Here are the specs for my first build..

[FScorpio27]

Updated as of April 23 Build: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XhTrJx

Or a PcPartPicker link to them I should say. I was told to post this here for fun, so that's what I'm doing. I am sooo excited to build this thing, have not ordered the first part yet, but it will happen soon! I am especially excited about the floppy drive I am throwing in for fun (which HOPEFULLY will work!!), the projector I am using as a screen, and the drawing tablet I'm getting as well. Not to mention my first SSD, 6 TOTAL FANS in the rig, installing a cpu cooler, the awesome white case with external 3.5 and 5.25 bays, the blue color theme...I will post pics of the completed build

If I had more $$ to spend I would totally use this Fanless radiator style cpu cooler http://www.dvhardware.net/news/2013/nofan_cr_80eh.jpg

The "NoFan CR-80EH Fanless CPU Cooler" It's sooooo sexy!!!

Edit: I realized later that the i5 CPU I bought comes with a cpu cooler (radiator+fan). Missed that for a while!
Edit: Messed with the wi-fi card (thanks to [USER=79388]@Devioursoul[/USER]), added bluetooth dongle, changed projector (thanks to [USER=79388]@Devioursoul[/USER]), removed tv/radio sound card due to not thinking it was worth the $$. Still looking for radio solutions (i just want my pc to be a stereo receiver too okay). Also looking for a cheap windows OS.
Thursay Edit: I decided to change the whole look of my build and went from a white/black/blue case to a black/blue case. Now i get one more external 5.25 bay (which i could really use) and there are plenty of places for fans in the case Was a difficult choice, but im sure this case will be beautiful as well.
Saturday Edit: Switched to the lowest version of the GTX 750 ti. Removed the expensive LED in favor of the cheap one. Found a slightly cheaper projector that's still decent. Tried to lower my costs basically.
19 parts. 4 of them Asus $743.97 (w/out OS).
Saturday edit 2: Chose the Enermax ECA3212 black case for $42.99. Has 4 external 5.25 bays and 1 external 3.5 drive bay. Just what I wanted. Change because I saw some negative reviews for the other case. Still plenty of room for fans (another feature i wanted) and extruded side panel for cable management was the last feature i was looking for and this case has it.
Saturday Edit 3: Downgraded GPU to a GTX 650 I found on EBAY for $80. I watched some benchmark videos, it should be decent enough for dayZ, epecially since it supports directx 11 (12 actually) which the DayZ dev team is relying on to save the game's performance. Spec list updated.
Cards that seem wayyy too cheap might be fakes, so I am investigating this GPU and making sure I don't get duped.
Edit: Yeah I found similar cards under the name "Vamery" which is a scam brand. Back to searching!
Edit: I couldn't accept the fact that my graphics card was 75% of the price of my CPU. So I downgraded yet again lol. I've only ever owned crappy Dell pcs or laptops. Having a name brand GPU, or GPU at all other than an on-board chip will be an immense improvement. And that's good enough for me. GPU: Asus Radeon R7 250. Don't worry, it will be good enough.
Edit: I got REALLY tired of the idea of sending in a bunch of mail-in rebates to get my prices to what they should be. So I changed my power supply (to a higher wattage and still rated 80+) and my wireless card (it's hard to tell the differences between them all but this cardshould be fine). Now the only rebate is a 20$ one for the graphics card which should have a pretty simple form/part numbers to find.
Now there's only 3 Asus parts which is sad If Asus made more computer cases I wouldve tried to get one. Just because. Uniformity.
April 2 Edit: Well I took the plunge boys. I changed the heart and brain of my beast. Because of benchmarks, and being able to get a superior 8 core cpu for the same price as the 4 core i5. I went with the: AMD FX-8350 (comes with a big ol' heatsink/fan) and changed MOBO to a cheap ASRock 970M PRO 3 Micro ATX Board. I did this after looking up cpubenchmarks AND Cinebench benchmarks. Not to mention watching DayZ gameplay with the CPU, which is a good benchmark tester as well. This change was difficult to make as a first time pc builder as i only ever hear anything mentioned about i3s, i5s, and i7s. But all the evidence speaks volumes. i will link the cinebench results.
https://us.rebusfarm.net/en/tempbench?view=benchmark
Set view to 100 per page. AMD 8350 bottom of page 2. Intel i5 4590 (not the S[low voltage] version but close enough) middle of page 11. From what it seems, single thread score is not quite as good with the 8350, but it has a better multi-thread rating by far. The benchmarks for the AMD and i5 here. And there's also this video:

