Are there any other things I need to worry about like thermal paste? Do I need to worry about case fans or is what comes with the part list you've given me enough? Any other recommendations I might not know to think about as a novice?

Alright, went by and as I suspected but wanted to hope otherwise there is no way to run even a demo, let alone a full game on any of the monitors. Since I don't know anyone near me that plays much pc games I doubt I'll get a chance to see all of these features just yet. Still, got to see the effect of strobing and how much it reduces the motion blur, and its pretty significant. Still not a priority, and I've decided that gsync simply costs too much for what it is supposed to do. I've honestly never really noticed screen tearing while I'm playing, though doubtless it happens sometimes. So the final decision as far as monitor is 144hz and lower price, other features aren't really worth paying extra for me.

I could head over to the nearby bestbuy and see what kind of features the monitors there have and how it feels, probably I can afford to spend some time tomorrow on that. I think either way the monitor will be 144hz, and probably a TN for price and response reasons and just try to calibrate the colors to an acceptable level. The choice will be whether or not to include gsync; I'm doubting that any form of strobing will be a decider. What would be your choices of monitor with/without gsync in this build? If you'd rather wait until after I know for sure to decide on just one that's fine too, you've already given me a lot of really useful help.

Edit: Didn't end up having time yesterday, but today I should. I'd also like to buy the parts soon, #2707 is ready to order?

I've really got no idea about the different monitor features quite frankly, after doing some googling I've got a slightly better idea, but I still feel lost in terms of deciding what is worthwhile. For me, I've been making do with a msi laptop from 2011 until now, so I have no idea what kind of experience to expect from a better monitor with more advanced features. I'm coming more to the conclusion that gsync is more of a luxury that I won't really feel the absence of that acutely. How big of a difference does having a form of strobing make? From what I read most of these features seem to be small improvements I really won't notice very much. I think the main factors for me will be the 144hz, a low response time, and price.

When I looked up freesync and gsync to get a little more information on them there were a couple small limitations of freesync mentioned, really more just things to keep in mind for your purchase. The fps range for it to work was the thing I mainly noticed, and apparently entering and exiting that range isn't a great transition. There is some sort of feature that mitigates that though, so really it seems to come down to just paying attention to the features of the specific monitor. I've been going without vsync and just capping fps when the game allows it for a while now, and don't notice any tearing while playing. In any event, 144hz is the more important part to me. I was looking at the ASUS VG248QE as a potential option, the only real concern I'd have about it is the lack of an adaptive sync feature. It sounds like with a little management though its not too hard to minimize screen tearing, so that doesn't really bother me.

At this point I'm sold on adding the SSD; a 250GB SSD paired with a 1TB HDD should be great. Is there any other information you or is the build basically described well enough now?

Major improvements sounds like what I'm looking for then, and if the budget gets exceeded a bit I was budgeting fairly conservatively. I would still like to stay below $1000, but if there are significant benefits to be had from venturing a little above that, then its not too hard to make happen. As far as other features, were you talking specifically about the monitor or the build overall? For the monitor I was mostly interested in 144hz. How important is it to have gsync/freesync? I definitely can't handle vsync's input lag, so is it viable to just avoid getting so many frames that tearing is a concern? The added cost of gsync seems a little high, but freesync sounds like it has plenty of limitations to offset the affordability. I've heard that displayport is very good to have compared to hdmi, is that true for a build of this scale?

As far as the SSD, I have never used one before so maybe I'm underestimating how much better it will feel. I know it offers improvements essentially to anything you might want to read/write, so faster loads for games/levels, programs, file transfers, and all that. The consensus seems to be that it is worth the extra cost. I end up saving too many videos and such in order to make do with just an SSD, so how strongly would you recommend going SSD + HDD over just trying to tolerate HDD alone? I think in the end the best choice might be the one in #2703, with a 250GB SSD and a 1TB HDD. I get the feeling I'll probably have no idea how I made it this long without an SSD once I get one.

I don't think I'm going to overclock, the performance benefits seem marginal and I really wouldn't feel that confident that I'm not messing it up somehow. Maybe in a future build. Thanks for being patient with all my questions; every time I try to go look up the answer myself to things like the advantages of an SSD, freesync/gsync, displayport, etc., it just feels like so much information is out there that it's very hard to parse it to the point I can make a good decision for this build.

I need a new monitor regardless of what I do, as I'm using a laptop right now and don't have a regular monitor. The only things that I can really reuse are my mouse and headphones. It seems I can get a free key for windows 10 education because I'm in college. In that case building does seem to be the better option; the main selling point of the prebuilt for me was the relative cheapness which in good part came from the included windows 10. With a student key for that building myself seems better.

I also think I'm gonna go with a 144hz monitor. What would major improvements entail? I doubt I can get away with just an ssd without going to prohibitive expense, and I have doubts about the worth of getting a small ssd just for the os, or even os plus a few games. I'm in the habit of starting up and then doing small things like brushing teeth, so the wait till it's booted isn't tedious. I can see how it'd be convenient, but honestly the smaller space feels like it would be more inconvenient to me than the time saved. From what I hear drive lifetime might be an argument, but overall it feels like a 1tb hdd would be all that I really need. If at some point down the line I decide an hdd alone just isn't good enough I can add in an ssd.

