Desktop Computers

Pretty much exactly what you just said. For the 120 GB suggested and linked above you'll want to install Windows onto along with a few games. You could install your main programs (7ZIP, Chrome, Skype, VLC, etc.) on the storage drive but programs like that take up a pretty small chunk of space.

I want to say on my HTPC at home which has a 120 GB drive I have Windows installed on it, a couple games, along with my personal programs (7ZIP, Skype, Pidgin, VLC, foobar, K-Lite & CCCP Codecs, Silverlight/Flash/Java, Ifranview, Foxit PDF Reader, Cute PDF, NotePad++, Everything, Classic Start (Classic Shell). I have plenty of space left over for now.

You'll for sure move your Documents/Pictures/Music/Movies/Videos/etc folder onto a storage drive.

Now if you were to get a 250 GB or 256 GB you'd have more room for games obviously. Similar to my HTPC my gaming rig has Windows/Main Programs on the SSD in addition to PhotoShop/Adobe Suite and AutoCAD which are larger programs. It also has quite a few more games on there right now: WoW, League of Legends, Dota2, Watchdogs, CS:GO, BF4, few more.

Seananigans_sl said:

Awesome, thanks for the suggestions. So you'd suggest this video card, instead of something else cheaper but two of them crossfired? And then add crossfire later down the line when necessary?

Also, I know little about hard drive tech. I'm guessing the SSD's don't come very big, so what exactly do people put on their SSD? Operating system, certain games, what?

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Always spend the most you can on a single-card solution, then crossfire down the road to augment performance and extend the life of your rig. Crossfire/SLI doesn't double performance just because there are 2 cards. You never get full performance out of the second card, and there are all kinds of little issues with crossfire/SLI to this day. By the end of its product life cycle you should be able to pick up a second R9 290 for roughly $275. The 4gb VRAM on the card is gonna be HUGE for futureproofing you for 4k resolution down the road. When you crossfire/SLI cards, it doesn't 'add' their VRAM together. 2x GTX 760s will still have 2gb usable VRAM, even though both cards have 2gb on them, and that wont be enough to pump 4k images. That is, unless you get the 4gb version of the GTX 760s... but that seems totally wasteful and silly to me. It would be totally overpowered for 1080p gaming, and totally underpowered for 4k gaming. Worst of both worlds.

SSDs can get just as big as HDDs these days, they are just way more expensive (like 10x more expensive per gig of storage). Put your operating system on it and your most used games/applications so they load up quickly, and dump the rest (media files, documents, etc) on a cheap secondary drive.

Seananigans if you are near a MicroCenter get your processor and motherboard there. They have very good pricing on those bundles. I didn't look back to see if someone had already suggested this but here is the link:Intel Processor Motherboard Bundles | Micro Center

Seananigans_sl said:

Excellent, thanks! Probably going to order that stuff today.

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Are you just gonna order it off the page I linked from PCpartspicker.com? If so, everything is cool. If not, pay close attention to the RAM you buy. The RAM I selected in that build is CAS 8. There is other G. SKILL Ripjaw RAM that is NOT of a quality that high.

CAS latency:CAS latency - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

tldr: lower CL = faster RAM

Ps. Ya the RAM you bought is good to go. Congrats on your new rig!

gogusrl_sl said:

the board has an M.2 slot so you should really grab an m.2 ssd.

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Recommendations on it? haven't been really following it but I am guessing I would install the OS there huh?

Yes I am planning to SLI down the road maybe in 2-3 months. Will go with a blower instead of that other cooler it is what was recommended.

I plan on having a few programs working at the same time in the background. Thought more = better.

Okay guys I'm just going to put this out there because I'm desperate for help.

I don't know anything about PCs or their configurations or the explanations I've found online about various hardware and what their specs mean.

I'm hoping somebody can assist me or tell me where I can find or purchase a high-end prebuilt computer for high-requirement gaming such as new first person shooters with high graphical requirements.

Like I said I don't understand alot about this stuff, so if anyone is kind enough and knowledgeable that can throw me a link or a suggested prebuilt that is capable of playing these high requirement games I would be super grateful. I'm looking to spend around 800-1000 ish on this with a little wiggle room to go higher if I absolutely have to.

Thanks for reading my post.

Swagdaddy_sl said:

Okay guys I'm just going to put this out there because I'm desperate for help.

I don't know anything about PCs or their configurations or the explanations I've found online about various hardware and what their specs mean.

I'm hoping somebody can assist me or tell me where I can find or purchase a high-end prebuilt computer for high-requirement gaming such as new first person shooters with high graphical requirements.

Like I said I don't understand alot about this stuff, so if anyone is kind enough and knowledgeable that can throw me a link or a suggested prebuilt that is capable of playing these high requirement games I would be super grateful. I'm looking to spend around 800-1000 ish on this with a little wiggle room to go higher if I absolutely have to.

Thanks for reading my post.

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If you don't build your own you will regret it later on. I built my first one 2 months ago and it was easy and took like 2 hours total. If you insist on a pre built one this looks to be a very good deal at the price.Digital Storm Configurator

Build your own and get everything you want for cheaper or buy a prebuilt and overpay but a little less hassle.

Build your own rig. Period. It isn't hard and by watching YouTube videos and reading articles it iseasy.

Here's what I came up with for about $1100~:Intel Core i5-4690K, Gigabyte Radeon R9 290, NZXT Source 210 Elite (Black) - System Build - PCPartPicker

If you have a Microcenter near by you can get about $65 off by bundling the CPU and Motherboard.

Here's a rough idea of what you can expect in different games at 1920x1080/1200 on Ultra/Very High Quality Settings
WATCH_DOGS: 50-65 FPS
Battlfield 4: 50-60 FPS
Metro Last Light: 55-70 FPS
Bioshock Infinite: 150+ FPS
Crysis 3: 50-60 FPS

Here's a rough idea of what you can expect in different games at 2560x1440/1600 on Ultra/Very High Quality Settings
WATCH_DOGS: 40-50 FPS
Battlefield 4: 35-45 FPS
Metro Last Light: 40-50 FPS
Bioshock Infinite: 90-110 FPS
Crysis 3: 40-50 FPS

These numbers might be inflated a little bit but I did my best to guess based off the setup I linked. You'll want to overclock the CPU - again read articles and watch videos. You could probably eek some improvements or $$$ savings out here and there but it should be a pretty good baseline to start from. I wouldn't go much lower if you want to play at Very High or Ultra settings. It will handly 1920x1080/1200 well and do OK on Ultra at 2560x1440/1600.

Sources:
Watch Dogs Benchmarked: How Does Your PC Stack Up?
AMD Radeon R9 290 Review - Battlefield 4 Performance | bit-tech.net
ASUS Radeon R9 290 DirectCU II OC Review - Battlefield 4 Performance | bit-tech.net
Results: Metro: Last Light - AMD Radeon R9 290 Review: Fast And $400, But Is It Consistent?
Intel Devils Canyon i5 4690K Review and Overclocking Benchmarks | Digital Storm Unlocked

Edit: double post.

The hardest thing for me was putting the heat sink on and thermal paste. Nobody can agree about the best method of applying thermal paste so I stressed over it. In the end there was a you tube video for my exact Heatsink and it ended up being easy. This isn't hyperbole, putting together a peice of furniture from Ikea is harder then putting together a computer.

^ agreed. Don't stress out over how to apply the thermal paste. You may have improved results one way or another but for a novice, using a dot in the middle with a size that is about between a rice and pea will be just fine and is easy as hell to do. But yeah mounting the CPU cooler is the hardest part for sure.