[MEDIA=youtube]FsZGLoXo4WI[/MEDIA]

which shows the 8350 and the i5 4690k (K is for overclock potential) side by side. I could only afford the 4590, not the 4690. And the 8350 is quite comparable to the 4690k, as the video shows. So, this switch seems verrryyyy worth! I am never doing just one thing on the computer, so the multi thread performance could really be useful with all the multitasking. I'm aware that ATM certain games like DayZ don't utilize all of the cores available. DayZ only utilizes 2, but hopefully that will change with directx 11 support, and continuing development. I'm not gonna pass up 4 more cores just for 1 game :p

Edit: With all the money I saved on the new processor, motherboard, and graphics card, I was able to pick out more toys!

Webcam5.95 / Desk Mic stand 3.89 / Zalman Mouse 12.99 / Logitech Keyboard with touchpad 19.99

I can't believe how cheap all these cool new toys are!

Edit Saturday: I switched my MOBO to a Gigabyte board with more Pci slots Still looking for a good solution for AM/FM radio. May have to get a better CPU cooler than the included factory one, we will see.
Edit: I picked out a SDRadio USB dongle and antenna as my radio. This seems like the best choice as I couldn't find the perfect pci x1 sound card/tv tuner for the job. This solution is a bit heavy handed as the dongle/antenna is powerful and a very manual way of tuning in to the FM band, but it opens up new possibilities/capabilities. $22.50 is a little more than what I wanted to pay for a simple radio in my pc, but it's not a bad price at all for the product. My decision isn't set in stone, but I'll most likely stick with it. Here are a few of the PCI cards I declined to choose: 1. . 2 . . 3
Edit Sunday: Let's see. I did a lot of research today, leading me to find a better CPU cooler, better RAM, 'better' hard drive. The CPU cooler is the cooler master hyper 212--VERY popular. The RAM is faster (1866 instead of 1600). I found the perfect combo of specs in a hard drive--slower spinning (for reliability), larger cache, larger overall storage--for about $7 more than my previous choice.

Edit Monday: I realized the cpu cooler i had chosen would be a VERY tight fit, probably not fit at all, as the remaining clearance past the height of the cooler was only about a half inch. So, I chose a similarly priced cooler by Scythe to replace (went through a couple choices before finding one with a TDP (thermal design power [in watts for CPUs]) that's adequate).

Edit Tuesday: Did some research on hybrid SSD/HDs. Got to thinking, I have most of my personal data on an external drive...I don't need very much space at all. I'm currently on my old old laptop, and it's total storage space is 218GB. So, I decided to ditch my 1TB HD and just get another 120GB (111GB useable) SSD for the speeeeddd. And I can EASILY add another drive in the future, that is one of the simplest upgrades. So yay, it even saved me a couple bucks.

Edit: Decided to save more money. Crossed the fence back to the cheaper keyboard, picked out a cheaper mouse(that still has side buttons), and deleted the drive bay speaker for now at this point, especially since I just realized it uses standard 3.5mm jacks to connect to the motherboard. IDK what I thought it would use....it wouldn't matter so much if it were cheaper or if it was much higher quality, but with the price, connection method, and quality, and my budget, it's goin' for now. This is something I can also somewhat easily upgrade to in the future.

Back down to: $754 from over 800.

That leaves more room to buy the OS. The only thing left. I want WIN8 (i guess--I need as many programs as possible to be [easily] compatible...cause I'm lazy and not the geekiest person in the world)...I have a relative who designs custom computer builds for a living so i'm gonna ask him if he can find me a spare discount or something

Edit: Watched a vid on PC building and learned what a modular power supply was. And damn are those for me!! I shopped around and found an Enermax (same brand as my case) 650w modular PSU for 59.99 ($50 after rebate...if all that tediousness is worth it to you). I opted for this brand over Raidmax, the cheaper brand, because of consumer horror stories. Hopefully the Enermax works out.

