PC Gaming Help for a Total Newbie

[Jolly Co-operator]

Thanks for the info. Aside from what you mentioned, everything else looks fine?

The RAM shouldn't be a problem. I don't intend to do any sort of graphic design, so 16GB should serve my needs.

And as for the GPU, is there a specific card you would recommend?

Sorry to ask so many questions. You've been very helpful, and I greatly appreciate it.

Well, first;
Do you plan on overclocking your CPU?
If the answer is yes, get the 3570K instead of the 3570 and keep the CPU cooling.
If the answer is no, drop the CPU cooling. The CPU will come with sufficient cooling on its own, and without overclocking [Hell, even with a little bit of overclocking] you don't need the extra cooling. Liquid cooling is nice 'cause its quiet, but its a luxury that doesn't effect your performance.

Other than that, how many games are you planning on playing?
PCs require all games to be installed to the Harddrive to run. You have a 120Gb Solid State Drive only from the looks of that, unless you're salvaging from a previous PC you've owned. Windows takes up 21Gb, and all the files I have saved to my Documents and such have added up to another 60Gb for me [Admittedly that is about 40Gb of Skyrim mods]. Likely you'll be left with 80-100Gb for installing games. Modern AAA PC titles range in size from 8-16Gb, a few are larger, a few are smaller. Basically, you can expect to install about 8 games. Indie titles are smaller by far, and usually only go for about 100Mb-2Gb, so if you're primarily Indie gaming you should be fine. Older games are also a lot smaller.
If you think you will need more space, dropping to a 64Gb SSD and getting a 500Gb or 1Tb Hard Drive would be worth it. Install the OS on the SSD, everything else on the Harddrive. If you think you'll have enough space though don't bother, you can always add more in later if you need it.

RAM: Yes 16Gb will serve your needs more than fine, its more of a performance thing where you don't need more storage space, but you need that storage space to be able to transfer data faster, I.E: 2166Mhz RAM instead of 1600Mhz RAM for faster transfer of large packets of data. ATM its mostly irrelevant for gaming, but in the future it might not be, and it's something that's likely to take a whole system upgrade - you'll need to replace your motherboard, which may mean replacing your CPU as well if you're not lucky [Though it should be fine I won't guarantee it at that point], as well as the RAM and you might want a new graphics card if you've hit performance issues in that department too. This is likely to happen anyway when DDR4 RAM comes out though so I wouldn't worry about it, you'll be fine for ages. 16Gb is overkill for the next 3-4 years by my estimate.

GPU: Nvidia 660Ti. A couple of models higher than the 650, and with some fair performance gain too, without increasing prices too much. If cost isn't an issue a 670 or 680 would give more performance, but they're generally a lot more expensive. Could also look at the Radeon equivalents online, check their reviews and comparisons to Nvidia, and see if you'd prefer one of them instead.

Thanks for the tips. I've updated my build a little based on your advice (I dropped the cooling unit, since I don't plan on overclocking), and I have a few questions.

I got a 1TB hardrive. Do you think 40GB will be enough for the SSD? I could get a larger one if I had to, but I'd rather avoid it if I can, as they can be relatively pricey.

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Will 8GB of RAM suffice? I know I said my price range was about $600 to $1200, but I think I might be able to keep this rig around $900, assuming I don't need more RAM than 8GB.

EDIT: Also, do you think I should invest in a fan? They're really cheap, but I'd rather not get one if I don't need it, or if it won't fit in my case.

 

[Tom Waits' hat]

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Between GTX650 vs GTX 660. Definitely get 660, it just a better card when you compare it side by side. It's easily worth that extra money. Or you can look into AMD Radeon HD7870 too. Like I said earlier in my post, the video card once you lock that in, there's no upgrading for performance boost unless you buy a new card.

GTX 660 and HD 7870 are the best bang for your buck cards in the market at the moment.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Between GTX650 vs GTX 660. Definitely get 660, it just a better card when you compare it side by side. It's easily worth that extra money. Or you can look into AMD Radeon HD7870 too.

GTX 660 and HD 7870 are the best bang for your buck cards in the market at the moment.

I compared them side by side, and you and Joccaren were right, GTX 660 is significantly better. This brings the price of my rig to $974 (without keyboard or mouse). I'm currently considering a 40GB SSD, but do you think I need that much, or do I even need one at all? I know that programs installed on the SSD will run much faster, but just how necessary is it?

