Get a SSD if you can for your OS and utility applications and put your games and media on that HDD. You can get a 250GB one from Kingston for ~$65.
Go with at least a 650W PSU, if only for capacitor aging and stability. I wouldn't trust an expensive rig with a cheap 500W, even if it technically is enough.
You can get Windows7 at SoftwarePlaza for $45, legit code. Got mine there. Save money there.
You can get a 24" LED monitor for just $150 if you look for it. Again, cheaper option at no loss.
If you're going to go Intel for gaming, get a K chip if you can for the performance boost. Otherwise, just get an AMD FX-6300 or 8350, throw a good cooler on it, and overclock it to oblivion. Those chips can take it.
Why the Wi-Fi card?
That was all assuming you live in the US and have access to TigerDirect and NewEgg. If you're not, please specify.
No need to buy windows, just use linux wink**wink
and then unless you really need the dvd drive I'd imagine it's going to gather dust.
Otherwise You may want to look out for sales on 290s/390s
And you should just shoot for a 22" 1080p IPS, they're usually a fair bit cheaper than a 24", or perhaps look at 1440p korean monitors, not sure on their availability in canada
Wattage on the PSU isn't a big issue, but get an 80+ Gold or better PSU.
An SSD for sure.
Might as well go for a 27" 1440p monitor. The 970 can do it, single monitor.
Go read this:
https://forum.teksyndicate.com/t/read-before-you-post-general-guidelines-build-a-pc/26992
I do live in Canada so most parts here are unfortunately more expensive.
The SSD was something I looked into but decided to wait and upgrade later.
I agree with the power supply improvement, finding a cheaper monitor and will consider a different the different processors.
The Wi-Fi card is needed because of the location of my router.
Also the video card is supposed to be a EVGA gtx 960 SSC instead of the 970 which I know is not the best card or is future proof but I am expecting to upgrade later, sorry about that.
Thanks for the help
Also to clear things up:
I do live in Canada.
I am aiming for 50-60 fps at 1080p and am OK with turning settings down a bit>
My budget is around $1200-$1400 including monitor, operating system etc...
The PC will be used frequently for gaming and every day web searches, work etc...
Thanks for the help
With that gaming goal you could easily get away with an R9 380, it's $279 and has 4gbs of VRAM.
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/gigabyte-video-card-gvr938g1gaming4gd
Apparently most of the other R9 cards aren't available in canada.
Also you can get this 1080p monitor for 3 dollars
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/philips-monitor-272g5dyeb
I don't think that's right though...
But ya for $120 you can just drop your size and save a lot of money
http://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/lg-monitor-22mp55hqp
I would go with a Z97 instead of H97 as I have heard some bad things about reliability of them in the past with the H81 boards. Everything else (without repeating other posters here) looks great.
Yes R9 cards are not very widely available in Canada.
Does the R9 380 make much of a difference over the EVGA gtx 960 SSC?
The 380 seems to be a bit better according to that video overall, plus double the VRAM may be important in the future, but probably not that important, I think there's only been a few cases where games are using a ton of VRAM. I believe watch dogs was one of them no?
I'd advise getting the SSD now, not later, because of just how big a difference it makes to your computer in general. I would litterally prioritize a SSD over top tier performance. My peers at uni think I'm crazy when I complain about the Macs we use. Whether it be the hard drives or their pathetically slow processors... Ugh, don't get me started.
And imo the 960 is not worth it. The 970 is the price to performance king in the NVIDIA side right now. And your budget is enough to pull it off, even in Canada. Especially if you go with an overclocked FX CPU option.
The 380 does seems to be better than the 960.
The card does meet my requirements now but I will be struggling in 1-2 years. Is it worth it to buy this card and upgrade than or invest is something like a gtx 970?
My only concern with an SSD is the cheaper cards like the Kingston 128gb are said to not last that long, is this true in your experience?
970 is more of a 1440p card like the 290, it's going to be better sure but it's a bit overkill. You could put that money else where like possibly towards a 240gb SSD, though I'm not a major fan of them.
Also the best case ever is the HAF XB EVO from coolermaster, it comes with hot swap hard drive bays which are rather useful and is pretty easy to work in. It's a bit more but it has great utility
https://ca.pcpartpicker.com/part/cooler-master-case-rc902xbkkn2
But do you really want an ATX system?
Kingston has been up to some shady stuff lately along with adata I believe, the SSDs will last fine it's still an SSD
How long do you think the R9 380 would last (gaming 50-60 frames, 1080p, medium-ultra settings) until I needed to upgrade?
Given the 4gbs of VRAM probably a good while, even more if you overclock it at some point.
Hell I just run everything off a 5800K APU and I'm still fine.
This might be dumb question but what does more VRAM do?