Hey guys,
I'm back to the world of PMC.

Anyway, I've decided to start off my rebirth on PMC with an introduction to my new(ish) gaming rig!
From the Christmas of 2013 up until now, my PC has basically been a work in progress. So to honor its completion, I'll list the spec list in a timeline fashion.

(Pictures will be added at some time in the future, because I don't currently have any on me)

Back at the Christmas of 2013, I received a $500 prebuilt PC... It sounded good, because it listed a GPU unlike many other prebuilts at the time, but instead it still actually just had a crummy iGPU.
Let it be known that I was not really willing to build a PC back then. I was too scared, regardless of how easy some people said it would be. 
Anyway, when I first got my computer, it was a basic prebuilt mATX desktop PC. Nothing really fancy in it. It had an AMD A10-5700 APU (with whatever iGPU is integrated in it), on what I think was an ASUS F2A85-M motherboard. (Actually a decent motherboard for a prebuilt PC, I guess. It sells at $90 new, so I guess I can get a decent amount if I resell the parts.)
It came with a 1tb HDD, 8gb of memory, and if I remember correctly, a 300W Logisys power supply. 
Thinking about it, I can't believe how it used to get 30fps in DayZ at medium settings...
Anyway, it came with a basic ASUS keyboard and mouse, and I used my old 720p TV as my monitor.

Around my birthday (March 1st), I managed to get enough money to actually afford some real peripherals... Unfortunately, though, I did not buy the right things. 
I managed to salvage about $250 from my birthday, with which I spend $200 on a monitor (ASUS VN247HP) and $50 to headphones (Skullcandy Hesh 2). Both of these were awful choices, looking back. Although I don't see anything wrong with the monitor, it was definitely not worth $200 considering it's only 1080p, it's non-IPS, and it only has a 60hz refresh rate. And anyone that's had Skullcandy headphones will probably see why I made the mistake with those...

Anyway, around May of 2014, I decided that it was time to write my Christmas list (I'm serious). I decided that I wanted to upgrade my PC, so I came to the wonderful community of PMC, where I struggled for months to find out what to get. I originally thought a 270X would fit me. But after a little bit of personal research, I decided that my CPU wouldn't be good enough to get the same performance that other people were getting with it. I also had a higher budget than that of a 270x (I had about $300) so I wanted to get the most future-proof thing that I could possibly get. So my good friend Killertoad (who seemed like a really scary guy to me back then) suggested a 280x, which would just fit the budget, and is a good video card. So for the next month or two, I anxiously waited for the day to get my new GPU. But then, I hit a brick wall--my Power supply. I had no idea what wattage it was, and had no clue whether or not it would be enough to sustain a 280x. 
Anyway, I came right back to the PMC forums, where I learned of a good power supply that was relatively cheap-- the Corsair CX500. So with that price added onto it, I had to settle with getting a normal 280.
But then, a miracle happened. I was given an extra $100 by a family member, and then, with a $400 budget, I decided that the 280x was a little low-balling for that budget... (Keep in mind that I only had an A10-5700 CPU. All of these GPUs would've been bottlenecked to the same performance with that processor, so it wouldn't have made a difference at the time).
So with the 280x "low-balling" with my budget, I decided that a 290 would be the way to go... But then I hit another brick wall--Product reviews. I saw many of the reviews saying how hot the 290 ran, and there were also many "didn't even work" reviews, which obviously worried me. 
After some reassurance by the murdering frog (killertoad again), I felt safe getting a GPU that had a few bad reviews and temperature warnings.

Anyway, around September, as I was still anxiously waiting to order my new GPU, I learned of Nvidia's upcoming 900 series GPUs. When the 970 was released in (whenever it was actually released) I saw it stood at basically the same price as the 290, but had a significantly better performance. Therefore, I knew I found my soul-mate. From the day it released to Christmas morning 2014, I was extremely hyped over the Gigabyte G1 Gaming GTX 970, which my parents got me for Christmas (as well as the CX500 I mentioned earlier, but who cares about that? I just got a beast of a GPU and you're concerned about my PSU? Shame on you!). 

