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[SupremeSandwich]

    OS: 64-bit Windows 7 or 64-bit Windows 8 (8.1)
    CPU: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz / AMD CPU FX-8350 4 GHz
    System RAM: 8GB
    Graphics Card: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770 / AMD GPU Radeon R9 290
    Hard Drive Space: 40GB
    DirectX 11
This is the specs of the computer I'm hoping to get, however apart from the OS and Direct X 11 I have no idea how I would go about getting them or even what they mean (other than that it means I can play powerful games I would love someone to explain this stuff to me as if I were a child

[Il Palazzo]

You go on about buying parts by copy-pasting the name into google and shopping at online vendors. Ebay works too, and indeed many shops have Ebay presence. Compare prices from a few different sources before buying. Keep in mind shipping costs.

If you don't know which component is better, type its name into google with 'benchmark' and look for a grade it gets. Compare with the grade of a different component of the same type on the same site.
It matters less what's inside (unless you're a min-maxing tech-whizz), more what grade is higher and if the difference is large enough to justify the extra cost.

There are also 'buying guides' of various levels of accessibility available online.

    CPU: Intel CPU Core i7 3770 3.4 GHz / AMD CPU FX-8350 4 GHz

There are two processor manufacturers on the market: AMD and Intel. Intel makes more efficient processors, AMD makes them cheaper. As a result, you'll see AMD CPUs with higher clocking frequency  that are cheaper and slower than Intel processors with lower frequencies listed.

The i7 and the next four numbers denote generation and model respectively. Generally the higher the number the more powerful a model.
With AMD, FX is the series name, the 8 indicates the number of cores and the rest in the model number - the higher the faster.
The number before GHz is the clocking frequency - how many cycles can a processor (core) perform per second. Simply speaking, how fast it is. These numbers are only useful for comparison between processors of a single manufacturer.

The two processors are comparable in performance. The Intel one is a bit faster, but AMD is cheaper. You're unlikely to see any difference in practice, unless you care for extra couple of fps in games.
The i7 is more energy-efficient.
It's important to get a motherboard with matching sockets though. 'AM3+' for AMD and 'Socket B' (aka 'LGA 1366') for the i7. These will be listed among the motherboard specifications.

i7 is a four-core processor with multithreading, the other one is eight-core. Does it matter what these do? I don't think so. It's got to do with many processes running in parallel, but they've become something of a standard recently.

    System RAM: 8GB

This is the memory. It indicates how much data can a computer store and process without having to resort to moving stuff to and from hard drive. The more the better, 8 GB is a lot.
When buying, pay attention to whether it's DDR3 or DDR4 - the latter one is faster, but being recently released will be more expensive. AND you'll need a motherboard that can support it. Which type of memory can fit into a motherboard will be listed among its specifications.
If you'll see some numbers after DDR3/4, these indicate clocking speed - higher means faster. Faster is  better.

Memory is generally the easiest to expand. You can have as much as your motherboard supports.

    Graphics Card: Nvidia GPU GeForce GTX 770 / AMD GPU Radeon R9 290

Again, like with CPUs, two main manufacturers of graphics cards on the market: Nvidia (brand name: 'GeForce') and AMD ('Radeon'). No appreciable differences between the two.
The GTX 770 is slower but quieter, a bit less power-hungry and cheaper than R9 290. That's all there is to it. You'll get no more than about 5 extra fps in high-end games from the R9 290 over GTX 770.

    Hard Drive Space: 40GB

I'm sure you know what HD is. The low capacity indicates it's an SDD - a solid state drive. It's a bit like an oversized RAM - it's got no moving parts, runs silently, is resistant to shock, writing and reading from it is very fast.
On the other hand, you can easily get a 1 TB (25 times more capacity) drive of the regular variety at a comparable price.

A sensible thing to do is to buy both - to install your system and maybe games on the SDD and use the regular HDD for long-term storage.

