I have been playing computer games since elementary school (starting with Power Pete). anyway, im out of college now which means i no longer have to move my laptop back and forth between places, so i can finally move away from laptop gaming and build my own computer.

 

However, I have never built my own computer before so i need a some advice/information first. From what ive seen before from here whenever people ask about this, people recommend newegg to get parts, so i'll probably do that.

 

What i need advice on is how to get the biggest bang for littlest buck. I'm thinking of setting a budget for about $1000, would love to stay under that, but a couple hundred over wont kill me either. Another thing is, i dont actually know how to build it once i acquire all the pieces i would need. So i'll need a guide or something to help me see all the parts i'll need and how to assemble it

 

TLDR: Building computer >$1000. Need to know all parts needed. Need guide on assembly

Do some googling and researching. That's what I did a few years back and I've built 3 computers for myself, with no issues. Figuring out the best bang for your buck requires understanding the tech and what the games you'll be playing actually require and deciding what you consider bearable. My computer which can pretty much run anything I've played cost over $1000 2-3 years ago but could be built for under $1000 now.

Figuring out the best bang for your buck requires understanding the tech and what the games you'll be playing actually require and deciding what you consider bearable.

 

I'll only be playing this. And then once this game shuts down ill find another game to play, so i expect this to be my only game for the time being (for the next few years, many more hopefully)

@ OP,

 

Here is a complete invoice of all the stuff i purchased when i bought parts for my build. You can use it as sort of a template. You dont want to use the exact same parts obviously, but shop around in the same category and find one that fits your budget.

 

Thermaltake Chaser MK-I (VN300M1W2N) Black SECC ATX Full Tower Computer Case

ASUS P8Z77-V LX LGA 1155 Intel Z77 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

MSI N680GTX Twin Frozr 4GD5/OC GeForce GTX 680 4GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 3.0

Antec HCG M Series HCG-620M 620W ATX12V / EPS12V

Intel Core i7-3770 Ivy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.9GHz Turbo) LGA 1155 77W Quad-Core

SanDisk Extreme SDSSDX-240G-G25 2.5" 240GB SATA III Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

Team Vulcan 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model TXD316G1600HC9QC-V

Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit

COOLER MASTER R4-MFJR-07FK-R1 200mm MegaFlow 200 Silent Fan

LG Black 12X Internal Blu-ray Drive 3D Playback & M-DISC Support SATA Model UH12LS29

 

I bought all that stuff and i had every single part needed for a running PC. I already had a mouse and keyboard, and i also had a monitor (TV actually) and the monitor cable. I didnt have to make one trip to best buy or walmart for that one oddball part.

 

As far as the parts just shop around on newegg or tigerdirect for the parts that will fit within your budget. Some things you can change too like the hard drive. I use a 250 SSD but i also have a 1.5 TB external drive for storage. You could decide to not get an SSD and just get a conventional drive of your own. Once you have your shopping list you can post here or one of your other trusted forums and ask for peoples opinions on brand names. Somebody suggested MSI video cards to me for example because the MSI equivalent had 2 fans and the original one i was looking at only had 1. People also directed my to the Sandisk and Team Vulcan brands over what i had before.

 

But the 'hard' part will of course be the actual assembly...but in truth it isnt all that hard. My experience before building my own PC consisted of hard drive installs, OS installs (Win 95, XP), sound, video, lan card, and RAM installs. Never messed with MOBOs or BIOS or actual CPU installs. My main fear with those parts is that i would mess up and let off a static discharge, or i would 'break' something on the MOBO or CPU. But i kept myself grounded and i was very careful. At the end of this post are 3 links to youtube, and they have neweggs how-to videos. Check it out, they are really good and thorough. It got my over my fears of assembling my own stuff and it gave my some good tips too (like how to ops check your parts without actually putting it all together first). You can also just search youtube for "NEWEGG HOW TO" and you will see parts 1-3 of the tutorials.

 

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

I too built a computer for the first time 6 months ago, without having any prior experience.

 

The poster above me posted 3 videos, those were extremely helpful for me when I too was building my computer.

 

As well, the instruction manual for your CPU will also be an invaluable source of information.

 

I think the toughest part for me, when building my computer was the size of things. First I did make sure everything would fit. When it came to building it I have a motherboard that is either considered an ATX board or E-ATX board (depending on who you read it up on), so I ended up using a mid range case. It was a little tight, but it still fit.

 

Other tips offhand that I can think of, don't gimp yourself on a case, and certainly don't buy one because it looks pretty.

 

I think the only issue that I've encountered, was that when I installed my solid state hard drive, the particular angle to one of the plugins made it so that the metal connectors and plastic sort of broke. I freaked out, however for whatever reason, it still works (assuming I don't shake it, though that would never happen).

 

Sometimes building can be a trial and error thing, but as long as you don't get static electricity on it, or short it out, you'll do fine. I'm quite pleased with my end result.