Been using Mac so I have no idea where to even start. I don't really have a budget but I don't want to spend more than $1,500. I mainly play CS:GO but I might need to use it for school. So where do I start?

You should check out the FAQ: http://forum.toribash.com/showthread.php?t=251490
It lists a handy website that can be used to get a good solid base for a build: http://www.logicalincrements.com/

IMO $1500 is quite a lot for a build, especially just to play CS:GO. My own build is $500 and I play CS with about 180fps minimum (on a 160Hz monitor). I made this build for fun too, so it's not at all optimized. With a $700 build you could comfortably get 300fps I would say.

What should I get then?

Depends how much you want to spend really, they list the "superb tier" with:
R9 280X
FX 6350
Evo 212
MSI 970 Gaming
8gb RAM
120gb SSD
Rosewill R5
= $682 (plus any extra harddrives, and case)


I've seen some reports about similar builds:
"I get 300+ constant;
fx-6300 gpu Sapphire 280x gpu 12gigs DDR3 1600mhz ram 240gb SSD 2TB storage"

But say in 2 years time, can I upgrade anything by just replacing it?

Yes, so long as it's compatible.

What does that mean? Will I be able to upgrade the things that you've suggested?

Yeah, but different parts need different kinds of slots. For example there is DDR3 and DDR4 ram around currently, this board is DDR3 so you can't put DDR4 ram in. It's also an AM3+ socket so you can't insert (for example) an i7 processor.

Alright thanks for your help. Where should I buy the parts from?

Ebay or local suppliers or some other website (newegg maybe), whatever is cheaper really.