A long long time ago somewhere in Kansas, my dad and I built my first computer, which ran Red Hat Linux. I loved it. I think it used my TV as a screen, or the family room TV anyway. (I thought it was mine.) Eventually, I got my own, and performed a few upgrades on it over the years, but eventually, around 2005, I just stopped caring about my PC. Previously, I'd been a huge PC gamer. After that, I used consoles, or didn't play games. I ran Ubuntu and used my computer only for the things it needed used for.
In 2008, I got a 13" Macbook from my family as a graduation present. (Yay.) It was used for school and etc. I used it all the way through this year, actually, when I got a used iMac (early 2008 model, same year) as a desktop replacement (no need for a laptop anymore.)
Needless to say, I've been out of the game for a long time. I can barely understand what I need to do to build a PC. I've lurked on here a long time, made a few posts, and watched almost all of the build videos and a few DIY videos. I want to build a gaming PC sometime next year, and am in the middle of planning it. Here are my issues:
1. Cost vs power. I NEED the cost of the whole thing to be around $1000, preferably under. And before anybody starts a PC Parts Picker list, keep in mind that I mean that EVERYTHING needs to be under that amount. Monitor, mouse, keyboard, speakers, Windows, EVERYTHING. I don't have anything lying around to use- so I have to buy everything, start all over. AFAIK, AMD seems cheaper, but IDK if I can futureproof myself using AMD. Advice on this front?
2. AMD vs Intel. Like I said- i5 looks great, but some of the cheaper AMD 6-8 core CPUs look fantastic. Something cheap with maybe 8G of RAM that I can upgrade to an SLI'd 16G later would be fantastic to start with.
3. My knowledge vs tinkering. I am starting from complete scratch. I have hardly any idea what I'm doing. I am reading a lot. But I can't know everything- I do not know how to SLI. I will be following DIY videos as I piece my PC together. How can I make this build powerful- yet simple enough that I won't break it all to pieces while my Apple family laughs me to death?
4. What I want vs reality. My Mac is a 2.8Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo, with 6GB of 800Mhz DDR2 SDRAM. Essentially, I'm tired of it and it's somewhat pathetic video card (ATI Radeon HD 2600 Pro, 256MB), and so when I make a build on PC Parts Picker, I go nuts and build it with i5 3570 (is that right? The 3.4 one.) and a GeForce 780, and a crazy Motherboard. I can't afford that, and I KNOW that I don't NEED it to play the games I play. (The most graphics intensive I can think of is Bioshock Infinite/Skyrim with mods (WHICH I CAN'T EVEN PLAY ON A MAC D: ), and what I'll usually use it for is basic web browsing, and basic gaming, GW2, TF2, A Hat in Time, etc. I'd like decent sound capability, but that's just for listening purposes. I have no idea if I need a dedicated sound card.)
Basically... I just need some help. If anybody can help me, I would really appreciate it. Thank you. ^_^