Also, 40 GB is low even for an SSD - there do exist up to 1 TB drives, just as there exit 6 TB regular HDD.
The rule of thumb is that you'll pay 6-7 times more for the same storage if you buy an SDD.

By the way, I don't believe you'll ever need more than maybe 250 GB of total storage unless you'll start hoarding videos and will never uninstall old games, but I know people like to get at least a terabyte because 'you never know'.


You'll need to get a power source unit (PSU) that can supply enough energy - 500W should be enough. If unsure, count how much Watts each component consumes - you need a bit more than the total.

And remember to match a motherboard to the processor socket, and memory chips to the motherboard.

[Tellemurius]

www.pcpartpicker.com

[Reelya]

If you don't know what the parts are, are you planning to buy components or a finished main box? I normally find a cheap retailer and get them to build a core system for me all at once (case, mainboard, CPU, memory). Almost all retail shops that sell PC parts will do the assembly for free. This takes a lot of nuisance out of the process, and it ensures you can see a working box before you buy it.

Then, I interally attach all my stuff like DVD drives, hard-drives, graphics card myself.

... 40GB is weird. That's heaps retro. No-one even makes a 40GB anymore. About the smallest new regular hard-drive you can buy is ~500GB nowadays. With a 40GB and modern windows OS, it would take up almost half of the drive's space, leaving very little room for games and stuff.

For RAM - 4GB is "barely adequate" these days, 8GB is "decent", and 12-16GB is "good/great". Having spare RAM improves the lifespan of your physical hard-drives, because if the PC runs out of memory, it temporarily off-loads running applications to the drive, which can cause drive damage over long periods, since they're constantly reading and writing.

RAM speed is also important. There are a range of speeds they run at. You'd be better off with 8GB of really fast RAM instead of 16GB of slower RAM. RAM speed correlates directly to speeding up everything the computer does.

[nenjin]

Yeah, I'm unclear, are you planning on building this? You'll need a motherboard as well that matches the socket type of that CPU. You'll also need a case. And a Power Supply.

Also, a 40gig hard drive for a gamer is way too small. I downloaded 40 gigs of games just last night. The cheapest hard drives store way more than that already. A 500 gig hard drive is roughly $50 right now.

I use Newegg.com to buy parts as my baseline. Amazon typically has slightly better prices.

My sense is that you're pulling those specs from the min reqs of some game you want to play. I'd strongly advise you, if you're going to build this thing yourself, to go read a tutorial or two. It might just be simpler to buy a prebuilt, although I don't know really know what the prebuilt desktop pc market looks like these days.

[Thief^]

That looks like the recommended system requirements from a computer game box?

[Phmcw]

This isn't a build, just the requirement for a game. Basically it tells you what it need, but isn't a collection of pieces needed to build a computer.

You should go to a dedicaced website for more help (say reddit/r/buildapc).

To build a computer you need a case (the box basically) a motherboard (the stuff that you put the other components on), a processor (the stuff that make the calculation), some RAM (the stuff where the calculations and their results are written on), a hard disk (the stuff where everything is stocked), a graphic card (it contain a processor and some RAM specialised for image processing, it's the most important part for pretty games) and an alim (your comp need electricity, that part give it at the required voltage).

There are a few tricks you must be aware of : processor require a specific kind of "socket" so only work on a few motherboards. Some processors are sold without fan, and you'll need one. There is two kind of hard disk :SSD, fast but small, and mechanical, big but slow. Ideally you'll buy both and stock your movies, music, files, pictures ... on the mechanical one, and your games, OS, programs.. on the SSD. There are different kind of RAM too, so go look to a specialised website or buy a prebuilt.

In prebuilt, this computer have the specs you're looking for.

[nenjin]

That prebuilt seems a little over priced (I basically built my PC which is 2x as powerful, for about $200 more.) But I guess that comes with a monitor and all the peripherals, which would bring up the price quite a bit.