Building a gaming PC for the first time.

[CAPTCHA]

I'm looking get myself a gaming PC, but I don't want to buy premade because I'd rather this was a learning experience (as well as save some money). Still, as I'm new to this I need the help of you more experienced PC gamers.

I figure the first thing should be to getting the CPU, Motherboard, Memory and GPU, but frankly I'm a little overwhelmed by the choices available. Would something like this be acceptable or will I need something more powerful?

Intel Pentium Dual Core E5700 3.0Ghz
Gigabyte GA-G41MT-D3 Micro-ATX Motherboard
8GB DDR3 Memory
KFA2 NVIDIA GeForce GT 220 PCI-E Graphics Card - 1GB

That'll cost just over £200. I might be able to push it a bit further if required, though I'm kind of stretching my budget as it is.

I'm not sure what type of GPU will fit. The MB above gives me 1x PCI Express x16 slot, 1x PCI Express x1 slot and 2x PCI slots. With that in mind would I be right in thinking the GPU above will fit. It say the BUS for the GPU requires a "Express 2.0-compliant MB with dual-width X16 graphics slot".

 

[5t3v0]

I would recomend going for a quad core if you can afford it. But maybe wait for more experienced ones to say that, Im only taking from friends experience as I have only changed the videocard in mine, but I am looking towards building one. Btw, make sure you have a 64 bit os so you can getthe most out of all that ram.

 

[darth.pixie]

Honestly, I'd get a better graphic card or a quad core and buy only 4 gb of RAM. That's just a personal opinion as that's what I have and it works very well. I dislike paying too much for RAM.

 

[Fenring]

Get something newer than a C2D. That is going to hold you back majorly. Also same fore the GT220. Neither of those are that fancy. you won't need all that RAM if you're running those.

 

[ChipSandwich]

4GB RAM is fine, as far as the money goes, get a good GPU and a decent CPU. Most games don't really need 8GB RAM and it's easy to upgrade anyway.

Also, http://tinyurl.com/FalconGuide for a few extra pointers. Figure out what YOU need.

 

[SomeLameStuff]

You don't really need 8 GB of RAM unless you're running a 64 bit OS. Cut back to around 4 GB and use the money to bump up your graphics card and/or a quad core processor.