remember or look up where something I need is or something. Though, of course, that is reinstalling Windows for myself. If I am helping out somebody, I'd call it...err, probably 2-3 hours at most. It's just installing the OS, then the drivers, essential software (Music player, video player, browser, Office, PDF viewer, IM, archiving tool, antivirus) and making several small tweaks (turn off UAC, switch the updates to only notify but ask for install, page file, hibernation).

I'm not sure how much time would putting together the PC itself would take but a safe bet is about a couple of hours if you are somewhat confident what you're doing. Probably twice that if you're totally not sure so you're looking up documentation/YouTube videos/etc.

 

[OneCatch]

Yeah, give yourself a day and you'll probably have time left over. That's what happened with my first build - I gave myself a full day, got up at about 8am and was done by midafternoon - and that was when I was being uber-cautious.

That link you posted seems solid, though bear in mind that AMD have just renamed all their graphics cards. You can check their website for roughly which cards correlate to each other. Ignore this if you were planning on going Nvidia anyway.

 

[alj]

I cannot recommend that PSU stick with something made by Sesonic or FSP you can find out who makes what in the following link.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/power-supply-oem-manufacturer,2913-5.html