Deus Ignis

I didn't forget the case or anything, I left it out on purpose. For things like CD drives, I will wait until I have a functioning system to worry about stuff like that. I will look on Newegg and see if I can get all the parts from there. And I most certainly do not want to increase the price range. The $370 I'm looking at is pushing it as is. There's not a whole lot of sense in me starting off with a computer "in the top 10% of gaming computers" when I'm in the bottom 10% in terms of hours played per week, bottom 10% in terms of working knowledge of computers, bottom 10% in terms of income I can reasonably allocate to this, bottom 10% in terms of how much I intend to push my system with CPU-intensive and photo-realistic games, bottom 10% in terms of how settled down I am and likelihood I will be in such a position in the future that having such a system would be a reasonable investment, so on and so forth. I've had just barely passable laptops for years, because I've never had the money to build a desktop, and now that I have a befitting income, I'm kinda late to the train. With that being said, I only really expect to build a desktop that falls squarely between a good entry-level setup and my current potato. If computers were houses, I live in a decrepit cottage out in the country that used to have charm to it, but now has questionable integrity, missing shingles, stained carpets, and probably should be demolished in a few years, and isn't really meant to be permanent, it's just a step above renting an ugly and equally unsuitable house in the slums. I don't expect to go straight from that to a gated community in Chattanooga Hills, especially since I don't really belong in that type of neighborhood in the first place. That being said, I fully appreciate all of your help and suggestions. I wouldn't know where to start otherwise. I will keep researching and post an update before I make a final decision.

I looked at your suggestions and did a bunch of research today. This was the build I whipped up, which costs more than what I had hoped, but hell with it: AMD RX560 4GB Graphics Card Intel Core i5-3470 3.2 GHz Quad-Core CPU Asus P8Z77-V ATX LGA1155 Motherboard 8 GB (1x8) DDR3-1600 RAM Corsair-VS 400W 80+ Certified ATX PSU Anything I should be concerned about?

Thank you for the quick replies. My monitor will be my TV, which is 720p. Some games I intend to play: Deus Ex, TF2, The Half-life games, Black Mesa, Kerbal Space Program, Left 4 Dead, Rust, Garry's mod, Worms and Worms Armageddon, a bunch of other old games. I'd also rather not have my computer threatening to kill itself whenever I have more than two things running at once. I live in the United States.

I realize I'm out of my element by consulting the great Oracles of this forum, but hopefully the Wise Ones will have mercy on my ignorant soul. I have a few laptops, the oldest being over a decade old and the newest about five years old. They all suck -- at everything. So I decided to do something that I've wanted to do for years but didn't have the money for, and now somewhat kinda am in the position to possibly have the money for at a future date: build a desktop computer. So my question is: What is some general advice to point me in the right direction for a computer under $300 (for as little as I play video games, it's not worth investing more than that, assuming it was feasible for me to spend that much on it, which it isn't) that can run old and otherwise non-computer-intensive games? Or, what should I focus on, and what should I skimp on? Currently, I'm having trouble running games like TF2 and KSP above 20 FPS on low graphics, which I'd obviously like to improve upon. I'm willing to have a computer with a cardboard case that overheats every 30 minutes in order to have a graphics card that can actually handle decade old games. I don't expect to be able to play LA Noire at 60 FPS and highest graphics settings, but my current situation is a bit ridiculous. It's also worth noting that I'm not, by any measure, an experienced computermatician. If you start throwing a bunch of numbers at me I might start howling incoherently and dance around a campfire with a loincloth. Yes, I went to pcpartpicker, and that was about my reaction. I already have a couple hard drives, a monitor, and a monkey I've trained to wave a fan on request.