Greetings BaPC,

I'm getting out of the military this week so it's finally time for my celebratory build. I pretty much exclusively play CS:GO. I play GTAV a bit but getting max frames with max settings in that game isn't super important to me.

I was split on getting a Titan X vs 980, but the fact that the 980 is literally about half the price of the Titan X made me go for the 980. I just don't think a Titan X is required for CS:GO, even at 1440p/144hz. Maybe someone else can chime in here, because framerate is the most important thing in my build, and I'd like to know if I'm not going to be pulling 200 fps comfortably all the time (in GO). I understand 1440p is way harder to drive than 1080p but I'm thinking the 980 can handle it. Please tell me if I'm wrong.

I was completely sold on the Acer XB270HU (1440p, 144hz, IPS, 4ms, $800) until I noticed the Acer XG270HU (1440p, 144hz, TN, 1ms, $480). I am completely willing to sacrifice the IPS panel in order to gain 1ms over 4ms. The fact that it is also $300 cheaper is also a huge plus. For monitors, I wanted two, and I wanted them to be the same size, so I figured, why not just get two of the same monitor to make it aesthetically pleasing? I will be using one monitor for internet browsing/youtube/etc and the other for gaming. I don't know if I'm being stupid here or not. Please tell me if I am. The reason I think I might be being stupid is because 144hz/1ms is not needed for internet browsing and I am pretty much throwing a couple hundred dollars away just so the monitors look cool. On the other hand if I get a faulty monitor I don't have to wait weeks to get one back, I can ship one off and use the other. I could use some feedback on this one lol.

I'm pretty sold on the case/mini-itx thing so please tell me if there is a reason I should reconsider.

I picked low profile ram because it's hard for me to imagine what it's like building in a mini-itx case because I've never done it before, and I figured I could simply use as much space as possible. I don't really care what the RAM looks like.

Power supply is something I'm not really sure about. Since I'm running a mini-itx build I pretty much need a modular power supply or cable management would be a total nightmare. But I would also like a power supply that has short cables, so for the cables I do use, I don't have a ton of slack running everywhere. Any suggestions?

Oh yeah. One last thing. I know the monitors I picked offer FreeSync, and I picked an Nvidia card. The thing is, I don't really care about FreeSync, I figure I'll be pulling awesome frames and won't be pushing my card too hard (again, please correct me if I'm wrong), so FreeSync isn't really something I'll be taking advantage of (maybe I'm misunderstanding FreeSync). I considered a 295x2 just in case I decide I need FreeSync but I reaaaallly don't want to run crossfire. Like at all.

This has been a super long post so thank you for reading. Here's my build:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant

EDIT: omitted stuff like storage and disk drive because it's pretty run-of-the-mill