 

[Callate]

PC Gamer magazine puts out a very good guide to building a new PC from scratch every year. It's well worth the $10 for someone who's new to building a system, and their hardware recommendations (for a variety of price ranges) are also quite helpful. If you're lucky enough to have a local library that has it, even better.

8 GB of RAM should be plenty; I have 3, and haven't played a game that cocked an eye at me yet (including Far Cry 3, which alleges to need 4.)

And I believe it's already been said, but- for the love of all that's holy, get Windows 7, not 8. With any luck Microsoft will recognize the so-called "features" of their new OS are folly by the time they roll out Windows 9, and it will almost certainly be possible to do a cross-upgrade from 7 (assuming it's even necessary.) Windows seems to have a "Star Trek"-movie thing going- ever other OS has to contain varying quantities of fail.

 

[Knife]

Well, I seem to be seriously late to the party. In either case, I see you've already been given the helpful websites. From my experience the GPU is always the bottleneck as far as PC gaming goes. Then its CPU and RAM and then hard discs. Then you need a motherboard to connect all the pieces and PSU to power it all up. Everything else is secondary.

From the specs you posted, GeForce GTX 650 seems like a good enough choice, though honestly I'd upsize to GeForce GTX 650 Ti for 40$ and cut corners elsewhere.
http://pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvn65toc2gi

Your CPU seems adequate, and so does the RAM (8gb DDR3-1600 is completely enough) what I'm interested in though as far as RAM goes is its CAS (the speed at which it loads up blocks of data) - the lower the better, it should be at 9.

Next - the SSD should be used to store the operating system and frequently used programs (such as games), everything that is not used right this instance should be stored elsewhere. The OS will take about 20gb and modern AAA games will take anywhere from 10 to 30 gb (each that is, indie games are usually much smaller), so I suggest you get atleast 64gb SSD (when the drive where your OS is installed doesn't have enough space - less than say 5-10 gb its starts to affect performance).

I'm not a big expert on motherboards and PSUs, but make sure you get enough watts and all the slots fit your components (such as your CPU, GPU, RAM and that the data cables match your hard discs and CD-roms, and while we're on cables make sure the monitor has the right cables for your GPU (some newer GPUs for instance won't have VGA slots which look like this - \'.'.'.'.'/ and only have DVI and HDMI slots which look sort of like this - |+++++++++| \----/) though GeForce GTX 650 should have all three).

Again not a big expert on cooling systems, but a general rule is the more your PC works the hotter it gets, the hotter it gets the worse it performs. There should be cooler on the motherboard and its not a bad idea to have an additional one.

The next biggest concern is having enough USB slots - most peripherals nowadays use USB slots, from keyboard and mouse to scanners and printers to cameras and flash drives...
It is good to have about 6 (even if you don't need them all, just in case some of them break down) and for comfort its better if they are in the front (climbing down to the back of your PC just to plug in a flash drive is a pain in the ass).

Next you want to pick a keyboard and a mouse, you can go all out and pick "gaming" keyboard and mouse with all the lights and extra buttons, but honestly I find that ergonomics is the most important factor here. That is to say how they physically fit your hands - its like picking shoes, you can fuss all you want about traction, weight, durability, colour and design but all those are unimportant if they're the wrong size. Go to a store and get a feel - you'll probably spend hours at a time holding your mouse, might as well get one that fits you.

Then there are the monitor and speakers/headphones which are pretty much the least important part. Get a decent size screen and decent volume speakers and you're golden.

 

[Joccaren]

Thanks for the tips. I've updated my build a little based on your advice (I dropped the cooling unit, since I don't plan on overclocking), and I have a few questions.

I got a 1TB hardrive. Do you think 40GB will be enough for the SSD? I could get a larger one if I had to, but I'd rather avoid it if I can, as they can be relatively pricey.

