I've decided that since my xbox blew up and my laptop sucks balls that I would gear up for PC gaming. Something I haven't done seriously since Star Wars Galaxies was around.

I've started buying components, so this is going to be my thread about building the thing from the ground up.

The case I've purchased is a Cooler Master HAF 922 so from the outside it'll look pretty much like that.

The motherboard that I've also purchased is a Gigabyte Z97X-Gaming 3 so my system will be built around that.

I'll be buying about $300 give or take worth of hardware each payday until it's done.

The other parts I'm shooting for:

Intel Core i7 4790K CPU

The board can support 32GB of RAM and I intend on maxing it out, but I'll likely buy 16GB to start and upgrade later, I'm a fan of Kingston, Corsair, and G.Skill, so I'll likely go for one of those brands.

I want a higher watt PSU, 700+ I think, my favourites are EVGA.

I'll be throwing in a SSD and aiming for the 500GB range, Samsung and Crucial seem to be the top choices for this, they also have 500GB range SSD's for around the $300 price range.

I haven't decided on the graphics card(s) yet, but those will be my final purchases for internal hardware unless I add a large HDD later.

I'll of course be adding an optical drive or two and the Windows Operating System.

Since I'm going all out with this and limiting my monthly budget on it it's going to take a bit of time to get it all together, maybe 1.5 months unless I up my budget, which I might do.

Other things I will be adding to this rig after I get it up and running will be a couple of large dual monitors and a smaller touch screen and various gaming peripherals like a keyboard, mouse, headtracker, and so on.

I'll post pictures soon.

Does anyone have experience with M.2 SSD's? I'm thinking I might use one of those for my boot drive.

I picked up the case and the motherboard. I essentially have a giant paperweight sitting on my desk now. I should be able to purchase a few more parts on the 2nd of September. I wish it could go faster but in the end I'll have a beast of a machine that should be able to max out all the games I play for the next few years.

So, this thing is sitting on my desk next to me looking kinda menacing, making me excited for my build.

It looks really cool IMO.

I've mounted the motherboard inside and connected everything I can connect in the case and hid the cables. I want to move it to the right side of my desk after I get it all together and running.

The case is 90% of making a cool computer. Looking good.

hehe, yeah, lots of cool looking cases out there. I like the black.

It also helps when you have a computer that can handle pretty much anything you throw at it.

I'm getting this SSD on payday. http://www.ncix.com/detail/crucial-mx100-512gb-sata-6gbps-64-97625-1046.htm

I'll need to get an adapter for it as the case I got only has bays for 5.25 and 3.5 inch drives, my case might have come with one of these adapters but I'm not sure.

I decided to get the PSU and a HDD instead of the SSD, I'll get an SSD later if I feel I need it, but from what I've been reading the SSD's only really help with load times.

The HDD I got is a WD Caviar Blue 1TB and the PSU is an EVGA SuperNOVA 1000W 80Plus Gold, whatever that means.

So all I need now is the CPU and Heatsink, RAM, and the operating system before I get a working system out of this. After that I'll throw in a couple of graphics cards and some monitors and I'll be golden.

Looking good. I haven't had a desktop PC for a few years now, working solely off my laptop (which is in desperate need of upgrade!!!)