Edit: Reevaluated my optical drive choice. Chose a dif ASUS just a cpl bucks cheaper. Decent cache size and can write DVDs, does all the functions of the previous ASUS choice (they are pretty much identical). I know this was a boring AF edit but whatever. I think the drive looks sexy with the bold ASUS lettering. JS

I am shopping around for cheaper 4-8GB RAM (would dbl up the 4) 1866 speed. The selection I have now is already a very fair price, and likely won't change, since it's a factory fresh, safe purchase. But, this is an item that could change depending on what deals are available when I actually get cash in hand. Most of the other items are set in stone now though.

April 23 Update: I have bought most of the parts for my build. Just need the OS, optical drive, and some fans. Wan't able to afford drive bay speaker, but got the tablet, a projector, and fan controller. Have an uncle who designs custom computer builds for a living, waiting on him to know whether or not he can get me discounted or even free fans, optical drive, and/or OS. http://pcpartpicker.com/p/XhTrJx

[ticktock1231]

Congrats on your first build! It looks like a very solid build. The only thing I can say is I have never heard of that brand of SSD. Not saying it is bad/good, but I just haven't heard of them. Please do post pictures, it is always fun for me. Is this your first computer you built or the first built computer you have owned?j

[Devioursoul]

I have a lot of experience to this department, and YES I have heard of this SSD brand. To be honest, it's a common brand.

CPU

The difference between this one select one the new generation is small in performance and price. I would personally go with the newer one and set myself up for a better foundation for future upgrades.

Motherboard.

Same story as CPU, just a few more features. Motherboard speed itself may be doubled, but this is nothing you will probably notice unless you go crazy.

Wireless

Also I have seen you got a WIFI card with AC, even if you have an AC router the card you selected is almost completely pointless with 2 antennas sure you will have the technique but in most if not in all cases currently, 2 antennas under perform with this technique sadly enough. While theoretically you should be able to achieve 866 Megabit on paper, and this NEVER happens nor happened as far as I remember with any WIFI router as far as home networks are concerned. You will not even get close to this. around 150 to 200 Megabit is more realistic with this one. Keep in mind AC uses 5GHZ it does NOT support 2.4GHZ. What does this mean? You have to be VERY close to have high speeds and good stable connection to maintain it. The higher frequency wireless signals of 5GHz networks do not penetrate solid objects nearly as well as 2.4GHz signals.

So if you got a 150 Megabit connection don't bother to begin with, preferable would still be cable of course.
This was tested with recent drivers, not the ones that actually had issues giving 1/4 of even the current speed.

I have tested this card previously with no great results, it's a stable card but don't expect insane high speed because it uses a new technique(AC).

Images of the Gigabyte GC-WB867D-I I tested a while back [+] Show

This is how a typical AC card should look like in my opinion, 3 antennas or more to reach up to what they say is 1300 Megabits. 433+433+433=1299 but to make it nicer, 1300

Keep in mind though, this one is over double the price of the Gigabyte card and will likely not fit in your budget.

End of story go wired if you can, or don't expect much from your AC card at higher speeds.

TP-Link Archer T8E [+] Show

With AC it seems antennas do make a HUGE difference, older techniques such as WIFI-N do not share this in most cases.

Whole album of images can be found here http://imgur.com/a/ujgc7 keep in mind, these are high resolution and your computer may not enjoy it. The router is an AC2600 Greyhound, high end consumer router.

I also put an N network card in the list, linked later.

Projector

Next, the led projector. If you have read the reviews I hope you plan to connect it with HDMI, the quality appears to be bad any other way its connected. May want to do a bit of research here.

signature tablet
This one is sold :p
Meaning you will have to look for another, I am not widely known with this so I won't recommend one.

Graphics card
Unless you intent to play recent games with high frame rates this will do just fine, games like battlefield 4 should not be expected to run at 60 FPS (medium settings) however.