40Gb should be fine. You'll only be able to fit Windows on it, but really that's not a bad thing. Smaller drives run faster, and having a drive dedicated to Windows and nothing else will boost your load times [For Windows, other programs will still have slow harddrive load times, which really aren't that slow. Its more Windows that takes time] slightly more than a drive with more stuff. As an example, I've got a 256Gb SSD. With purely Windows on it it booted in about 2 seconds [5 seconds if you include the stupid EFI BIOS that the motherboard came with, that slows things down and I wish I could remove it]. With it as it is now, with 20Gb free, it takes about 5-7 seconds to load. Granted some of that will also come from the increase in Registry size and such, but as a rule drives with less on them load faster, so a 40Gb drive to put only Windows on will work fine.

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Hmm...
A quick search revealed that if you're not wanting to go for a 660Ti or so, you're better off going with a 560Ti. Should be about the same price as a 650, but delivers greater performance. Also has more than double the power draw so take that as you will. Overclock agrees with this, as do a few reviews and comparison sites. Only spent 5 minutes Googling though so I'd look into it yourself too.
On the 560Ti, it'll work well. It probably won't run BF3 or TW2 at 60FPS on max settings at 1080p, but it'll still get a playable framerate all the same, and it shouldn't have problems with any games. Got 2 of them in SLI in my rig and they handle everything at 60FPS 1440p, only slowing down when I plug in my second screen which adds an addition 1024p output for them to render.
For best performance you would be looking at a 660Ti or equivalent Radeon card [Which are usually cheaper and only marginally slower most of the time, and sometimes faster dependent on the card], but a 560Ti should last you a while if you're not wanting to put that much money in.

Will 8GB of RAM suffice? I know I said my price range was about $600 to $1200, but I think I might be able to keep this rig around $900, assuming I don't need more RAM than 8GB.

8Gb RAM will be fine. When Idling my system uses a bit over 2Gb RAM, but that's 'cause I've got Skype running, multi-monitor software, cheapass antivirus that I leave deactivated 90% of the time, Rainmeter, Hamachi, and utilities for my Keyboard, Mouse and Webcam on top of the normal windows processes. Most games are 32 bit and will be lucky to take up more than 4Gb of RAM [Though it does happen sometimes]. This'll leave you with about 2Gb leway for multitasking whilst gaming before you start running into large paging issues. Most of what having 16Gb RAM for is turning off paging completely, which marginally boosts performance as everything is loaded to your RAM when it is being run, whereas normally, even if you have an excess of RAM, some of a program's data will still be paged to the Harddrive. Turning off paging does sometimes cause stability issues so I wouldn't recommend it normally. 8Gb RAM will see you set for the next couple of years at least.

EDIT: Also, do you think I should invest in a fan? They're really cheap, but I'd rather not get one if I don't need it, or if it won't fit in my case.

Well, for the issue of it fitting in your case just bring up the manufacturers specifications, or the details, of your case on whatever site is selling it, and check what the fan sizes it supports, and how many, are. From there most sites will sort their fans by size, so if your case can take a 200mm fan you go buy a 200mm fan [Or whichever size most suits your needs/budgets].
In general though you shouldn't need one. Your case will come with stock fans built in, and if you set them up well thinking of thermodynamics [Heat rises, therefore your lower fans are your intakes and upper fans are exhaust], it should handle your average rig well enough. I've got 6 fans in my case and on a day to day basis I'll only use 2 of them for cooling, and I'm running 2 560Ti's, and overclocked CPU and 4 Harddrives [Including 1 SSD which I guess doesn't count]. For just one GPU and a non-overclocked CPU you'll be fine with whatever comes with the case.

 

[direkiller]

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Between GTX650 vs GTX 660. Definitely get 660, it just a better card when you compare it side by side. It's easily worth that extra money. Or you can look into AMD Radeon HD7870 too.

GTX 660 and HD 7870 are the best bang for your buck cards in the market at the moment.

I compared them side by side, and you and Joccaren were right, GTX 660 is significantly better. This brings the price of my rig to $974 (without keyboard or mouse). I'm currently considering a 40GB SSD, but do you think I need that much, or do I even need one at all? I know that programs installed on the SSD will run much faster, but just how necessary is it?

A 40gb SSD is only good for one thing a windows bootup drive. It makes windows bootup faster then having it on your main HD
but is not needed.

"Will 8GB of RAM suffice? I know I said my price range was about $600 to $1200, but I think I might be able to keep this rig around $900, assuming I don't need more RAM than 8GB."

8gb is fine- ram is easy to install down the line if you feel the computer is running too slugish 5-6 years down the line.

