I am hoping to build a computer for the first time soon and I was hoping to get some advice. I'm not just asking for people to tell me what to buy (although suggestions are welcome) but I would quite like to get some get some general spending guidelines. Firstly I currently have about £500 to spend on a new computer, am I being a bit overambitious trying to build a decent machine for this kind of cash? Should I wait until I have a bit more cash? Secondly how much should I roughly be spending on each of the parts? I have been told that I only need to spend about £50 on a motherboard, and that 2GB of RAM should be enough. Keep in mind that I am a gamer so I would rather it be reasonably powerful.

Any general advice would be appreciated, thanks.

Yes, as of right now my advice would also be to save up your money. Try to save at least 800 or 900.

yeah you are probably right. One person I know said that I should wait until I have £1500 to spend but I think that might be a bit over the top, but then again I think that another guy who said he built his for £300 pounds probably only got away with that because he isn't that much of a gamer. I can probably get together some more money (even as a uni student), but I would still be interested in how much I need to spend on each part, at least things like motherboards. Are there any places were I really need to be careful?

USD $70 for mobo, $150 for cpu, $30 for ram, and a $200 video card will give you a 10k 3dmark06 system easy. And for another $200 video card you'll perform near 18k. Even with two cards you should have enough money left for HDD, Case, PSU, CDROM, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Audio etc. (though if you already have any of them, its cheaper/easier just to use your old ones if they're doing their job just fine.)

Here this is a good deal for the gamer at heart.mobo, proc, and ram.. this is a good deal cause all you need is a case Hard drive and a Video card. Its juts a suggestion I mean this might put you over your limit but really its a quad core.

USD $70 for mobo, $150 for cpu, $30 for ram, and a $200 video card will give you a 10k 3dmark06 system easy. And for another $200 video card you'll perform near 18k. Even with two cards you should have enough money left for HDD, Case, PSU, CDROM, Monitor, Keyboard, Mouse, Audio etc. (though if you already have any of them, its cheaper/easier just to use your old ones if they're doing their job just fine.)

That seems a little stretched dude. I mean I built a computer recently. I have a $110 mobo, $200 processor, $350 Video card, $122 ram, $90 HD, I'm only saying this because my comp only gets a 8995 on 3Dmark06 so the figures that you said couldn't get a 10k.

(specs, Asus M2Ne-SLI, AMD FX-62, XFX 8800 GTS extreme, Corsair 6400 800MHz (2x2048))

guys you should remember that all of this stuff is more expensive in the UK so if you're going to recommend things make sure you do it from UK retailers

That seems a little stretched dude. I mean I built a computer recently. I have a $110 mobo, $200 processor, $350 Video card, $122 ram, $90 HD, I'm only saying this because my comp only gets a 8995 on 3Dmark06 so the figures that you said couldn't get a 10k.

(specs, Asus M2Ne-SLI, AMD FX-62, XFX 8800 GTS extreme, Corsair 6400 800MHz (2x2048))

I don't know dude, your figures are a bit dated.

You can buy the Asus M2Ne-SLI for $100, 5400+ (closest I could find - virtually identical performance) for $110, 2 GB Corsair RAM for $35 after rebate, an 8800 GT for $280, and a $90 400 GB hard drive.

That amounts to $615 + some shipping. So yeah, Goat was a bit off on his estimate (especially citing a $70 mobo - no $70 mobo has SLI)

MSI K9N4 SLI-F AM2 = $80
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ = $159
mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) DDR2 800 = $40
EVGA 256-P3-N791-AR GeForce 8800GT = $204

So these figures totaled $35 above what I previously said, but thats STILL UNDER $500 and it's my same system specs, which does perform 10k. 

EDIT:

That seems a little stretched dude. I mean I built a computer recently. I have a $110 mobo, $200 processor, $350 Video card, $122 ram, $90 HD, I'm only saying this because my comp only gets a 8995 on 3Dmark06 so the figures that you said couldn't get a 10k.

(specs, Asus M2Ne-SLI, AMD FX-62, XFX 8800 GTS extreme, Corsair 6400 800MHz (2x2048))

The 6000+ x2 is a bit faster than the FX-62, and the 8800 GT is a bit faster than the 320MB and 640MB versions of the 8800 GTS (which is what XFX's "extreme" versions are).

thankyou for ignoring me guys

TigerDirect ships to Europe too. He can buy anything on Tiger for the same price he just needs to convert so he knows how much he's spending. Also... I'm not sure what their shipping costs are.

Mr Epic Cock Whore

Wow... that... that was uncalled for 

Ooh, nice topic. I am thinking of building a computer too. I want it to be amazingly sleek though. I currently know nothing of how to go about building one. Can someone point me in the right direction?

They're remarkably simple to put together. Everything pops in, or slides in and screws in. Give us an idea what you'll mostly be doing (or want to be doing) on your new system, Tigress, and we can give you some good suggestions for system specs.

Wow... that... that was uncalled for 

STOP being so stingy.... but yeah I bulir my computer for one of my college projects lol. (im in the computer careers department) I thought that it would be harder but its really easy and kind of frustrating if one thing goes bad and you dont know that the FUCK it was

I'm actually looking at this graphics card at the moment http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=608478, which looks pretty good. Just have to wait until it is released.

Check this one out dueledge, same webpage, same card specs. But less money and in stock.
http://www.tekheads.co.uk/s/product?product=608497

I'll post this here but I want to make a quad core, preferably Intel 6600 but like what mother board should I get and if it's asus can someone please suggest some working ram as I know how picky their boards are. Wanna spend round £350 or so as I'm getting liquid cooled case, any ideas on a cheap preassembled one?