What parts would I need to build a good gaming computer?

[VivaLaGloria]

And is it hard to actually build a computer.
I've had no experience building a computer before but I'm not bad with computers in general, I just really need to know what I need, where I put them and how do I get it working.
I've got a bit of a budget roughly £600-£750
someone help?

 

[slh28]

What are you using the computer for? e.g. gaming (if so which games), video encoding or just general usage?
Does the budget include the monitor and peripherals and do you have any parts you're going to reuse (e.g. DVD drive, hard drive, case, etc.)?

 

[xcylent]

Well in the title OP mentioned he wanted a good gaming computer, so let's assume its for the likes of BF3, Crysis, Skyrim, etc?
750 pounds is more than enough for a decent gaming computer.
Just a heads up before you buy the parts and everything, make sure you do your homework. watch a bunch of 'how to' videos (youtube have a great variety), and maybe find some of the more... personal parts yourself (like the Case, or how much RAM you want, or whether you want an SSD, etc). we can help you choose parts, and we can advise for/against certain parts, but I find it's usually better when one picks all the original parts out for themselves.
apart from that, further information on your behalf would help us help you. like slh said, we need to know things like:

Does the budget include the monitor and peripherals and do you have any parts you're going to reuse (e.g. DVD drive, hard drive, case, etc.)?

Also to answer your first question, no it is absolutely not difficult to assemble a PC.
If you can build stuff with Lego, you can build a PC. most of it is just plugging things into the motherboard. Now that is a bit of a generalization, since you will also need to install software, but as far as the physical task of assembly goes, it's dead simple. just make sure you know each part like the back of your hand, where it goes, and what it's supposed to do. If you know what, you could assemble a PC blindfolded.

Make sure you get back to us if you have any further questions

 

[Cinders]

Your focus should be:

A gaming GPU. Generally these types of video cards start with 256bit memory access and tend to be fairly expensive. You'll buy a card that will play the games you intend to play, with all the eye candy you want, at your monitor's screen resolution and will still give you 60 frames (hopefully) per second. You could easily spend your entire budget here, so you'll have to make hard decisions.

At least a quad core CPU. If you're going to go with AMD then a six or eight core CPU will do nicely.

A good quality motherboard like Gigabyte, ASUS, MSI or maybe even ASRock, just try to avoid ECS, BIOSTAR, JETWAY, FOXCONN, ZOTAC and maybe even ASRock. Yes I know I mentioned ASRock twice. You don't need a gaming board to get great performance. Usually the big difference between an expensive board and an inexpensive board are a few onboard devices you wouldn't normally use or extreme overclocking ability or CrossFire or SLI again something you probably won't use. You don't need to overclock or have CrossFire or SLI to get great frame rates if you buy the right pieces.

Two DIMMS for a total of 8GB of DDR3 Memory from the QVL (Qualified Vendors List) from the motherboard you wish to buy at the speed (or greater) and voltage (or lower) you'll want to run the memory at, so you won't have to overclock. Make sure that both the speed and voltage are available for the memory from the motherboard.

A good reliable quality power supply like Seasonic or similar because your computer will probably last no longer the your PSU. When the power supply burns out your computer usually does too. I like PC Power & Cooling, but the ones I like are probably out of your price range.

I try to buy hard drives that have 5 year warranties. An SSD might be out of the picture right now.

 

[xcylent]

to follow up on what cinders said, definitely if you're gonna be gaming then you need to invest a fair amount in the GPU.
as for the CPU and motherboard, I have a 6-Core AMD CPU (3.3GHz), and an ASRock Extreme 4.
honestly, I'm gonna say this combination packs a lot more punch than I expected. anyway, I can confirm the reliability of ASRock boards, mine's been running fine, with zero problems. they also have some cool features you get on the driver disk, like one which lets you boot up in like 8 seconds, rather than 40-50 (non-SSD).
also, ASRock is relatively overclocking-friendly, if that's what you're in to.
anyway though, ASRock are actually a great brand, not quite enough to rival the likes of ASUS and Gigabyte, but for the nicely-specced, mid-range builder, they are fine.
8GB RAM is a must. it may be a little overkill, but it's well worth it. I was always previously using 2GB or 4GB systems, and once I built my rig with 8GB, it was the greatest feeling knowing you can run a bunch of programs and games without capping your memory.
As for the PSU, Seasonic is a great brand, but they tend to be on the more expensive side. some good alternatives are:
Corsair
Coolermaster (Silent Pro series)
Silverstone (strider series)
Thermaltake (toughpower series)
Antec (truepower series)

Those are just off the top of my head though. I may have missed some

 

[ryan gorko]

I'm hoping you guys can help me out cause I'm a newbie to pc gaming and I have no idea what to purchase but I need to get a monitor. I've been looking around everywhere and I finally found this website that has reviews http://www.pcitup.com/ and I'm considering the asus monitor that I found on that site but I was hoping some of you might be able to tell me how asus products work with pc gaming and if it's a good way to go, if not I would appreciate some suggestions of trusted brands for pc gaming?