"Also, do you think I should invest in a fan? They're really cheap, but I'd rather not get one if I don't need it, or if it won't fit in my case."

the case you picked comes with a back 120mm and a top 200mm already so you should be fine but it will make cleaning a bit easier as it moves the air so there is less dust buildup in the case over time
your case can mount up to 3 more 120mm(+2 on the side but it makes removing it a pain so I don't recommend putting fans there)
your motherboard should be good up to 5 case fans without spilters if you use the second CPU 4pin fan slot for a 3pin case fan(it will fit just fine the 4th pin is used for RPM control)

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Between GTX650 vs GTX 660. Definitely get 660, it just a better card when you compare it side by side. It's easily worth that extra money. Or you can look into AMD Radeon HD7870 too.

GTX 660 and HD 7870 are the best bang for your buck cards in the market at the moment.

I compared them side by side, and you and Joccaren were right, GTX 660 is significantly better. This brings the price of my rig to $974 (without keyboard or mouse). I'm currently considering a 40GB SSD, but do you think I need that much, or do I even need one at all? I know that programs installed on the SSD will run much faster, but just how necessary is it?

A 40gb SSD is only good for one thing a windows bootup drive. It makes windows bootup faster then having it on your main HD
but is not needed.

"Will 8GB of RAM suffice? I know I said my price range was about $600 to $1200, but I think I might be able to keep this rig around $900, assuming I don't need more RAM than 8GB."

8gb is fine- ram is easy to install down the line if you feel the computer is running too slugish 5-6 years down the line.

"Also, do you think I should invest in a fan? They're really cheap, but I'd rather not get one if I don't need it, or if it won't fit in my case."

the case you picked comes with a back 120mm and a top 200mm already so you should be fine but it will make cleaning a bit easier as it moves the air so there is less dust buildup in the case over time
your case can mount up to 3 more 120mm(+2 on the side but it makes removing it a pain so I don't recommend putting fans there)
your motherboard should be good up to 5 case fans without spilters if you use the second CPU 4pin fan slot for a 3pin case fan(it will fit just fine the 4th pin is used for RPM control)

Thank you, I was quite curious about storage space. If 40GB is only good for Windows start-up, should I even bother with it?

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Thanks for the tips. I've updated my build a little based on your advice (I dropped the cooling unit, since I don't plan on overclocking), and I have a few questions.

I got a 1TB hardrive. Do you think 40GB will be enough for the SSD? I could get a larger one if I had to, but I'd rather avoid it if I can, as they can be relatively pricey.

40Gb should be fine. You'll only be able to fit Windows on it, but really that's not a bad thing. Smaller drives run faster, and having a drive dedicated to Windows and nothing else will boost your load times [For Windows, other programs will still have slow harddrive load times, which really aren't that slow. Its more Windows that takes time] slightly more than a drive with more stuff. As an example, I've got a 256Gb SSD. With purely Windows on it it booted in about 2 seconds [5 seconds if you include the stupid EFI BIOS that the motherboard came with, that slows things down and I wish I could remove it]. With it as it is now, with 20Gb free, it takes about 5-7 seconds to load. Granted some of that will also come from the increase in Registry size and such, but as a rule drives with less on them load faster, so a 40Gb drive to put only Windows on will work fine.

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Hmm...
A quick search revealed that if you're not wanting to go for a 660Ti or so, you're better off going with a 560Ti. Should be about the same price as a 650, but delivers greater performance. Also has more than double the power draw so take that as you will. Overclock agrees with this, as do a few reviews and comparison sites. Only spent 5 minutes Googling though so I'd look into it yourself too.
On the 560Ti, it'll work well. It probably won't run BF3 or TW2 at 60FPS on max settings at 1080p, but it'll still get a playable framerate all the same, and it shouldn't have problems with any games. Got 2 of them in SLI in my rig and they handle everything at 60FPS 1440p, only slowing down when I plug in my second screen which adds an addition 1024p output for them to render.
For best performance you would be looking at a 660Ti or equivalent Radeon card [Which are usually cheaper and only marginally slower most of the time, and sometimes faster dependent on the card], but a 560Ti should last you a while if you're not wanting to put that much money in.

