New Gaming PC; need help!

[JPUK]

I am currently looking into replacing my Laptop for a Desktop PC for casual gaming; however, I have no idea what is good or not! After reading through forum posts and looking at the "build your own PC" page on the site, I am certain I will make a mistake or have one part that will not work due to the PC not being powerful enough.

My main problem is not knowing what is needed to allow things to run; for example I know, generally, that a certain spec of motherboard is needed for a certain graphics card to work to allow a certain amount of RAM to work etc. But thats where my "knowledge" ends!

I would greatly appreciate it if someone could either point me in the direction of understanding 'what is what' or post a possible Desktop build (budget upto ~£700) like I've seen on other forum posts. I would have posted my own build but it would have been just what I thought looked good.

Many thanks for reading and hope to hear from one or two of you,

Joe.

 

[Sleinous]

Will post a spec later this evening, (on train atm)

 

[Phoenix]

I'll post one now since Sleinous is busy ^_^

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 430 BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 970 (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD 6850 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £702.00 including VAT and delivery.

This build will power through games very nicely

(http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-top-spec-pc/)

 

[Sleinous]

I'll post one now since Sleinous is busy ^_^

Case
COOLERMASTER ELITE 430 BLACK CASE
Processor (CPU)
AMD PHENOM II X4 970 (3.50GHz/8MB CACHE/AM3) - BLACK EDITION
Motherboard
ASUS® M4A87TD/USB3: DUAL DDR3,SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
4GB SAMSUNG DDR3 DUAL-DDR3 1333MHz (2 X 2GB)
Graphics Card
1GB AMD RADEON™ HD 6850 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11, Eyefinity 3 Capable
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR GREEN WD10EARS, SATA 3 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
24x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Memory Card Reader
INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (XD, MS, CF, SD, etc) + 1 x USB 2.0 PORT
Power Supply
600W Quiet 80 PLUS Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling
STANDARD AMD CPU COOLER
Sound Card
ONBOARD 8 CHANNEL (7.1) HIGH DEF AUDIO (AS STANDARD)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
6 x USB 2.0 PORTS @ BACK PANEL (MIN 2 FRONT PORTS) AS STANDARD
Operating System
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£79)
Office Software
FREE Microsoft® Office Starter 2010 (Limited functionality Word & Excel)
Anti-Virus
BULLGUARD INTERNET SECURITY - FREE 90 DAY TRIAL
Warranty
3 Year Silver Warranty (1 Year Collect & Return, 1 Year Parts, 3 Year Labour) (£5)
Delivery
STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 13 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £702.00 including VAT and delivery.

This build will power through games very nicely

(http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/computers/amd-top-spec-pc/)

The blighter's beaten me to it But he's got it spot on so i'll let him off!

 

[PCS]

Great spec Phoenix. I also think the idea of linking to the configurator is a great benefit, so much so that I've now added this to the "post to forums page" to save time! +rep

 

[JPUK]

Thanks for the replies, very helpful. A few questions:

1) Would I benefit alot more from getting 8GB of RAM? or is the £50 more not worth it?
2) Would this '£700' system differ greatly from a '£500' system, for example.
3) Why go for Silver Warrenty rather than standard. Not that the £5 cost is significant, just curious to why the year-extra 'collect and return' is a great benefit or is it just there for the hell of it?

Should be ordering the system in a day or two, if all goes to plan.
Any other information would be appreciated, aswell as sources to learning more myself (internet/books etc).

Many thanks again,
Joe.

 

[Tysuro]

8GB Ram is abit over the top for a gaming PC you only really need 4GB ram and if you want more ram you could always buy more when it drops in price save abit of cash.

 

[Phoenix]

2. It depends on what £500.00 system is being compared but yes I'm pretty sure it will be quite a bit better.
3. If anything goes wrong after the first month it saves you some money