Building a desktop for the first time, I need help.

Just buy what you can when you can afford it until you have all of the parts. If you have any questions on the build process, feel free to ask. Putting a PC together isn't super difficult. There are a lot of good tutorials on YouTube that you can reference as well.

When I bought my build, I bought it all together and on a physical store. The guys that worked there put all the hardware where it was meant to be, and we even ran a few things on the store itself to make sure I was ready to go.

Long story short:

• The advantage of physical stores over virtual ones is that you don't "mess" with the thing yourself - the minions of the store do it for you.
• The advantage of PCs over notebooks and similars is that you have the option to take out the parts time turns into museum-worthy pieces.

About the build in itself:

• For CPU: I myself prefer Intel processors. If your cash is low atm, don't even bother with an i7 like many will foolishly tell you to. Worry yourself with a potent i5 processor or even the best i3 if that's what you can afford.
• For GPU: I myself prefer Nvidia graphic cards. You need to find the one that fits with your motherboard (that should also shelter your processor) and doesn't bottleneck your CPU.

How to buy it on the safe zone like a newbie if help isn't granted:

1. Choose an Intel processor that fits your budget and has good rates. Save money for your GPU!
2. Select a motherboard that accepts the same slot your graphic card will (this is easier than it seems, seriously).
3. Pick a good GPU that, above of all, won't bottleneck your CPU (very common!). Since GPUs are both expensive and play an important part in rendering games, you want to throw a bit more of cash on this baby.
4. Etc: check if the graphic card's cooler is good enough for it or if you need a new one, get good RAM (nowadays 8GB won't do anymore, but don't worry: motherboards come with extra RAM slots for when you can afford them), etc and stuff I can't help you with much.
5. Paraphernalia: Nice keyboard and mouse (easy to find cheap mice-keyboard combos online), cool screen (these can eat a lot of cash, so look for the cheapest ones that have the resolution that pleases you!), headset (can be a money eater too, but no reason to throw your money at this one), etc more fancy stuff I can't recall here.

Sorry to read about your laptop. :(

Building a PC can be fun. A great place to look around for components is here. It's sort of the isthereanydeal of components as it will pull prices from many major online and b&m stores. Not only that, but as you start adding components to your build list it will inform you if there are any compatibility issues. It's really quite slick. A general rule of thumb is AMD makes excellent hardware at a cheaper price while Intel/nvidia will cost more. I'm not favoring one side or the other so just see what caters to your budget best and will provide you with the longevity of gaming you'd like. Finally, use this place. The users of SG are so helpful. I built a PC a while back after being out of the PC gaming business since 2005. It was a whole new world of hardware and the kind users of the forum really helped me. These people are awesome. :)

Read this page.
http://techreport.com/review/28621/system-guide-current

It should help you with the basics at least.

I wouldnt put much stock in that reddit build. I mean, they recommend a single stick of DDR ram.
It is called DDR for a reason. You should never ever use a single stick if you don't mind losing performance.
The whole guide looks like it was made using the cheapest parts, rather than the cheapest parts with good performance.

Solve most of it. Thanks guys. I am applying on credit card left and right and also getting denied left and right.

I picked this guys, let me know what you think

https://pcpartpicker.com/user/dotsnake/saved/#view=TYq2FT

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/ZYsG4D

my suggestions

windows 10 is still free btw

http://pcpartpicker.com/p/L2r4WZ

Looks like you're in the states... imho, if you can, keep shopping for the parts right now, but wait to buy until Black Friday. Three months, but unless you don't really have another decent PC around right now, could be worth it.

Intel > AMD from my opinion, some friends had lots of problems with those processors. And Idk but, doesn't the processor come with a cooler already?
About the OS, I think you could find it cheaper. I got win7 for $30 in a store.
And about the Power Supply, I think you should look for a more trustworthy one >-<