Will 8GB of RAM suffice? I know I said my price range was about $600 to $1200, but I think I might be able to keep this rig around $900, assuming I don't need more RAM than 8GB.

8Gb RAM will be fine. When Idling my system uses a bit over 2Gb RAM, but that's 'cause I've got Skype running, multi-monitor software, cheapass antivirus that I leave deactivated 90% of the time, Rainmeter, Hamachi, and utilities for my Keyboard, Mouse and Webcam on top of the normal windows processes. Most games are 32 bit and will be lucky to take up more than 4Gb of RAM [Though it does happen sometimes]. This'll leave you with about 2Gb leway for multitasking whilst gaming before you start running into large paging issues. Most of what having 16Gb RAM for is turning off paging completely, which marginally boosts performance as everything is loaded to your RAM when it is being run, whereas normally, even if you have an excess of RAM, some of a program's data will still be paged to the Harddrive. Turning off paging does sometimes cause stability issues so I wouldn't recommend it normally. 8Gb RAM will see you set for the next couple of years at least.

EDIT: Also, do you think I should invest in a fan? They're really cheap, but I'd rather not get one if I don't need it, or if it won't fit in my case.

Well, for the issue of it fitting in your case just bring up the manufacturers specifications, or the details, of your case on whatever site is selling it, and check what the fan sizes it supports, and how many, are. From there most sites will sort their fans by size, so if your case can take a 200mm fan you go buy a 200mm fan [Or whichever size most suits your needs/budgets].
In general though you shouldn't need one. Your case will come with stock fans built in, and if you set them up well thinking of thermodynamics [Heat rises, therefore your lower fans are your intakes and upper fans are exhaust], it should handle your average rig well enough. I've got 6 fans in my case and on a day to day basis I'll only use 2 of them for cooling, and I'm running 2 560Ti's, and overclocked CPU and 4 Harddrives [Including 1 SSD which I guess doesn't count]. For just one GPU and a non-overclocked CPU you'll be fine with whatever comes with the case.

Thanks. I'll take a look at that other card, and try to find some performance comparisons.

Captcha: "out of toner". Wrong hardware, Captcha.

 

[Joccaren]

Thank you, I was quite curious about storage space. If 40GB is only good for Windows start-up, should I even bother with it?

Depends on how much you care about the load time of your PC.
With an SSD it loads lightning fast. Your PS2 era consoles have nothing on an SSD loaded PC. It will win the race every time. Mine takes less than 10 seconds to start up, one with purely Windows on the drive should take less than 5.
However, this is the only benefit it will net you. You might see a marginal increase in performance from faster registry read/write times, but that's pretty much nothing.
A Hard Drive, especially 1Tb, is a lot slower though. Dependent on the RPM of the drive it could take you upwards of a minute to load once you start putting stuff on there, though its likely to be 10-15 at the start. They are MUCH slower, but also much larger and cheaper. An SSD is a luxury item that once you have it you'll wonder how you lived with boot times where you could go make a coffee before your PC would let you log in, but if you don't care all too much about a fast start up you don't need it. Faster boot times are about all one will offer you.

 

[direkiller]

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Between GTX650 vs GTX 660. Definitely get 660, it just a better card when you compare it side by side. It's easily worth that extra money. Or you can look into AMD Radeon HD7870 too.

GTX 660 and HD 7870 are the best bang for your buck cards in the market at the moment.

I compared them side by side, and you and Joccaren were right, GTX 660 is significantly better. This brings the price of my rig to $974 (without keyboard or mouse). I'm currently considering a 40GB SSD, but do you think I need that much, or do I even need one at all? I know that programs installed on the SSD will run much faster, but just how necessary is it?

A 40gb SSD is only good for one thing a windows bootup drive. It makes windows bootup faster then having it on your main HD
but is not needed.

"Will 8GB of RAM suffice? I know I said my price range was about $600 to $1200, but I think I might be able to keep this rig around $900, assuming I don't need more RAM than 8GB."

8gb is fine- ram is easy to install down the line if you feel the computer is running too slugish 5-6 years down the line.

