I need help building a computer, and have no idea where to start. [Gaming + General Usage]

[chezhead]

I've been very interested in learning more about computers, and I've wanted to build a computer. I live in the US, and am looking for something around $500, possibly $600.

What I would be using this for is anything from writing school papers to playing Source games. I would want to use this for playing games such as Minecraft (lol), Team Fortress 2, Skyrim, and those sorts of games, nothing extremely serious. I would also be programming Visual Basic for school, and possibly Java, if that makes a difference.

Remember, I'm not too skilled with computers aside from messing around with Ubuntu. I've heard that making a computer "is like putting together overpriced legos", but I really would want your help. If you have any recommended builds or parts that you would recommend, please post them below.

I would additionally need a monitor, mouse, optical drive, hard drive, OS, and a keyboard, as well as a Linksys wireless card, if that changes anything.

[Prometh3us]

With a monitor and OS + peripherals that's already over half your budget. I say save more up to get a higher end rig

[ItWasNiceToKnow]

You can't really get that without tripling your budget.

[David Tennant]

That is a fairly tight budget if you need to include all peripherals with it, here's what I came up with with everything but operating system and wireless card.

[img]http://gyazo.com/f9143b4ba01a5cd662c815cbcf251b74.png[/img]

$601, comes with Phenom X4, 6770 and a decently priced monitor, 1440x900.
Couldn't find the spinpoint F3 for some reason though.
You could go down to an X2 with worse motherboard to fit in the OS and wireless card if neccesary, might need to go down to a 6670 too.

[Armotekma]

Open box motherboards are generally a bad investment. Ontop of no warranty after 90 days (unless the manufacturer will honor the original warranty), they could be missing critical things (like the backplate, manuals, ect)

[David Tennant]

There's a few other options too, I'm no good with motherboards apart from knowing the x8/x8 thing for upgrade paths.

[Armotekma]

With everything he needs, $600 is a little low even for low-power usage. Peripherals would be nearly half the budget and $300 is simply very, very low to get any decent parts.