Me personally would spend 20 bucks more to get much better performance. For example a Nvidia GeForce GTX 750 Ti give double the frames on average with many games. But much more important, more minimum FPS.

I hope this helped you also here is the list I got so far.

http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

If you got questions you can post them here or my skype eric.nowles.

[FScorpio27]

[USER=79388]@Devioursoul[/USER] Thank you so much for your in-depth analysis of the build! I hae taken all of your insight into account, and have no problem changing up a few items to improve efficiency/performance!

[USER=39876]@ticktock1231[/USER] This will be my first build , made possible by the help of PCPartPicker.com

CPU - I am a total n00b at building PCs and am relying very much on PC part picker to help source compatible parts (though as you can see judging by the extras I picked out--I can find a couple things on my own ) so I have picked out a 4th generation i5 chip since that's what's on their compatible list. Could you link me to the comparable newer generation chip, or simply name it if linking is not allowed for some reason? Thanks I dont mind spending a couple more bucks in this department, probably up to 50 more if the performance increase is worth it.

Motherboard - This Asus has all the features I need (I think...) and its even a micro which give me more room to work with. If i could double the speed (of what, ram?? .... just general mobo stuff? ) by spending 30$ or less on another socket1150 i might consider it...i am open to taking a look at any links but i will most likely stick with this one since i am so used to building around it by now. and it's pretty sexy with the black & gold

Wi-fi Pci-express adapter - My wi-fi adapter is something called AC and that affects performances and forces 5ghz band or whatever to be used?? (!! my cable guy said we're only set to be using the 2.4!!! also our internet speed is 100 down 10 up i think).....I know nothing about what you were talking about (an im no tech n00b) haha but i will absolutely change the wi-fi card, i didnt have my heart set on that one at all! ill look for one that does not say AC and if you respond with a link to an alternate option i could check that out as well. Man, you probably saved me a LOT of headache and hassle and money and time, thank you so much!!! Though it's unfortunate i wasnt able to absorb more of what you explained, that was pretty confusing stuff :/
Edit: Just wanna add, Bluetooth is something i def wanted in my wi-fi card. and im gonna be using wi-fi for a while until i get my ethernet cord back from a friend. it's quite necessary.
Another edit: After some investigation, I see only the AC cards support bluetooth. So. I'm gonna buy a card that's not AC, and I will buy a small bluetooth dongle or something to get bluetooth seperately.
I'm also still in the market for a pc radio of some kind...no luck finding easy solutions there sadly.
Edit #3: I just found this nifty little guy. I love simple parts like this...I might get it: http://www.ebay.com/itm/Black-150Mbps-W ... Swk1JWcntL
Edit #4: No I'm not relying on a removable part to be my wireless receiver. ill just get a cheap bluetooth dongle for sure. and get a pci wireless card thats not AC. i have no idea how to differentiate between all of these wireless cards.

Projector - of course I'm going to connect it with HD cable. And dont worry, i also have a TV monitor sitting here that im gonna be using as a monitor when i feel like it but i thought having the projector would be BAD ASS if you have any suggestions for alternate ones im open to shopping around. though that one is white, and looks decent, and is very affordable...after some thought and investigation, I will be shopping around for a more dependable projector

Oh, and that writing tablet was just a placeholder for the model. I will find another, but hopefully the same exact kind. If not, one very similar

Graphics Card - I checked out some benchmark videos comparing the two video cards and they performed about the same, but hey if you insist that the gtx 750 ti is inherently better than the r7 250x then hey, i dont mind making that upgrade.
Edit: Here is a benchmark video (with a gt 740 not gtx 750) that may have swayed me to just go with the 250x for the money i could def use the extra $$ in my pocket or towards my cpu.

My goal is to run DayZ decently (and also have a boss PC ) and i know thats a CPU focused load. The GPU I have would probably suffice but i will re-examine my choice in that department keeping future gaming applications in mind. Thanks again.

[Devioursoul]

The link I gave had a newer CPU and motherboard, they are bit more value friendly with the one you selected, not a whole lot though.

Network adapter.