"Also, do you think I should invest in a fan? They're really cheap, but I'd rather not get one if I don't need it, or if it won't fit in my case."

the case you picked comes with a back 120mm and a top 200mm already so you should be fine but it will make cleaning a bit easier as it moves the air so there is less dust buildup in the case over time
your case can mount up to 3 more 120mm(+2 on the side but it makes removing it a pain so I don't recommend putting fans there)
your motherboard should be good up to 5 case fans without spilters if you use the second CPU 4pin fan slot for a 3pin case fan(it will fit just fine the 4th pin is used for RPM control)

Thank you, I was quite curious about storage space. If 40GB is only good for Windows start-up, should I even bother with it?

If saving 20 seconds on every boot up is worth the cost then go for it
if not save yourself the money or upgrade something else.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

I looked at the graphics card you recommended on pcpartspicker.com, and they're a bit pricer than I prefer. Will the GTX650 I already had picked out work well enough? It was on the "high end" tier on Passmark Software, so I'd assumed it would be alright.

Between GTX650 vs GTX 660. Definitely get 660, it just a better card when you compare it side by side. It's easily worth that extra money. Or you can look into AMD Radeon HD7870 too.

GTX 660 and HD 7870 are the best bang for your buck cards in the market at the moment.

I compared them side by side, and you and Joccaren were right, GTX 660 is significantly better. This brings the price of my rig to $974 (without keyboard or mouse). I'm currently considering a 40GB SSD, but do you think I need that much, or do I even need one at all? I know that programs installed on the SSD will run much faster, but just how necessary is it?

A 40gb SSD is only good for one thing a windows bootup drive. It makes windows bootup faster then having it on your main HD
but is not needed.

"Will 8GB of RAM suffice? I know I said my price range was about $600 to $1200, but I think I might be able to keep this rig around $900, assuming I don't need more RAM than 8GB."

8gb is fine- ram is easy to install down the line if you feel the computer is running too slugish 5-6 years down the line.

"Also, do you think I should invest in a fan? They're really cheap, but I'd rather not get one if I don't need it, or if it won't fit in my case."

the case you picked comes with a back 120mm and a top 200mm already so you should be fine but it will make cleaning a bit easier as it moves the air so there is less dust buildup in the case over time
your case can mount up to 3 more 120mm(+2 on the side but it makes removing it a pain so I don't recommend putting fans there)
your motherboard should be good up to 5 case fans without spilters if you use the second CPU 4pin fan slot for a 3pin case fan(it will fit just fine the 4th pin is used for RPM control)

Thank you, I was quite curious about storage space. If 40GB is only good for Windows start-up, should I even bother with it?

If saving 20 seconds on every boot up is worth the cost then go for it
if not save yourself the money or upgrade something else.

It's not a package deal, so I think I'll try without it at first, and then see if the start-up time is enough of an issue for me to need it. Thanks for the information, it's good to know that it's a luxury, rather than necessity.

 

[Yopaz]

If you build something close to Top of the Line today, then it will probably last you a good 10 years or more. You wont get MAX settings for 10 years, but you will probably be able to play EVERYTHING.

The deals on Steam and GOG are awesome. You can get great games for DIRT cheap. Just gotta be patient. PC games go down in price much quicker than console games in my experience.

Im sorry, but that is all I am going to contribute to this thread as I do not have enough time to address everything you have asked

This is a lie. If you want to be a PC gamer you have to upgrade at least every month and that is why consoles are best. Yeah, I'm not serious here, a good PC do last.

OT: It would be nice if you provided links to make it easier for us to look over the cmponents, but as far as I can see the current rig looks pretty good.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Thank you, I was quite curious about storage space. If 40GB is only good for Windows start-up, should I even bother with it?

Depends on how much you care about the load time of your PC.
With an SSD it loads lightning fast. Your PS2 era consoles have nothing on an SSD loaded PC. It will win the race every time. Mine takes less than 10 seconds to start up, one with purely Windows on the drive should take less than 5.
However, this is the only benefit it will net you. You might see a marginal increase in performance from faster registry read/write times, but that's pretty much nothing.
A Hard Drive, especially 1Tb, is a lot slower though. Dependent on the RPM of the drive it could take you upwards of a minute to load once you start putting stuff on there, though its likely to be 10-15 at the start. They are MUCH slower, but also much larger and cheaper. An SSD is a luxury item that once you have it you'll wonder how you lived with boot times where you could go make a coffee before your PC would let you log in, but if you don't care all too much about a fast start up you don't need it. Faster boot times are about all one will offer you.

