Here's what I got so far. The purpose is to be an entry-level gaming build with ~60FPS / 1080p at high-ish settings with parts bought in the USA.

Budget: I'd like to keep the PC + Monitor & Mouse at $950 or less. As for the keyboard, it's exempt from that figure because reasons (tl;dc – I'm going to import a foreign board that's pricier).

PC itself : PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Peripherals : PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

Build notes

• I have already purchased the CPU, RAM and graphics card. The combo and prices looked like a really safe bet, so I decided to jump on it
• Some other prices were set manually because I can get free shipping at Amazon
• Motherboard: Though slightly overkill compared to the standard ASRock H270, $20 more gets me ALC 1220, faster Wifi and a USB type-C port. And if Intel gets eaten alive by Ryzen (unlikely in the long run imo), I'll still be fine since their prices will probably fall and their current high-end processors won't bottle-neck my mid-range machine that much any time soon
• Power supply: 650W is a lot for this build, but I thought it would be a good idea to leave myself a solid upgrade path for a few years to come. So for good quality it was either this one or a $7 cheaper SeaSonic G 550W that seems to cut it a little too close on power for comfort
• SSD: This was more down to personal preference. I don't like worrying about accidentally screwing up my drive by bumping my desk too much, and I don't mind the thought of doing a little bit of game management. Besides that, it's about $15 more than the typical 256gb SSD + 1TB HDD setup, and I figure that 512 + 1TB might become the norm in around two or three years as supply rebounds and games continue to increase in size. The worst case scenario is that I might need to buy a large HDD in November or December when the things will be cheaper from sales anyway
• Graphics card: A lot of reviews indicate that RX 480's have worse fan settings out of the box than other cards but that you can change the fan curves to keep them around 62-73C at full load. The PowerColor Red Dragon reportedly runs just a bit hotter by default than its peers, but I think I'll be able to cool it down to decent levels in the same way
• Other cables: These were added because I only have 7.5cm clearance between the case and wall from limited desk space, so it's to help avoid bending the cables too much as they go back there

Questions

1. Is the EVGA GQ 650W power supply good enough quality to last a while for my build? I'm inclined to believe that it is from its JonnyGuru review, but I don't know enough about those metrics to know if I should get it or spend $20 more on a G2 instead

2. Thermaltake Core V1 owners: It's very humid where I live and my room can reach around 85F on the hottest summer days for a few hours. Do you think the 200mm front intake fan will be enough to cool the system, or should I go ahead and also get that Noctua 80mm rear exhaust fan and Y splitter cable just in case?

3. Do motherboards come with header cables to hook up to the front I/O slots in computer cases, or do I need to buy those separately? (Probably the former; I know.)

4. I'm thinking about getting a Cherry MX keyboard since they're so highly recommended, but I don't know much about the different switch types. Would you say that the browns would be the best choice for a use case with around 75-80% of the time spent typing / browsing and 20-25% spent gaming? I'm going to see if I can try a few boards out in a computer store later this week, but I wanted to get a general idea about what to look for

5. Do a lot of games use scroll lock / insert / page up and etc., or would a much smaller keyboard be able to get the job done? And what about the F1-F12 keys at the top? Judging by all of the boards I'm seeing, it looks like those side keys are more important than the function ones

6. Asus VG245H 24” owners: what type of power cable does it use? I need to run it about 2.3 meters (7.6 feet) to a power strip and need to know what type of extension cord to get for it

7. Even though I wrote those build notes above explaining my design rationale, please be sure to tell me if I'm missing something important or if you think I'm just being foolish about anything in particular. Getting this first build “right”, so to speak, is more important to me than any kind of ego or hurt feelings

Last but not least

Thank you so much in advance and for being such a fun, lively sub. I'm definitely going to hang around here more often now that I'm finally able to upgrade from my old console and laptop.