So finally, after 7 months of waiting, I finally got a new computer part! I opened my case, and then I realized something heartbreaking at the time... My case was too small. Fortunately, though, I did already ask my grandmother if she'd get me a new computer case for my birthday, and gave her a list of things that would work for me. So on Christmas Morning, I made everyone in my family wake up at like 8AM to open presents, and then dragged them out my door at 9AM to go to my grandparents house... 
As I got to my granparents house, I was trying to resist the urge of asking to open presents, because that would sound like I only wanted to go for the present (which was actually the case at the time... see what I did there? *wink* ). 
Anyway, after staying there for two hours, and not even seeing a hint of presents, my grandmother remembered that she didn't give us our presents yet. So she went into her room, and came out with two small bags-- one for me, and one for my brother. Without trying to sound greedy, I asked if there was anything else... She said no. At that moment, my heart sunk into my chest because I thought that she forgot to order one of the cases.
Then, I remembered that my family does this kind of thing every year, and my parents walked into the back room and brought out a really large, heavy, box, which was obviously the case. I figured that they had done the "We didn't get you what you wanted--oh wait, yes we did" trick on me... (Like they do literally every year... Because stuff like that never gets old, right?).
Anyway, to stay on topic, I received a black NZXT S340 case from my grandparents. 

I finally came home that day, and sat down to my kitchen table, dragged out the 30lb box that was the new case, carried my old PC out into my kitchen, and sat down at my table. I proceeded to take apart my old computer completely (to install it in the new case) without any guide, and using a tip from Linustechtips, took about 600,000 picture of where everything connected and what screwed into what.
So basically, I just dove right into building a new PC, without any help. My first PC build I did with no instructions or guiding video. I just basically used pictures of it when it was all together, and used those to help me rebuild it. 
I knew it was going to be a lengthy process though, considering it took over 30 minutes to figure out how to install my new Power Supply in the case. (Which I installed first, which was my first of many noob mistakes, considering I didn't have a modular PSU). So right after installing the power supply, I went to the motherboard, which came out of my old case pretty easily. Unfortunately, I didn't have a guide to tell me to install the motherboard standoffs in my new case, so I basically just had a half-floating motherboard in my case, (which was my second mistake). I easily managed to figure out what case cables plugged into what headers on my motherboard, which was good. However, if you know anything about the F2A85-M motherboard, you'll know that it does not have USB 3.0 headers.... The NZXT S340 case only has USB 3.0 ports... No 2.0 ports. So for a while, I had to deal with two unusuable USB ports on my case... Not a big deal I guess. (Third Mistake right there). Next, I decided it was time to unveil the beast, and plug my video card into my PC. I took it out of the box, and slammed it into the PCI-E slot like a champion. But oh lord that was a long video card. It still barely even fit into the decently-large S340. And screwing in the video card was also a challenge. Since there were no standoffs, the card was at a slight angle, and therefore did not screw in greatly. It still fit though. I plugged in the PCIE power cables, plugged in the hard drive, and then plugged all the cables into the designated ports. Pretty easy. 

Anyway, the next thing that happened is something that I will never forget-- I pressed the power button, and nothing happened. I immediately started panicking, because I thought I broke something. Nope. I just forgot to plug it in. So I plugged it in, pressed the power button like a champion, and then once again nothing happened. I really started panicking now, because I got extremely worried that I really had broke something, and I started examining every little part to see if something was wrong. Nope once again. I forgot to flip the PSU switch. Turned the PSU on, and everything started. The GPU's LED even turned on, and it immediately started blowing cool air all over. That was one of the biggest reliefs in my life. So I carried the now-extremely-heavy PC down to my room, where I installed the drivers and stuff. I had finally had a gaming PC that actually played games at extraordinary framerates compared to everything I had in the past. 
However, once I installed Skype, I got onto the PC group chat, and announced that I had my GPU.

I still remember exactly how the first conversation went:
Me: Guys, I finally installed my 970!
Shady (Or at least I think it was him): Nice, specs?
Me: *gives spec list*
Random: What 
Random: (I'm assuming he's facepalming at my spec list) Who the ____ pairs an Athlon with a 970?

