Clueless First Timer

TheEscapist

Right so I'm going back to college in Sept and I'm going to need my own desktop. I've been pretty much been using my brothers pc or girlfriends laptop up until now but I'll need my own for assignments and what not.

Thing is I've always wanted a good gaming and media pc and I'd like to build it myself so I figure now is as good a time as any. But and this is a big but, I'm pretty hopeless when it comes to this level of tinkering. So can anyone help me out on regards to what I should be looking for? Budget is €900-1000 without a monitor.

Thanks.

Serephucus

Glad to help. First off though, more specifics would be great.

That budget, is it including a Windows disk, or do you have a copy of Windows already?
Is it including a keyboard/mouse/speakers, etc.?
What monitor do you have, and what resolution is it?
What type of games are you going to be playing? (and at what resolution and settings, etc.)
Is there anything in particular that you want from your computer? Low noise, small size, lot of hard drive space, that sort of thing.

TheEscapist

Wow thanks for the quick reply. Really living up to the title of the thread :pac:

I'll be needing a Windows disk, think I can get it cheaper as a student?
I'd need a keyboard, mouse and speakers but they don't have to be anything special as they're something I can go back and improve later.
The monitor is a 3 and a half year old flatron 22 inch, I can post up specifics later.

I'd like to play the latest games on pretty much max settings(if possible with my budget) and future proof if I can.

I'd like a lot of hard drive space and I'd for it to be quiet. The size doesn't really bother me so much unless it was saving me money really.

deconduo

This would be a nice build for you:

Total build cost: €882.54 + €30 shipping
Intel Core i5-2500K Box, LGA1155 €175.58
Scythe Mugen 3, für alle Sockel geeignet €34.34
ASRock P67 Extreme4 (B3), Sockel 1155, ATX €130.55
FRACTAL DESIGN Gehäuse DEFINE R3 Black Pearl €89.75
Samsung SpinPoint F3 1000GB, SATA II (HD103SJ) €45.14
Club 3D Radeon 6950 1024MB, AMD Radeon HD 6950, PCI-Express €188.59
Samsung SH-222AB bare schwarz SATA €16.52
XFX PRO650W Core Edition Full Wired Power Supply €67.84
Crucial M4 64GB SSD 6,4cm (2,5") €93.44
8GB-Kit G.Skill RipJaws-X PC3-10667U CL9 €40.79

Decent heatsink for some nice overclocking. A single 6950 is enough to max pretty much every modern game at 1080p. You can add on a second 6950 later on down the line to crossfire when games get a bit more taxing. A good SSD as well.

I left out speakers/mouse/keyboard as that is a lot to do with personal preference. You can get windows for €45 as a student.

You can add on this drive if you want more storage, make sure to add a SATA cable as well:
http://www3.hardwareversand.de/articledetail.jsp?aid=38561&agid=1284

Serephucus

http://i111.photobucket.com/albums/n151/Daedalus_01/mediabuild.png

Here's mine. A little more expensive - you could probably shop around to find cheaper parts, but just to give you an idea... I've added a third hard drive. This way you'd have a setup similar to mine. OS and web browsers, and a couple of other bits and pieces on the SSD, apps and games on the 1TB drive, and all your movies and music on the 2TB one. (Believe me, you will fill it. I'm at 6TB and counting).

Edit: I appear to have forgotton RAM. Add this in as well in that case.

http://www.dabs.ie/products/kingston-hyperx-blu-4gb--2-x-2gb--1600mhz-ddr3-non-ecc-cl9-dimm--kit--741W.html?refs=354710000-468490000-52280000-51540000