To put it simple here are the cons and pros of AC and 5GHZ.

Pro
5GHZ faster
Con
5GHZ way less range

Pro
2.4GHZ a lot more range than 5GHZ
Con
2.4GHZ slower but more stable generally.

pro
AC uses up to 3 antennas giving it more speed. 433 x 3 =1299 megabit theoretically. (will never reach it like advertised)
Con
AC uses 5GHZ ONLY currently, basic like any other 5ghz it's range will be very limited.


That link you gave of the wireless USB adapter, I am not able to guarantee that it will work on Windows 10 if you plan to use that, It seems like a generic brandless adapter, it's pretty hard to recommend something when no information is available about it.

Also why do you want Bluetooth?

The 740 is not even close to the 750 TI
[MEDIA=youtube]fKy5ctjixaY[/MEDIA]
[MEDIA=youtube]k6Ww-W5w-JU[/MEDIA]

As you can see in the video It even defeats the more powerful version of the 250x, the 260x. On top of that, it uses less power, but who cares about that nowadays, right ?

Here is some specific dayz FPS related stuff.

1360 x 768 = 1044480 pixels resolution. Much lower than the followed up video of the 750 TI
[MEDIA=youtube]cCJHocb9TGw[/MEDIA]

1920*1080 = 2073600 pixels
[MEDIA=youtube]AjjipuHWoFM[/MEDIA]

We are talking about double the pixels it's rendering, and STILL the 750 TI beats the r7 250x in the FPS department



Just a tip, don't try to safe money on everything it will bite you back eventually. Wait a month if you can get some more money even even 2 months if needed.

[Devioursoul]

Here are more specific charts I got.

[FScorpio27]

Okay. Based on those charts, I'll upgrade to the "Asus GeForce GTX 750 Ti 2GB STRIX Video Card" for 107.98 (up just $30 from the R7 250x)

I changed my wireless card to " Asus PCE-N53 802.11a/b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter " (Got an Asus theme going here) for $17.89 and am using a cheap bluetooth dongle simply because I want my comp to have as many capabilities as possible and bluetooth is a cheap easy one.

I am not very forum savvy, I will try to find these links you are talking about thanks. Updated build list if interested: http://pcpartpicker.com/p/z9NnkL

Still looking for a part to fill my new 5.25 drive bay. I am leaning towards this LED light controller since I already have a multi card reader, fan controller, optical drive, and speakers and cant find anything else yet....

@deviorsoul

Edit: Yeah i didnt find any links from you. the pcpartpicker link was a generic link that linked to my own current part list if that's the one you meant. please link again if it's not too much trouble < 3333 thanks

[FScorpio27]

I wonder if [USER=7]@CohhCarnage[/USER] has any suggestions for fun 5.25 (or even 3.5) drive bay contraptions Love ya Cohh!! < 333

I'm thinking a bunch of audio inputs (midi, 6.35mm jack) would be cool for music production.

[Devioursoul]

You got this audio controller on your list http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... lsrc=aw.ds

Don't bother with it, audio quality it just shit. Low volume, static hollow sound. You on-board audio is just much better. If you want to enhance audio just get a separate sound card at a point.

With your budget try focusing on base components. It may all seem nice if it's your first computer and all to get all these gadgets, but it's money you could spend on getting a faster computer and more pleasant gaming experience.

This led strip is not for computers specific or at least internal.
http://www.banggood.com/50cm100cm150cm2 ... ighting-us

Try looking here instead on Newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/Case-Accessories/ ... ory/ID-255

[FScorpio27]

I know that's a very cheap quality speaker, but it's the only drive bay one i found with a volume knob. There will be speakers on the projector, my tv monitor, or external speakers i can plug in. But this drive bay speaker is for fun . I'm still looking for a higher quality option though.

My base components are just fine TYVM I want a computer with a drawing tablet dammit! haha :p

I know that LED strip isn't necessarily for computers, but really you can throw that thing anywhere. The second LED controller you listed is one I already listed above, as one of my 5.25 drive bay novelties. It may end up in the build we will see. The other LED is a cheap alternative.

