If you want a progressive build, then start by getting good basics with a plan to save up until you can complete the build with good remaining parts. That in turn means you have 2 options, depending on what your immediate budget and needs are.
And as a note before I start explaining, needs refers to what you want to run on the PC (e.g. if you're happy with, say, Lego games or Valve games, games with lower requirements, as opposed to the latest Battlefield and Call of Duty games which are designed to demonstrate the capabilities of the latest flagship graphics technologies). "Gaming PC" can refer to a PC that can run facebook games and flash games, and it can also refer to enthusiast grade 4k resolution monitor gaming to make Crysis 3 as beautiful as can be. It can also refer to many levels inbetween.
Two routes, AMD and Intel.
AMD route means getting an APU (AMD's version of a CPU and GPU put together). The processing side of an APU is fairly weak (compared to Intel), but the integrated graphics is far better (good enough to play most games). AMD APUs also tend to end up much cheaper than the Intel route, although if you add a graphics card later down the line, potentially setting up CrossFire between the APU and GPU, the APU will be the bottleneck of the system.
- CPU (APU): A10 7850K Black Edition, £130. 7700K version for £120.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-F2A88X-D3H, £62.
- RAM: Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Racing 2x4GB (2133Mhz), £75. Slower (1600Mhz) RAM can be found for £60 too.
- HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Blue, £44.
- Power supply: Corsair CX500M, £52.
- DVD: Any, usually £12-13.
- Case (quiet): Fractal R4, £80.
- Case (cooling): Corsair Carbide 300R, £65.
No graphics card, but it has all the basics for £415-456. Cheaper cases do exist, but your choice of case will often end up in what you find
aesthetically pleasing (like
this casein the system I built last week for my brother). Likewise, cheaper motherboards do exist, but for a progressive build I think spending that extra £10 makes a significant difference in quality. APUs benefit from faster RAM speed because that's what the graphics use. Not much else to say.
Intel route means having a much stronger CPU, but the integrated graphics are subpar. Sure, it can run Crysis (at lowish settings), and will play games, but the framerates tend to be lower and some games create some quirky effects (like missing textures in Borderlands). On the other hand, when you finally put a good mid-range or high end graphics card in, it will last you years.
- CPU: Core i5-4870 (K version is £6 more), £162.
- Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-Z87-HD3, £79.
- RAM: Corsair DDR3 Vengeance Racing 2x4GB (2133Mhz), £75. Slower (1600Mhz) RAM can be found for £60 too.
- HDD: 1TB WD Caviar Blue, £44.
- Power supply: Corsair CX500M, £52.
- DVD: Any, usually £12-13.
- Case (quiet): Fractal R4, £80.
- Case (cooling): Corsair Carbide 300R, £65.
Again, no graphics card, but it's a strong system at £474-511. This time there is no point getting cheaper motherboards, but you can scale back on the CPU if you don't mind lower clock speeds (around £10 per 0.2Ghz). Faster RAM speeds give Haswell a 5-15% performance boost (more than any other Intel chipset before), but that's marginal in the bigger picture (then again, it's only £15 too, so it depends on budget).
For graphics, a GTX 750 Ti can be found for £110-125 depending on overclocks, 760 for £200, and 770 for £240-260. 750 Ti is enough for playing any game, although the 760 has more power and will handle higher resolutions and anti-aliasing (smoothing of graphics), whilst the 770 is high end and will take anything you throw at it.
These are just example builds to give you ideas. I can make more specific suggestions depending on your feedback (needs and whatnot). Also, shopping around can find some better deals too (e.g. ebuyer). I've also not included any SSD (which I strongly recommend when you can afford it), monitor, keyboard, mouse, Windows or extras (like memory card readers or speakers or CPU cooling).
BBL.
