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It's been a little while since I was last around here, pretty caught up with School, Work + iOS Development. I really wanted to get back into Gaming after not having much to do with it for a little under 12 months. Currently still rocking a Retina MacBook Pro for the last year and although I did play a lot of indie games (it would run CS:S + CS:GO with no problems), I just felt as though I needed more processing power for AAA titles. That said, I still love my Mac for productivity (using it for school and coding) and the work-flow I find is superb. So I set myself a rough budget of $2500 AUD for a high-end gaming PC. After lurking on Reddit's /r/BuildAPC and PCPartPicker for a while, I finally decided on a build I was happy with. First of all... PICTURES! Because who doesn't love photos. PARTS LIST: CPU: Intel Core i5-4690K 3.5GHz Quad-Core Processor ($299.00) CPU Cooler: Corsair H60 54.0 CFM Liquid CPU Cooler ($95.00) Motherboard: Asus MAXIMUS VII RANGER ATX LGA1150 Motherboard ($219.00) Memory: Kingston Fury Black Series 16GB (2 x 8GB) DDR3-1866 Memory ($199.00) Storage: Samsung 840 EVO 120GB 2.5" Solid State Drive ($89.00) Storage: Western Digital BLACK SERIES 2TB 3.5" 7200RPM Internal Hard Drive ($169.00) Video Card: EVGA GeForce GTX 970 4GB FTW ACX 2.0 Video Card ($519.00) Case: Fractal Design Define R5 ATX Mid Tower Case ($150.00) Power Supply: Corsair RM 650W 80+ Gold Certified Fully-Modular ATX Power Supply ($159.00) Operating System: Microsoft Windows 8.1 Pro (OEM) (64-bit) ($70.00) Wireless Network Adapter: TP-Link TL-WN881ND 802.11b/g/n PCI-Express x1 Wi-Fi Adapter ($19.00) Case Fan: Corsair Air Series SP120 Quiet Edition 37.9 CFM 120mm Fan ($22.00) Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm Fan ($22.00) Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm Fan ($22.00) Case Fan: Corsair Air Series AF140 Quiet Edition 67.8 CFM 140mm Fan ($22.00) Keyboard: Cooler Master CM Storm QuickFire XT Wired Slim Keyboard ($68.00) Mouse: ROCCAT Kone XTD Wired Laser Mouse ($125.00) Total: $2268.00 AUD PARTS REASONING: CPU: The i5 was a happy medium for me, decided to go with the unlocked "K" version of my CPU to allow for over-clocking when I decide to take that path - but at the moment, I see no need. CPU Cooler: I had seen Corsair's AIO Liquid Cooler line and was fairly instantly sold on the idea. I didn't want a massive Air Cooler taking up room that could be better used for air flow (plus, it had thermal paste pre-applied). Motherboard: It had everything I needed at a nice price. Simple stuff. Memory: How much memory a person needs is a commonly debated subject. Although I do a lot of my graphic design on my laptop, I may do some on my PC too at stages where it is more convenient. Storage: I regret going with such a small sized SSD, kind of underestimated how much I would need. I feel a bigger SSD will be my next upgrade when the time comes. Put the base OS + Software on the SSD and Games on the HDD. Video Card: I wanted this PC to handle pretty much anything, which is why I decided upon the GTX 970. Then went for EVGA's FTW edition of this GPU as it had the highest clock speed out of the box and I have no intention of overclocking the GPU. Case: What can I say, it's a sexy case. Always admired the R4, but when the R5 was released.. I knew it was time Power Supply: It's modular, has a good rating and I quite like Corsair's products. Keyboard: I'll be honest, I went into this one blindly without doing much research, which shows. Went into the local game store and picked up a keyboard without really knowing much about the Cherry MX range. I regret going with the MX Red's and after looking into it more would have been better off going with the MX Brown's for my needs, but hey - it was $110 off! Mouse: Not much to say apart from I love this thing. It's comfy and has pretty lights... what more could a man ask for? After the GPU and 1 RAM module was DOA, that was very quickly sorted out thanks to the guys at PC Case Gear (AUS) who also threw in a nice pair of earphones! Very much a fun experience and if a 17 year old can build a PC, anyone can! If you ever have the opportunity, give it a go - it's great fun.

Congrats guys!

My exact reaction.

Is that even possible?

I have always been keen to try DayZ, it looks like great fun and I've heard a fair few people comment on how good of a game it is.

I'd like to see this, but I would love it if it was implemented into CS:S JB as well.

Welcome!

Welcome!