Computer build questions.

[lopezchess007]

1. Budget & Location

$800 - $900 U.S. California if it matters.

2. Aim

General use and gaming. Read emails, web browsing, watching youtube videos and Linus' live show. I'd also like to use it to game. I'd be playing League of Legends and Orange Box. Once I get a good system I'd like to play more current games like Minecraft, Skyrim, Total War games, Diablo 3, Starcraft 2, etc.

3. Monitors

I plan on using 1 monitor at 1920x1080. I don't think I'll be moving to more than one monitor in the future. I don't really see a need for more than one monitor. Maybe someone with a multi-monitor setup can tell me why they like it?

4. Peripherals

I have a keyboard, mouse and monitor. I don't have an OS so I need to buy that. I have an external usb optical drive but I'm not sure if I'll be able to use that to install the OS.

5. Why are you upgrading?

I have an old laptop that I used to play LoL on but a few updates made it really hard to play well/ have fun. I bought the Orange Box on sale a few years back because I thought my computer could handle it and it didn't turn out great.

My friend said I should buy an i5 and use the built in graphics until I could save enough to buy a nice video card since my birthday is in 2 months. He said the HD 4000 graphics would be fine for now until I get into the heavier games. It sounded like a good idea so this is what I currently have picked out. [url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JAgm]http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JAgm[/url=http://pcpartpicker.com/p/JAgm] I'd like to know if this is a good plan. Is the motherboard/ram combo good? Is the psu enough for a video card in the future?Should I splurge a bit and get an i7? Thanks for the help.

[Guest]

That build is pretty damn good but I can see a couple of points for change. With your current laptop, are you planning to still use it? If not, you can use the hard drive from that for the moment and then perhaps push your budget a little further and get a GPU now. If not, you could just get a 1TB HDD now and get an SSD later - they're not essential.

With regards to your questions regarding the ram/board/psu/cpu - that's an ideal gaming setup.

[lopezchess007]

That build is pretty damn good but I can see a couple of points for change. With your current laptop, are you planning to still use it? If not, you can use the hard drive from that for the moment and then perhaps push your budget a little further and get a GPU now. If not, you could just get a 1TB HDD now and get an SSD later - they're not essential.

With regards to your questions regarding the ram/board/psu/cpu - that's an ideal gaming setup.

I have an external 250gb hard drive so I was going to use that to store anything that didn't fit onto the ssd. I don't really store much on my computer other than a few games. I think I'll be fine for a while.

[lopezchess007]

Does anyone know if I'll be able to install windows with an external usb optical drive? I just wanna make sure I don't get held up once all the parts arrive.

[iTonyy]

Does anyone know if I'll be able to install windows with an external usb optical drive? I just wanna make sure I don't get held up once all the parts arrive.

Yes you can install windows from a usb boot drive as long as you correctly format it

see here ----> http://linustechtips.com/main/forum/news-reviews-article-guides/guides-and-tutorials/59508-make-a-boot-able-windows-usb-installer-the-correct-way

[lopezchess007]

Does anyone know if I'll be able to install windows with an external usb optical drive? I just wanna make sure I don't get held up once all the parts arrive.

I meant a usb cd drive but I'll give the article a look and see if I can partition my external hdd. I didn't know you could do that. Thanks for the info.