If you're not able to link the CPU can you just tell me which ones you mean? Are you talking about like, i5-6400 or something? < 333

[Devioursoul]

[QUOTE="FScorpio27, post: 33161, member: 79935"]I know that's a very cheap quality speaker, but it's the only drive bay one i found with a volume knob. There will be speakers on the projector, my tv monitor, or external speakers i can plug in. But this drive bay speaker is for fun . I'm still looking for a higher quality option though.

My base components are just fine TYVM I want a computer with a drawing tablet dammit! haha :p [/QUOTE]

And that is fine, I just don't want you purchasing something you will regret later on. :rolleyes:

[QUOTE="FScorpio27, post: 33161, member: 79935"]
I know that LED strip isn't necessarily for computers, but really you can throw that thing anywhere. The second LED controller you listed is one I already listed above, as one of my 5.25 drive bay novelties. It may end up in the build we will see. The other LED is a cheap alternative. [/QUOTE]

I listed 3 things.
1 the audio controller you have.
2 the led lights you had
3 link to "Case Accessories" nothing specific. I put it in there so you can search computer specific LED lights the price is pretty much the same.

what second led controller ?

[QUOTE="FScorpio27, post: 33161, member: 79935"]I
If you're not able to link the CPU can you just tell me which ones you mean? Are you talking about like, i5-6400 or something? < 333[/QUOTE]

You completely lost me here

[FScorpio27]

The CPU you suggest upgrading to is what I'm asking for. You suggested a newer generation. I suppose I should just do my own search on this...I'll have to be very careful about compatibility with my LGA 1150 motherboard..

The first cheap LED strip has a small remote i suppose i was referring to that as a 'controller' but nevermind that :p

[Devioursoul]

I put the i5 6500 on the list. (did you even check the list LOL)

Anyway.....

This is the previous list I linked.
http://pcpartpicker.com/parts/partlist/

I also switch the thermal compound for an actual cooler. thermal compound is only a few degrees difference at best, a cooler can be 20 degrees difference or more from standard. Some cases even up to 30 degrees under load.

[FScorpio27]

Ah. Good tip about the cooler, I did not know that. I told you, that link only links me to my own part list unfortunately I can't see your list, though I would like to. But you say i5 6500 I'll look into it thanks

[Devioursoul]

May want to clear your browser cache than, I don't have that issue :p

[FScorpio27]

It's just like facebook.com/home will always link to the home page of the person who clicks it...i believe you'd have to save the list or something which may be too much work to do :p

[Devioursoul]

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/jdbn3C

[FScorpio27]

Well. Apparently between the CPUs, the difference is negligible. The Gigabyte motherboard does have faster RAM reading capabilities, but I should be fine with what I have, since Ive been using laptops for years and even an SSD is a new experience for me. It was interesting to see my build with a different heart/brain for a second, that's for sure :p thanks

[Devioursoul]

There is a bit more to it, but for the love of god, stop using sites like that. It contains invalid information.
Differences can't just be compared like that, this way my old 3.8GHZ P4 is faster than both of them for less money.

Want to compare ? use Intel's own site here you can read what technology it actually has instead of just numbers.
http://ark.intel.com/compare/80815,88184

The 4590 is faster in MHz but it does not actually make it faster, it's about the architecture of the CPU NOT the MHZ speed
The 6500 will beat it in all real time test

Also faster memory rarely gives you any benefit, FPS for games may be 0.1 more GREAT ! but the memory cost like 50 currency more so that's wasted. But the speed you speak of is not the only thing to look at, latency is another factor but again, with your budget don't even bother looking at better(lower) latency memory or higher frequency MHZ.

Here you can see it makes just about no difference.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/low ... 91-12.html

Unless you are video editing don't bother with this subject pretty much, but than 8GB would not be what you would want either.

The only place where faster memory looks good is on silly synthetic benchmarks who are completely pointless as it does not give a proper view of it in real time scenarios such as gaming or anything else really.

While your at it, also take a look at both motherboard manufacturers sites for their motherboards.

https://www.asus.com/Motherboards/H87MP ... fications/
http://www.gigabyte.com/products/produc ... id=5516#ov