Didn't really want to stress and overclock my cpu as I hoped to have something fast running for a couple years. As far as I can tell overclocking would be more for pushing system capabilities, oftentimes solely for the sake of cranking out high numbers or for minimal performance upgrades. Am I wrong on this? Personally, I was fine doing without the unlocked i7, and settled with the latest (at the time of purchase) i7-6700. It has been awesome so far, the performance is prime and had had only negligible hiccups as the 3.4 -4.0 ghz speed has been more than enough to handle any workload I throw at it.

Ok in this instance, I know a $30-$50 cpu fan would be more than enough to keep the i7-6700 at relatively low temperatures (20-40° C) as Intel Cores run pretty cool anyways. And don't kid yourself, even the stock fan would suffice for an unlocked I-7 (I hear you scoffing). But do these fans have a cool steam-punk glowing LED water block and an awesome 240mm radiator? Nope! So yeah, this purchase was def overkill, but I preferred it over the common-purchase Corsair liquid coolers. It can get pretty hot in San Diego and this will make absolutely sure it would be cool for years to come. Is my logic flawed? Maybe :x

Also, the included 120mm fans were really nice, but super loud like the 2nd woman I dated. At first I thought it was the cpu itself, but yea, loud fans yikes. So I replaced them with corsair's white quiet ones, like my 10th grade English teacher Ms. Ferro. Gah, I miss that as.. class.

Accidently ordered the non-deluxe Asus Z170-A which would have been only $15 extra for a couple extra features, but I was fine with this as I did not want to wait another 2 weeks for return and shipping. The bios was easy to use as a newcomer. I had a couple issues figuring out how to install the OS properly (The fix was downloading all the latest drivers from Asus, transferring them onto a USB and loading them through the super noob-friendly bios.)

This board was decently priced and had a bunch of cool features that I could see myself using in the future. Thunderbolt, ddr4, 3.0, 3.1 and 3.1 Type C inputs, optical, 6 sata ports etc. Although this board is geared more towards OC, which I won't be doing, I'm definitely 4-star happy with this board and digging the cool white trimmings.

I was looking for white DDR sticks, and stumbled upong these babies with LEDs which was a bonus! The premium was only an extra $5-$10 over other models, so that was a plus. I wanted to go for 16 gb as it seemed to be the current sweet spot in terms of performance, price and future proofing.

This was probably the first real purchase, as my friend suggested I get an ssd to put my OS on (Hey, I had no clue back then) and yeah, the PNY brand seemed fine with positive reviews and at a lower price point than a couple other brands. I spray painted the red line white, because you know, aesthetics. I have my OS on here and a few select games. May pick another one up later if needed!

WD Blue 7200rpm, 1tb, reliable and pretty fast write speeds for only $50. Yes please. It's hidden in front of the power supply, how convenient! I'll be grabbing another 1 or 2tb from WD, as it does fill pretty fast with secrets.

While my friends had given me their spare case, fans, psu etc. to help me start my build, this was the only thing that I ended up using for Diamond (rest was from scratch) and it's been really awesome so far! My only concern was that it got pretty hot (72-78° C) under load depnding on the game. This worried me at first as I compared this temp reading to the other temps in my system (cpu, mobo, storage) but I searched it up and most info I found explained that this is totally standard and something I shouldn't get too concenered about. Newbie days. I run Dark Souls 3 on high at around 40-50 fps. Overwatch on high @ 60-70fps, ultra @ 40-50fps. Dota 2... maxed settings at 100-120 fps. Fun fun. Will be replacing this when I can get my hands on a GTX 1070 (or possibly the latest Radeons, 480x or 490x) Yea!

What a beauty to behold right? Sub $100 ATX Mid Tower with an open acrylic glass panel to see all the shiny internals! These seem to be the trend nowadays, as I often see more and more cases going for that open-faced look. This was a total breeze to build in as my first case, so I was fortunate for that. Had all the neccisary screws and then some, and even an optional 5.25 bay which I really like! Yes, you can be on either side of the 5.25 fence, some who dislike having it on their case, and some who would like multiple. Personally, 1 is perfect for me. I can pop in a Blu-ray drive, maybe a fan controller/temperature indicator, a ssd/sdhd/usb reader, pop tart toaster (This is a real thing), etc. For now though, it remains unused.

Also, while this case is a gorgeous with subtle aesthetics, the one thing that was an issue was the acrylic glass itself, which I've learned is easy to scratch! So I expect to get a few extra materials to buff the glass and make it look cover girl material again. There has been quite a bit of streaking after I lolnoob used windex/microfiber on it, as you can see in the photos ;p So a buff is incoming, as the glass got nerfed pretty hard in the beta :/

WhileI used a 750w psu initially to post, it was not 80+ rated, so not-so-efficient and would have sucked up a lot of electricity. I went for a 850w Platinum because $5 extra than the 850w Gold. I also went for a 850w because $10 extra from the 750w. And after checking out my system energy consumption requirements when I plugged in all my components (gtx 1070 included) onto an online wattage estimator, 650w would have been more than enough to power it safely with room to spare. but then I looked at higher wattages because $10-$20 extra.

Also wanted to go for a fully modular psu to keep things less cluttered and for compatibility with custom cables kits. Ended up using custom cable extensions, rather than custom cable replacements though ($40 vs $100+ for swappable cables)

Bought this from the gray market, wink for a decent price. Wanted a clean install rather than an upgrade from 7-8, so went for Windows 10 Pro. Also because I'm not learned and bold enough to use Linux. Ahem Let's move on.

Two of these babies are situated as a push on the front of my case. Need a third one actually, to blow some cool air through the bottom area where my HDD and PSU are working out. Boy, are those two swoll. They definitely need some AC in the basement. What kind of PC gym would I be running if I didn't have cool air running through the weight room? Plus, I want their business, so the extra necessities to make them comfortable while lifting is tote worth it.

This acupuncturist removes all the bad chakras from the internals and releases them outside the body. Only $15.59 it says. What a deal! Susan, let's go in and check it out!

I actually bought this on craigs for quite a deal at $130. But I left it the suggested $219 price, so it looks like I spent a little more than I actually did. Shhh don't tell anyone. No one's read this far in anyways right? It's like 4 in the morning and as you can tell, these last few "reviews" aren't very serious at all. Me needs to sleep. Will continue this tomorrow...

Oh and this monitor, pretty nice. The picture quality could be better as it's a little underpowered and has to be projected on 90+/99 brightness, but for the price point it's great. Just lacks a few feauture that I'll be looking for in future monitor purchases (display port, 144mhz, 4k etc)

Someday though, I'll be part of the 34" ultrawide master race. Then, and only then, will I become a true sith lord.

While I primarily use my Razer BlackWidow keyboard (Cherry MX Blues) this Logitech has been great as well (Romer-G Keys). Tons of customization with the RGBs and fast response. Has some neat macro buttons and is well designed, but as a caveat, this board has certain tactile features (convex/concave buttons) that you might have to get a little used to.

Best mouse I've owned. The only issue though is when you're in a heated moment, flailing your mouse around, the bottom plate that covers the magnetic weights can come off (on rare occasion). It can be annoying and takes you a couple seconds to put back on. If only the G502 didn't rely on the magnetic pull for one side of the latch, and just made both insert-able slots for a stable cover hold.

Otherwise, it has an awesome feel to it, people seem to love this mouse as it's remained pretty popular over the years. There are a lot of extra buttons, high dpi, rgb customization and I definitely recommend it if you have the extra funds for gaming's sake.