for a first rig, it's pretty kick ass, pay no attention to the brainwashed nvidia fanbois, buy what you like with your money! I been building my own since the early 90's, my first rig was a 286, lol, I used every brand you can think of, many that arent around anymore, cyrix cpu's, and oak tech video cards, you used to need a discreet sound card too, now building a rig is like legos for adults, I tend to use more amd stuff, but intel and nvidia are good too, top performance is gonna be intel and nvidia, best price point will be amd, the actual difference is negligable, as most of these fanboi asshats never use their real potential, most have a ferrari they use to pick up groceries, it's like the fight between ford or chevy, they both get you there in the same time, this one has 2 more horsepower than that one, whoop-de-do!! might be able to measure it, but can you notice it?