Ah yes, I don't have any particular intentions of overclocking, though I won't say I absolutely want to rule it out. My understanding is that you get somewhat better performance but your components will have a shorter lifetime, which doesn't seem like a great trade to me. I'm planning to start building around the 17th or so this month.

It sounds to me like the reason this particular prebuilt is so cheap is because they're cutting corners on essentially every component aside from the graphics card and processor. Here are some of the particular parts amazon reviews mention getting.

CPU: Intel i5-7400
GPU: MSI Radeon EX 580 4GB
Motherboard: MSI B250M Bazooka
RAM: ADATA 8GB DDR4 2400
HDD: Western Digital 1TB
Power: APEVIA 500W
Case: CyberPower with APEVIA fans
OS: Windows 10

CPU: Intel core i5 7400
Motherboard: ASUS Prime B250M-A (MSI B250M bazooka is the one pictured as far as I can tell)
GPU: MSI RX 580 4GB ARMOR (pictured in ad as far as I can tell)
RAM: 2x4GB sticks of ADATA 2400
PSU: ATNG POWER CO., LTD MODEL: ATM-500FB (not specified in ad and I couldnt find any specs or reviews online)
HDD: Western Digital Blue 1TB 7200 RPM
Case fans: Apevia branded
Case: Aluminum (I believe) with acrylic front and side panels. Cooler Master: Master Box lite 5

I really don't know much about computer hardware, so I'm not equipped to assess whether or not the drawbacks/risks of this prebuilt are worth taking. If all of the parts perform their function it would seem to be adequate to my purposes, and with how long I've made my current computer last I don't think I would have issues waiting for upgrades to be significant improvements, I can see myself using whatever option I go with now for the next five years, and dealing with eventually having to turn down the settings to preserve smooth performance. The comparison build you posted looks fine, and even adding in the operating system and an inexpensive keyboard it doesn't come out to cost that much more. I'm not married to those particular gpu/cpu or any of the parts really, if there are alternatives that in your opinion would be better for my stated purposes I'm perfectly happy to go with them.

In the end, the build or prebuilt choice seems to come down to whether or not the reduced cost is worth the potential issues. When considering the included keyboard(even if quality will certainly be mediocre) and operating system, it seems hard to beat that price. What would you do in my position? I don't have the knowledge to make an informed choice on this, so if you tell me that the potential risks aren't worth it, I'll take your word for it.

So I've been debating about whether to build a pc or buy a prebuilt. I'm interested in playing pubg, neir:automata, and shadow of war, in addition to lower spec stuff like overwatch and tf2, at ideally maximum settings 1080p, though I don't mind turning settings down a bit. The important part to me is a steady >= 60 fps. I've heard so many good things about 144 hz monitors, but the price is a little off putting. As well, in order to achieve that 144 fps would require even better hardware or lowering settings, at which point I think to myself I might want to just make do with 60 hz. I can comfortably budget around $1000, though I would need to purchase a monitor, keyboard, and the os; I have a mouse and headphones that I'm happy with, so I don't need those.

Basic stuff aside, I was heavily in favor of building my own, but then I came across a pretty tempting prebuilt that I wanted to get some feedback on. https://www.amazon.com/CYBERPOWERPC-GXIVR8020A4-Desktop-i5-7400-7200RPM/dp/B0747W15QL/ref=cm_cr_arp_d_bdcrb_top?ie=UTF8

The main criticism I've seen in reviews both on amazon and elsewhere is a potentially problematic power supply. There are some mentions of heat issues, but there are very few mentions in a great many reviews, so I can chalk that up to faulty fans or something similar which wouldn't be too hard to take care of. The power supply is apparently not a brand name, or even a specific model across all packages; one review I read cited a statement from the companies support that they use various generic parts for several of the components depending on what they have available to use for that build. One of the reviews mentions the power supply that they got specifically: ATNG POWER CO., LTD MODEL: ATM-500FB, which has no reviews I can find. On the plus side this build comes with a keyboard and mouse, wifi adapter, os, and seems to have quite competitive pricing.

Would you recommend any particular build over this prebuilt setsul? (Btw, thanks for remaining involved in this thread for so long. I feel like I remember lurking years ago and still seeing you here)

Who gives a fuck about Jeannie? Give me more Jen.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcFIR6Bft9g&index=8&list=PLzjxg51LpxEHKl778z5kCsxr66NIuGkQx

Starcraft, tfc, and warcraft 3 really hooked me the most early on. Was all about the custom maps and conc maps.

Friend gifted it to me, it's pretty good. Reminds me a lot of alien swarm.

Well, sounds like we definitely get the initial heroes for that $40, but additional heroes seem quite liable to cost money in some way or another.

Really funny, good game. I don't want to say very much about it, but for those who haven't heard of it it's an RPG where you don't have to kill anything, including bosses. Doesn't mean you won't fight a lot, but encounters always have another option than killing.