PC Gaming Help for a Total Newbie

[direkiller]

Removed because it is too long

just keep in mind on your motherbord because it has a H77 north brige the best ram you can get is 1600 So keep in mind if you ever get more, you can put higher ram in there but it will only clock to 1600 so it becomes pointless. It will not effect anything now,as you picked 1600, but just keep that in mind down the road
outer then that I would probably put a little more into the GPU but that is a personal choice

also you will need a thermal paste for your aftermarket cooler
I never trust a factory application of the stuff(this is for stock coolers as well) and it is worth the $7-10 investment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3gx6c62D7I coffee fitters work just as well if you don't have a lint free cloth

EDIT: also standard hard drive

 

[Jolly Co-operator]

Removed because it is too long

just keep in mind on your motherbord because it has a H77 north brige the best ram you can get is 1600 So keep in mind if you ever get more, you can put higher ram in there but it will only clock to 1600 so it becomes pointless. It will not effect anything now,as you picked 1600, but just keep that in mind down the road
outer then that I would probably put a little more into the GPU but that is a personal choice

also you will need a thermal paste for your aftermarket cooler as I never trust a factory application of the stuff(this is for stock coolers as well) and it is worth the $7-10 investment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3gx6c62D7I coffee fitters work just as well if you don't have a lint free cloth

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.

 

[direkiller]

Removed because it is too long

just keep in mind on your motherbord because it has a H77 north brige the best ram you can get is 1600 So keep in mind if you ever get more, you can put higher ram in there but it will only clock to 1600 so it becomes pointless. It will not effect anything now,as you picked 1600, but just keep that in mind down the road
outer then that I would probably put a little more into the GPU but that is a personal choice

also you will need a thermal paste for your aftermarket cooler as I never trust a factory application of the stuff(this is for stock coolers as well) and it is worth the $7-10 investment

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I3gx6c62D7I coffee fitters work just as well if you don't have a lint free cloth

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.

660 GTX or 650ti
660 GTX are about $60-80 but they will last you a bit longer

if that breaks your budget
650ti is like $10-20 more then the 650 and only a little worse then the 660

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133473
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130839

I don't know if the 650 in your list had a promo offer but this is not a bad deal, and may be cheaper with the coupon offer for a card with about twice the CUDA cores. (if you play Hawken, World of Tanks, or PlanetSide 2)

and yea you should be fine with 8gb or 16gb of 1600 DDR3. It's not a problem and probably will never be one. It was just a warning for down the road, if something happens or you want more ram as there is no sense putting money into RAM that will not do any good.

 

[Joccaren]

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.

 

[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.