At that point up until my birthday, I had known about my bottleneck, and desired to have it fixed. So for the next 3 months leading up to my birthday, I tried to find a fix to the bottleneck. First I decided that an i5-4400 would be good enough. But that price had exceeded $250 with the motherboard included. So I scrapped that idea.
I then decided that AMD might be a good choice--I figured that an FX 8320 overclocked would fix my bottleneck, to which I was told that I'd be spending so much extra on a good motherboard to get an overclock that would match any i5's performance. So that idea was scrapped too. I finally decided on getting an i5-4460 and an ASRock H97 Pro4 motherboard. (Don't really remember how I managed to get the money for these). Anyway, once my motherboard and processor arrived, I was faced with another problem-- the fear of replacing a motherboard. With all the sources of motherboard replacement highly suggesting not to replace motherboards unless it is completely necessary, I really feared that my PC was never going to live again. 

I remember the process as if it were yesterday... (It was actually only about a month and a week ago). I sat down at my kitchen table at 3PM. By 3:30 I finally had the 24pin connector out of my old motherboard... By 4, I had my GPU set down in a stable, static-free, bump-free, accident-free area. I unplugged everything else from the motheboard, unscrewed it, and proceeded to put it back in my old case. At this point, I put my 4460 into the motherboard, and started to put it in my case. The first thing I noticed was the width of it. It was significantly less wide than the old motherboard. So my PC actually did look much cleaner from this. Installing everything went well. (I actually remembered the standoffs this time). 
So after everything was plugged in, I booted the PC up, and I was greeted by a BIOS page.
It was significantly more difficult to navigate than ASUS's. (To this day I still don't know if I have everything configured correctly). Anyway, I tried booting from what I think was my HDD, and my PC proceeded to crash. So what I had feared was coming true. I was going to have to do the ultimate sacrifice... I had to wipe my drive... It was the only way I was going to get a boot.
However, doing that wasn't so simple either.
I had to externally plug an internal optical drive into my case (S340 doesnt have drive bays lol), and boot from the Windows 8.1 disc. There were like 15 partitions on my drive when I examined it. It took about 30 minutes of random clicking to minimize it all into one file system. Anyway, as I went to click "format", I was greeted by an error. It wouldn't let me format the drive. Not really sure what the exact error was again, but a 5-minute google search fixed the problem. My drive was clear. All trace of my old PC was gone. No Steam, No Google Chrome, No Windows. Everything was gone.

It was about 5:30 at the time I went to reinstall Windows... This time I will never soon forget, as it was perhaps one of the most frustrating times of my life. However, for it to be understood correctly and from the same perspective as me, two facts have to be clearly acknowledged... My old PC had Windows 8 pre-installed. It used a Windows 8 product key. The install disc I was using was for Windows 8.1-- the one I used for my brother's PC. Apparently, even though they're basically the same thing, Windows 8 product keys can not be used for Windows 8.1. So as the PC group said, I went to Microsoft Support, and requested a new Windows 8.1 product key... I gave them my old one, and since it was just normal Windows 8, they offered no real help. So I was stuck on an OS-less PC.
Now the next thing I did is something that I'm not necessarily proud of, but did anyway. Since PMC does not condone it, I'm not going to mention the exact way I managed to re-download windows, but I managed to get it downloaded some way. However, according to Microsoft, "downloaded" doesn't mean you have it. I had an un-activated copy of Windows now, because the product key I used was blocked. So from this point, the "Activate by phone" option was blocked out. At this point, I thought I was going to have to wipe my PC again, and install Windows again but instead use "Activate by phone". But fortunately, a very nice woman from Microsoft Support completely helped me activate Windows again without having to do another full-wipe of my PC. I wish I could remember her name, because she was actually one of the few helpful Microsoft Support people who weren't trying to sell me Antivirus when I clearly said that I needed a new product key, and I would recommend her 10/10 times. 




Anyway, after entering a code into my search bar, and then dialing a phone number, Windows was activated within the next 10 minutes. 

Anyway, for those who don't care about the story behind the long process I went through to get the PC I have today, and are just here for the specs, here they are:


CPU: Intel Core i5-4460
Motherboard: ASRock H97 Pro4
GPU: Gigabyte GTX 970 (G1 Gaming)
8 GB DDR3-1600 Memory
1tb Seagate Barracuda HDD
NZXT S340 Case