[OrkWarrior]

Right I have decided that I want to build a gaming computer and I have roughley £500- £520 on it.

I would really like some suggestion on what to get for starting out and I live in the UK if that helps at all.

[Mrgame]

depends on what you want, how good you want it, and what you have currently. Do you have any ideas of what you want, or what games you want to play. So, I'm american(sorry bud), so im afriad I dont know exactly.
If you start and dont have much I would look for dual cored processors, or the low end quad cores.
But I was looking and an i7 was like £200 at one site(dunno it that sounds right), so if you can a low end quad-core would be a bit nicer.

You really dont need a bang'en good vid card tbh, I have an 8800GT and it does just fine, and two there are very few games that require those big fat 200series cards, and they mostly run HOT, and most of my friends say something like a 9800 runs nice and keeps up quite well.
A power supply above 550watts can generally suffice, a motherboard of your choice, and ram to go with it, plus a hard drive which shouldnt be too hard to figure out on your own. And a nice sturdy case.
Hope that helped somewhat, I'm afriad I dont know how good you want it to be, any questions jsut ask.

[knightperson]

If you're trying to keep the cost down, I would look seriously at the cost-reduced Core i7 socket that Intel just came out with. If I made sense of my research, it's the socket 1156. The (small) problem with it is that some of the next generation of super-fancy chips and toys will not be made in this socket, but you can save quite a bit of money in the short term. Considering Intel's record for backward compatibility (which is dismal) I don't see the lack of an upgrade path as a problem. What you lose out on with the cheaper socket is triple-channel memory (it can do dual), twin 16X SLI video cards (nothing will need this much firepower for quite a while), and more than four cores per chip (who needs more than four cores for the foreseeable future?). I have no idea what it would cost in pounds to build a system around this, but I'm expecting to be able to build one for under $600 with minimal reuse of existing parts.

[Korill]

Do you need a full system (Monitor, Keyboard/Mouse, Speakers) or just the box? Both these systems are just the box but will do pretty well for gaming today. The AMD system would probably be better for upgrading a year or two from now as it has their latest AM3 socket and are usually pretty good at being backwards compatible. The Intel's only future for 1156 in the upcoming Westmere processors is a 32mm Dual Core that has an unknown Graphics Processor built into the chip.
And it'll help if you can find a UK version of a site like Newegg.com The two systems here are from Newegg and are in USD.

Anyway, AMD

CPU: AMD Phenom II X4 955 $189
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P $80
RAM: 4GB G.Skill DDR3 1333 $71
GPU: XFX 4870 1GB $145
PSU: SeaSonic S12 II 500W $79
CD: Liteon/LG/Samsung SATA $30
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB $95
Case: Personal, ~$50-100
About $700USD including the case.

OR Intel

CPU: Intel Core i5 750 $200
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-P55-UD3L $125
RAM: 4GB G.Skill DDR3 1333 $71
GPU: XFX 4870 1GB #145
PSU: SeaSonic S12 II 500W $79
CD: Liteon/LG/Samsung SATA $30
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB $95
Case: Personal, ~$50-100
This one will be around $750

[Guitardian]

I just use a 486... but it really depends on what you like to play. Most stuff could be way cheaper on an xbox or a ps3

[OrkWarrior]

I am getting all my components from mainly a website called novatech.

[ForbiddenKnowledge]

If you're buying in the Uk, I reccomend www.ebuyer.com - its very fast delivery, cheap, and very very good service.

I've built both my original gaming rig and my upgrade from there and have been very impressed with the service.

[Korill]

Anyway, revised builds, AMDs probably better for this pricepoint.

The Box Only
CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 92
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA770T-UD3P 61
RAM: 4GB Corsair XMS 1333 76
GPU: Novatech 4870 512MB 102
PSU: Thermaltake TR2 500W 55
CD: Liteon SATA 12
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB 67
Case: Personal Choice ~50-100
465 Plus Case from Novatech

CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 705e 91-I Recommend buying the 720 from Novatech, its faster and a simiilar price
Mobo: Gigabyte GA-MA785GM-US2H 785G 63
RAM:Crucial 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 800MHz 60
GPU: XFX HD 4870 512MB 92
PSU: Antec EarthWatts 500W 56
CD: LG SATA 16
HDD: Samsung Spinpoint 1TB 57
Case: Personal Choice ~50-100
435 Plus Case from Ebuyer. Little bit lower performance thanks to the 705e, slightly slower RAM and a slower Hard Drive.

If you need a screen as well, consider dropping the Processor to an X2 and the Graphics to a 4850. I'd stick with AMD/ATI as both of them have better performance at this price point right now. Also, if you play on 1080x1920+ it may be worth upgrading to a 1GB card.

[OrkWarrior]

Thank you for all the suggestions.

I have come up with this from novatech.

Case: Xigmatek MidGard Midi Tower - Black - No PSU- £56.34
MOBO: Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 AMD 770 (Socket AM2+) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
CPU: AMD Tri Core Phenom II Black Edition X3 720 2.8GHz Socket AM3 - Retail
RAM: GeIL Black Dragon 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 PC2-6400C5 800MHz Dual Channel Kit
GPU: Novatech GeForce 8400GS 512MB DDR2 HDMI/DVI PCI- Retail
PSU: ThermalTake TR2 Value 500W
I already have a CD drive from my old comp.
HDD: Western Digital Caviar Black 1TB

WHat do you guys think of this setup.

[Korill]

The graphics is more than a little weak for current generation gaming, but the rest would be fine. Aim for a 9800GT/250GTS/4850/4770 at the least.