I think I'll try going without it at first. I can always buy one later, if I need it. Besides, I love coffee, so the chance to brew a cup isn't so bad

 

[DazZ.]

Im talking about Top of the Line today being still being able to run games in 10 years (on probably lowest settings). I probably wouldn't have said that in 2003

I'll save this and email you it in 10 years to show you how silly you sounded!
It sounds just like all the other classic "Who would ever need more than 64kbp/s download speed!" type quotes.

Hopefully you're wrong anyway otherwise the next 10 years may be slightly dull.

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Thank you, I was quite curious about storage space. If 40GB is only good for Windows start-up, should I even bother with it?

Depends on how much you care about the load time of your PC.
With an SSD it loads lightning fast. Your PS2 era consoles have nothing on an SSD loaded PC. It will win the race every time. Mine takes less than 10 seconds to start up, one with purely Windows on the drive should take less than 5.
However, this is the only benefit it will net you. You might see a marginal increase in performance from faster registry read/write times, but that's pretty much nothing.
A Hard Drive, especially 1Tb, is a lot slower though. Dependent on the RPM of the drive it could take you upwards of a minute to load once you start putting stuff on there, though its likely to be 10-15 at the start. They are MUCH slower, but also much larger and cheaper. An SSD is a luxury item that once you have it you'll wonder how you lived with boot times where you could go make a coffee before your PC would let you log in, but if you don't care all too much about a fast start up you don't need it. Faster boot times are about all one will offer you.

Sorry to pester you again, but I think I'm ready to finalize my PC build. You've been very helpful, and seem to be knowledgeable, so I was wondering if you could give it one last look:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4

Memory: Corsair 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Corsair Force 40GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card

Wired Network Adapter: Belkin F5D5000 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter

Case : Antec Eleven Hundred ATX Full Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

 

[Tom Waits' hat]

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card
Wired Network Adapter: Belkin F5D5000 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter

You still need to buy another hard drive. 40GB SSD is not going to be enough. You will be living on the edge with only 40GB hard drive space. PC Games these days are between 7-20GB.

I don't think you need a Network Adapter? I'm pretty sure your motherboard comes with one. (Somebody need to confirm this)

EVGA GPU, they tend to come with those standard boxy looking cooler. It's not the end of the world, but if you have time, you can try look for a card without the generic stock cooler. Go for those card that have the aftermarket cooler. As they tend to run a lot cooler than the stock cooling.

*What I meant by aftermarket cooler. Here's a GTX660 from Gigabyte http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125443

 

[Joccaren]

Sorry to pester you again, but I think I'm ready to finalize my PC build. You've been very helpful, and seem to be knowledgeable, so I was wondering if you could give it one last look:

CPU: Intel Core i5-3570 3.4GHz Quad-Core Processor

Motherboard: ASRock Z77 Extreme 4

Memory: Corsair 8GB (1 x 8GB) DDR3-1600 Memory

Storage: Corsair Force 40GB 2.5" Solid State Disk

Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 660 2GB Video Card

Wired Network Adapter: Belkin F5D5000 10/100 Mbps PCI Network Adapter

Case : Antec Eleven Hundred ATX Full Tower Case

Power Supply: Corsair CX 500W 80 PLUS Bronze Certified ATX12V Power Supply

Optical Drive: Asus DRW-24B1ST/BLK/B/AS DVD/CD Writer

Operating System: Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 (OEM) (64-bit)

Going to quote Tom Waits' hat for two replies in 1 =D

You still need to buy another hard drive. 40GB SSD is not going to be enough. You will be living on the edge with only 40GB hard drive space. PC Games these days are between 7-20GB.

He's said in a previous post he's got a 1Tb he can use, he's using the 40Gb SSD for Windows.

I don't think you need a Network Adapter? I'm pretty sure your motherboard comes with one. (Somebody need to confirm this)

Yeah, was questioning that early, ran a check and the Motherboard comes with the network adapter built in, as pretty much all these days do. Only $8 to get the adapter as well, but you shouldn't need it.

EVGA GPU, they tend to come with those standard boxy looking cooler. It's not the end of the world, but if you have time, you can try look for a card without the generic stock cooler. Go for those card that have the aftermarket cooler. As they tend to run a lot cooler than the stock cooling.

