Planning to step away from console gaming and into PC gaming. I am comfortable spending $600-700. Im fairly tech inclined but CPU/GPU model #s and names are ridiculous. Help me out.

Welcome to PC gaming where 30 fps are not enough and you strive for 60. Lol.

Now, joked aside, you have to clarify on whether you'll use the system for anything else than gaming. If you want it solely/mainly for gaming then an Intel CPU would be the best. If you'd like to play around with multi-core applications such as video editing software or 3d rendering software, then, it'd be better to consider an AMD CPU. However, Intel ones seem to offer a more stable gaming performance so I'll focus on them. You defined your budget at 600 to 700 bucks. You can't buy a high end GPU with that budget. I'd suggest a GTX 970 but it costs at least 340 bucks. But, again, most games today seem to consume a lot of GPU power thus even the most powerful graphics card mighy be unable to handle everything at ultra settings. If you're strict with that budget, then, go for the GTX 960.

My suggestions analytically:

CPU: i5 4440

RAM: 8 GBs of RAM. But, you'll need dual RAM (2 X 4GBs) and not a single stick (1 x 8GBs). It's believed to be of a better stability for these CPUs. Corsair is one of the best brands.

MOTHERBOARD: Any LGA 1150 ASUS motherboard. You'd have to choose the motheboard based on your preferences (amount of USB 2.0/3.0 slots, whether they support dual+ GPUs [SLI/Crossfire compatibility], amount of SATA slots for your hard disks and optical drives etc.). Make sure it has four RAM slots. I'm also suggesting ASUS since it's currently considered the best brand.

GPU: A GTX 960 with a VRAM of 4GBs. Choose based on the kind of ports you want (DVI, HDMI, DP etc.), alhough, most of them have ports of the same kind and amount. Top brands are considered ASUS, Gigabyte, MSI and EVGA.

PSU: A 500 watt PSU would be more than enough for a system of this kind. Top brands are considered Seasonic, Antec and XFX. Avoid any noname or very cheap PSU.

As for the rest of the components (HDDs, case, drives), I don't have much to suggest as I'm not that knowledgeable. But, again, I'm not extremely knowledgeable anyway so do not take my suggestions for granted. Wait for more replies and make up your mind. If you need any help, feel free to ask.

I hope I've helped :)

/r/buildapc Thread