My (possibly disastrous) attempt to build a PC

I guess I was lucky enough to have a job shipping/receiving and inspecting electronic chips and boards and so I've got a bunch of anti-static wristbands and rubber shoe covers left over from when.

Make sure to wear a bonafide certified tinfoil hat with that wrist band for maximum protection.

thanks what can i do to improve

Ok, so I just clicked on random Components on partpicker and this came out of it (I hope the link works, it looks a bit weird).
It says those parts are compatible, but I'm not sure if the composition makes sense.
It's above my budget too, so no tinfoil hat for me

I can vouch for the case - I have an R3 and it's great.

I'd get a standard ATX motherboard instead of a a mini ITX if you're getting a big case like that though.

Didn't even realize it was 'mini'. Thanks.
I clicked on another motherboard that seemed sympathetic at first glance. Here is the new build.

Not enough ram for absolute definite.

Hdd do not cut the mustard if someone is telling you not to buy an ssd its because they don't have one.

That psu is way under powered for the rig your proposing.

The case is extremely same and has poor air flow leading to increased temperature and therefore less performance. In a lot of cases where people can't understand why they are getting lag its because they're computer is throttling in some way because of heat build up.

The operating system will only allow you to utilise upto 16 gig of ram and you might want a bigger kit in the future. Similarly with the mobo only one pci express slot doesn't allow using sli or crossfire at a later date if you get a second card.

The i5 doesn't support hyper threading which is a feature that more and more games are utilising including planetary.

Once again: Your suggestions sound horrendously expensive.
I'll take another look at the power supply and sli support though, thanks.

8GB of RAM is fine. You can always add more at a later date(it's literally the easiest thing to upgrade - you just stick more in).

I would definitely recommend a small SSD for your OS & most used programs.

The PSU is not underpowered, some people, like timevans, severly overestimate the wattage required. It's far better to get a good 500W PSU manufactured by a reliable company like Seasonic or Superflower than a shitty 800W PSU that'll probably catch fire. Check Jonnyguru and Hardware Secrets for good PSU reviews.

If you can shell out the extra cash, small ssd and big hdd is the way to go.

You're also missing the gamer food

When I built a new machine, 256GB ssd as my main drive, and a largish data drive (just standard 2TB drive). It means you need to be a little careful what you put on your main drive, but as long as you're not loading tons of huge applications and copying tons of data to your OS drive, it works really well.

Of course, I also went with 32gb of memory because 1, just not that much extra money, and 2, I do a fair bit of dev work at home on that machine.

But concur with the SSD OS drive.. makes such a huge difference.

Oh, and if you get a SSD, refer to this guide when installing Windows: http://www.overclock.net/t/1156654/seans-windows-7-install-optimization-guide-for-ssds-hdds

I reduced my Windows 7 installation down to like 7GB IIRC. Very useful if you have a limited amount of space.

Semi related:

I'm looking for a decent headset or headphone/microphone combo, does anyone have any recommendations? I'm not too picky about sound quality and I'd prefer to keep it under 80$.

Also, does anyone here use wireless headphones?

http://www.head-fi.org/a/headphone-buying-guide

For both build quality and audio quality it's better/cheaper to buy headphones and a mic separately. That's all I know for that price range.

Things aren't looking good regarding extra cash. In fact my original budget was already pretty optimistic and my last pcpartpicker creation was already more expensive than I wanted it to be.

So what are the benefits of an ssd? I can't really imagine how it is to have one. I guess everything loads much faster?

Yeah. I hate using computers without one now.

Pretty much just the luxury of really fast boot times. You can live without it though.

True, fast boot times sound nice, but ruining myself sure doesn't. Guess I'm gonna pass up on the ssd. This also comes with the added bonus of not getting impatient and angry every time you have to use a different computer.

This thread has been really helpful so far, thanks a bunch everyone.

So I take it you're in Germany based on your selection of parts?
Also, you should be getting a matched pair of RAM ( 4GB x 2) , instead of one 8GB. It will increase your memory bandwidth.