And this. You won't need aftermarket cooling - The 660 runs about 2' cooler than the 560Ti, at around 58' or so according to Tom's hardware, and that's the sort of thing my old PC handled with just one fan at the front [Additionally 97' is the cutoff point for safe GPU temperatures from memory, so its well under that] - so if its much more expensive then don't bother, but they're good to have if you run into overheating problems [Why it also pays to live in the colder parts of the world from time to time =P]


Additionally I'll also give some advice for probably the hardest part of building your own computer [Beyond ensuring you're grounded to the case at all times and don't zap any of your components/touch them too much on their faces {Hold the thin sides}]; installing everything once the OS is loaded.
Now, installing the OS should be simple enough. Turn on your PC, put the CD in the CD drive, maybe restart your PC if its moved past the BIOS prompt, if it hasn't then press the designated button to open BIOS [Generally Delete or F1 or something]. Go to the boot from section [Seeing as the board you've bought has a UEFI BIOS this should be easy to find in the simplified BIOS, located down the bottom with images of Hard Drives and CD drives], and select to boot off the CD drive. From there its a pretty simple installation to just follow the instructions; just make sure you select your SSD to install Windows to.

Once Windows has finished installing, which could take a while, you'll be prompted to make yourself an account to log in with. Do so, and it'll load up your Desktop, which will be all but empty at this point.
Please not that at this point you will not have Internet connection regardless of whether you are plugged in, many of your motherboard's functions won't work, your graphics will be stuck in a basic mode and pretty much everything will be running on defaults.
First things first you'll want to find any CDs that came with your parts. Put the one that came with your motherboard in, and load it up.
FROM THIS POINT ON RESTART AFTER EVERY SINGLE THING YOU INSTALL. ITS A PAIN, BUT IT WILL SAVE YOU A LOT OF POTENTIAL TROUBLE. I learned that the hard way one time. Sometimes installing drivers and several other things in quick succession will leave your PC unstable, which leads to a lot of crashes for no reason, so restart your PC after every driver install. Programs are fine, unless they tell you to restart your system, but everything we install from now till the end of my post you will restart after installing.
Now, when the CD loads and launches the setup program, you'll want to look for anything that looks like it has to do with network or Internet. LAN is generally a label that is given to this driver though not always. Worst case use your phone's Internet or another PC to google the relevant driver on the disk if you can't find it. Install this and only this, then restart.
Once your PC has restarted, ensure you are connected to the Internet. The driver should be installed, so if you're not try troubleshooting with online instructions and making sure your network recognises your PC, but if you are connected then proceed to Google the names of every driver on all of the disks that came with your PC parts [Don't include the version number, just the name], excluding graphics drivers for now, and download them. This ensures that you have the most up to date version of that driver, whereas the versions on the CDs you are given are likely a couple of years old by that point.
Install all the drivers you have downloaded one by one, restarting the PC after every installation.
If your PC is still stable and not crashing at this point, good job, you've done things correctly so far. Go to http://www.nvidia.com/Download/index.aspx?lang=en-us and fill in the info. For your card it will be GeForce Product Type, GeForce 600 Series Product Series, GeForce GTX 660 for Product, and language and operating system should automatically select themselves, though you should know them if they don't. Hit search. Download and install the graphics driver you are pointed to, then restart. Now, you won't have to fill in this form every time you want to update your graphics drivers, there is an automated process on the first page that will search for and find your GPU and point you to the right driver automatically. From memory this requires Java though, which you won't yet have installed.
Now go to www.Ninite.com. Select the programs you believe you will use, then click "Get installer". Run the installer when it is downloaded and it will automatically install each of those programs for you.
After this your PC should be fine. No need to restart from now, and anything else you end up needing for some sites to run things will show up with a popup at the top of your Internet browser asking you to install it. You should be free to basically do what you feel like from now. I would recommend installing a free Antivirus, leaving it de-activated, then activating it and scanning your PC once a month though. Leaving it running all the time is a pain and a system hog, but its a good thing to have to make sure your system is clean. 90% of the time your Antivirus will pick up a few things. Most of them are unimportant and not too dangerous, so no need to freak out when it does, but its still good to be rid of them.

And if I've forgotten anything hopefully someone will correct me so... Hope that helped.