Well, I`m in the U.S. so my assistance may be somewhat invalid, but here goes!

1: Thermal Paste is a must if you are building the comp, which it sounds like you will be. The paste is what transfers the heat from the CPU to the cooling fan`s heatsink. If you don`t have it, your CPU will probably melt under light load.

2: A GT430 is a decent card, I would personally go with a GTX460/70 sized card for heavier games or intensive editing. Keep in mind that only certain cards have the OpenGL feature, if you need that for your editing.

3: 550 British pounds is a realistic number....but pretty minimalist. If you are on a tight budget, I understand that, but if you have the money and want a PC that will last for awhile I`d spend the extra money on a better CPU, or the GTX 460/70. Also, you will need an operating system (Windows 7 x64 is my recommendation), so don`t forget that.

4: Make sure you at least have a quad core CPU! Or an Intel i5-i7. Intel has always been good to me, and I`ve heard that AMD and nVidia don`t mesh well. AMD and ATi will supposedly mesh well, but Intel and nVidia are my preferences. Also, when calculating your CPUs ghz, you multiply the number of cores by the ghz rating. So a 3.33ghz Dual has 6.66 total ghz, while the 2.8 quad has 12.2ghz. Quad is always better. 

5: Your RAM is great ghz-wise, I would go with two 2g sticks, so that the PC can access more at once, you do`t have a funnel on your performance. 


Hope all of that helped! I would definitely look up an article that explained all of the processes that go into building your own computer, as there is a lot more to it than I just told you.  

Mikanator

Brandaman wrote:

 

I posted a thread kinda like this one a few weeks or a couple of months ago asking a similar question, but this time it's a bit more specific. I want to get into PC gaming, not heavy, I'll still mainly use my Xbox. I'd mostly be playing things like Minecraft and PC exclusive games. I may also consider using it for some video editing in the future, as well as the usual stuff like internet browsing.

I found a site called www.pcspecialist.co.uk where you can customise the parts of your PC you want like processor etc. and used it to create a PC I think would be decent. It came to about £550, but when looking up all of the parts separately on Amazon it came to about £350. So, on to my questions.

- The RAM I found was 2GB DDR3 and had a speed of 1600mhz. I was planning on getting two sticks. Is 1600mhz good? Should I get 2xGB or just one 4GB stick?

- Keeping in mind the things I'll be doing, should I get a faster Dual Core processor or a slower Quad Core? The one I picked was a 3.3GHz Dual Core, with I believe 2MB of L2 Cache. There were others for a slightly higher price which were things like 2.8Ghz Quad Cores, which is better?

- Are AMD good? I've heard people say they don't like them, and I've heard a lot of people say that Intel are better, but do they still make solid processors? With decent cooling, will it last a long time? I've only ever had experience with Intel.

- Is this a decent GPU? http://www.nvidia.com/object/product-geforce-gt-430-us.html

- Is thermal paste worth it? I know it's only like £5 but I'm just wondering.


I know there's a lot of questions, but any help is appreciated. Thanks.

1) Make sure your RAM is dual channel, or getting two sticks of 2gb is useless compared to 1 stick of 4gb. Also 1600mhz is a good speed.
2) Sounds like you are on a tight budget, but I still would NOT recommend a dual core or a 430. It's simply not enough and not future proof at all.
3) Optimally, an i5-2500K is the best value-performance CPU right now, but Motherboards for the CPU is more expensive than AMD's.
4) Check out Ibuypower.com, they have really good prices and deals for the computers they build.
5) If you want the BEST prices ever though, go to NCIX.com and look for the "April savings deals" or whatever deals they offer atm. You MUST check the WEEKLY sales items for good deals, NOT the normal items! Additionally, they have price match, so you can purchase everything from there at once.

I'll make it easy for you.

Check this out: http://www.pcgames.de/PC-Games-Brands-19921/News/Jetzt-vorbestellen-Neuer-PC-Ga mes-PC-mit-Geforce-GTX-560-Ti-und-Core-i5-2500-fuer-879-Euro-Video-Anzeige-82030 0/

Its a german site but when you scroll a lil bit down you can see every part build in to this PC. Its a decent gaming rig for not that much money.

1. Dual channel 2x2 GB sticks for 4 gbram. DDR3 1600 is fine. if you really want to, you can shoot for sticks of ram with a low cas latency like 7, 8, or 9 umm, the timing will look something like this ---> 9-9-9-24
unless you're going to be crazy multitasking or editing videos and stuff, 4 should be sufficient. If you have the extra money get a mobo that's tri channel and get a 3x2 GB sticks for 6 total. I personal have 12 lol i barely use it all buy i enjoy building comps.

2. I'd go with the quad core, your comp will be able to run through processes faster. If you can, get one of the new intel processors (sandy bridge) i-series, it has turbo boost so it'll up your ghz a accordingly depending on how you use it.

3. My personal opinion, AMD is okay, if you're looking for more of a budget gaming rig then AMD will be sufficient. They also have their upper-end line of processors called the Phenom II's. Otherwise intel all the way. awesome quality and they're cream of the crop right now in the processor market and i've ran into less issues with the intel processors.

4. I think someone mentioned it above post, but Id say get the evga/asus GTX 460. it's about 120 american and you could always dual-SLI if you feel that you want even more gpu power. Or get the gtx560 for 250 and it's a really good card for a mid-ranged price

5. I'm big on thermal paste. I bought the prolimatech megahelms heatsink and used shin etsu thermal paste for it and my computer doesn't run any hotter than ~45C under load. otherwise I idle around upper 20s to low 30s.

happy building!

if you have any other questions i'll try to help you out!

also- look on newegg.com before you buy anything, it gives some solid reviews on various computer parts and Tom's Hardware.