Looking to build a PC later in the year, don't have a clue where to begin?

[Deleted]

Hi there, folks.

Looking to build a desktop PC but honestly don't have a clue where to begin.

Budget: Max £750 although would be great if I could get what I want for less.
Resolution: What is the difference?
Games/Settings Desired: WoW on good settings (including WoD).
Anything Else: Not really, just the usual. Browsing, forums, music etc.
Country: England
Parts for Reuse: None
OS: Needed
Peripherals: I have a mouse, nothing else.

Basically this PC will be used by myself for some light gaming and my partner for general browsing, skyping etc. The only game I intend to play regularly is WoW, although I have a friend who plays a ton of different games, would be cool if I could join him on some of the games he plays. Things like DayZ, Total War games.

Also would like a system with potential to be upgraded and all that once I broaden my knowledge on the subject. I wouldn't mind getting budget parts now which could be upgraded later, for example, as long as they fit the requirements. If possible I would like to get very good base components to begin with, ie. the parts which can't be upgraded.

[Deleted]

These are the parts I'd look at getting right now:

PCPartPicker part list / Price breakdown by merchant / Benchmarks

Storage: Crucial M500 240GB 2.5" Solid State Disk (£85.00 @ Amazon UK)
Case: Corsair 200R ATX Mid Tower Case (£45.90 @ Amazon UK)
Power Supply: Antec High Current Gamer 620W 80+ Bronze Certified Semi-Modular ATX Power Supply (£69.23 @ Amazon UK)
Optical Drive: Samsung SH-224DB/BEBE DVD/CD Writer (£11.78 @ CCL Computers)
Total: £211.91
(Prices include shipping, taxes, and discounts when available.)
(Generated by PCPartPicker 2014-03-09 09:22 GMT+0000)

The DVD burner is optional, which would save you some money right off the bat. And for £200, youi get a sizable SSD, a decent quality case and a PSU that should run neatly right out of the box. I would at least consider waiting for everything else, as NVidia have their Maxweel-architecture cards coming out later this year and there's the Haswell refresh coming up sooner rather than later.

[Shmiles]

I'd also reccommend getting a decent graphics card if you plan on playing the Total War games. Something around the 200 range I guess?
Also 4gig RAM, an i3. I'm from Australia so I'm not sure of the difference in prices over there.

As for resolution, I'd try and get a widescreen monitor in there somewhere, because you really do need it.

[Lapetos]

If you're looking to build it later in the year then it really is best if you ask a few days before ordering... simply being as new tech means new prices that change on a month to month basis!

[Cyrops]

Also would like a system with potential to be upgraded and all that once I broaden my knowledge on the subject. I wouldn't mind getting budget parts now which could be upgraded later, for example, as long as they fit the requirements. If possible I would like to get very good base components to begin with, ie. the parts which can't be upgraded.

Buying parts now that you can upgrade later, it's a very difficult task. The only 'system' than you can upgrade is something that is stripped down from full build, for example no aftermarket cooler, no GPU, no SSD, half the RAM. If you buy 'budget' parts now, and later plan to buy high end parts, you will just waste money for the budget parts.
If you plan to buy the PC later, then hold on buying anything until you are ready to buy everything. Prices may vary greatly within the same week.