Ok.  So here in Australia building a PC yourself seems to be a more expensive proposition than in the USA.

A bit about myself first.  I have never built a computer.  My family operates one primary PC, an arrangement I am comfortable with as my parents foot the bill for it.  Our current one is starting to give us issues, so my Dad finally seems to be convinced to purchase a new one.  All that is needed is the box (and possibly a keyboard and mouse) as the monitor, printer and speakers will be canibalized from the current PC. 

The resolution of the primary monitor according to Vista's system performance information is 1152x864.  It is highly unlikely I will convince my Dad to foot the bill for a second monitor, but if anyone thinks a cheap and better one can be had, let me know anyway.

I have a very good non-technical understanding of computers.  By that I mean I can tell you what needs to go into one, and what you're likely to get out of one.  What I can NOT tell you is anything to do with compatibility, the order that things need to be put together, etc.

So what I would like from everyone here is first advice.  This is the family's computer, I cannot afford to fuck it up on my parents dime.  I would take every care, take any advice given here, and read several online manuals should I choose to build the computer.  Given that, do people still feel it is advisable from a cost/performance standpoint to build my own PC?  Is it likely someone in my position will screw it up?

If you think I should build one, I would adore your advice. 

I would need a:

CPU

Motherboard

GPU

RAM

HDD

PSU

Case

Good disk drive (good quality DVD dual layer burner will do, but again if someone feels there are now decent Blu-Ray options out there...)

Anything else you can think of.

Here are what appear to be the two best online price comparison/shopping points I can find for Australia.

http://www.gamedude.com.au/

http://www.gocomp.com.au/

http://www.shopbot.com.au/

As for budget, I think I can get my Dad to agree to $AU1800 (again, dont get too excited Americans, that wont go nearly as far as $US1800 would in the States.

Please any tech enthusiasts help me build the best PC you think I can for that price, as well as tips for building.  Keep my guidelines in mind, but dont feel too constricted by them.  There are a lot of extremely knowledgable people on this forum and anything you think I should be looking into I am interested to hear about.  I am currently reading through the main "PC Building Thread," but again, it is quite US/Euro specific.

Pretty please :P

familly computer....
well i'd advice for a prebuilt one and upgrade the graphics card in 2 years.

First step to building a PC is to upgrade your old one a few times (like that you triffled with the insides a bit without much risk).

Heck adding ram to your current comp might give it a second life too.

The difficulty with pre-built ones is that they are expensive and often come laden with bloatware.

The other issue is, I could fiddle with my current PC (most pressing issues would be a new GPU then a new CPU, RAM isn't the bottleneck yet), but it is a DELL, and ultimately fiddling would get complicated.  You order a computer and they give you the bare minimum with the additional specifications.  I.e. the moment I update the GPU or CPU, you need to upgrade the PSU and cooling :(

Then you also have the option of customizing by a vendor such as dell. Like that you don't have to bother with the setting up.

Though i found they kind of funnel you to specific build now... and they are less cost attractive than before (I bought from them 4 comps between 2000 and 2004).... the 2010 one I build on my own for much cheaper and better. (Europe though)

On a side note, the CPU is limited by the chipset it's on... it's not really evident to upgrade CPUs as the performance/price increase won't be hudge.
(only time I upgraded a CPU was when I had a dual Pentium comp... bought it with only one exactly for that purpose :p)

** I have no idea of Ausie prices and i'm not particularly PC knowledgable... I just speak of my experience, so if you see advice contrary to mine... they are probably right :-p

If you get the right parts, everything compatible, and if you read a couple of guides and ask for help if you get in trouble then you'll be fine.

It's likely you will screw something up, but not so much that it can't be fixed.

Starcraft you havn't said where in australia you are from, but if you are in the brisbane area i would highly recommend game dude. They will build your system for you for i think about $60 and they do a very good job. Best advice i can give is do some research. Clearly you know the parts that go into a computer so next you have a couple of decisions to make.

AMD or Intel. Research CPU's and decide how much money you want to spend on the cpu. After you decide which CPU you want you need to find a compatible motherboard. This can be confusing at first but generally computer stores will have cpu's listed under there socket type, and motherboards will be listed under this same socket type so just pay attention to this.

Here is a quick thrown together machine i did for $1800.

CPU - AMD Phenom 2 x4 955 be - $200

Motherboard - Asus m4a79t - $240

GPU - XFX 5770 1gb - $200

RAM - G.skill ripjaws 3x2gb (6gb) - $265 (for the lulz)

HDD - Seagate 1tb hdd - $90

PSU - Antec 750w eartwatts - $150

Case - Antec 300 ($65) + 3x additional fans ($20ea=$60) = $125

Good disk drive (good quality DVD dual layer burner will do, but again if someone feels there are now decent Blu-Ray options out there...)

DVD burner - $30

CPU cooler - $70-100

Asus 23.6" 1080p monitor - $240


Total = $1650 approx All prices through gamedude


Anything else you can think of.

I guess u can probably get a blu ray aswell they are about $200... or you could get another gfx card as the m/b i selected is crossfire compatible and so is the case and powersupply.

For $1800 aslong as you steer clear of a harvey norman you are going to get a beast.

OH! and one more thing.. don't listen to what anyone above me has said, don't buy a dell or a prebuilt - remember they have to make a profit too, so if they are competitive its because there items are low quality (which they are).  Just pick out all the parts and have a place like gamedude build it for you.  They have a service center attached to there sales center that help you if you have any problems and will do repairs, etc.

Hey mate, I made a similar thread a couple of months back and then end result is I am now typing on the comp that I built with that advice.

I'll leave the specfics of the components to the guys that know better but I had never built or been involved in building a comp before and I did by nothing more than reading a couple of websites, watching a youtube video or two and taking care with my components while builing.

I ordered all my stuff from Gocomp as I found them to be cheapest, they had all the parts (that weren't in stock) in within 2-3 days and they were constantly in touch via email to let me know how it was going and made a couple of suggestions on swapping out parts for cheaper/better alternatives. The also knocked down the price on a couple of my components when I pushed them.

The only problem I encountered with them is that the switched out the wireless device which I had chosen (which was out of stock) for another which ended up being incompatible with 64bit Windows 7 so make sure you check compatibility, even for the minor components.

p.s. my computer kicks a fair amount of ass and a similiarly spec'd Dell would have cost about 50% more, and all it cost me was a Saturday afternoon.

p.p.s what's your budget?

I'll have a look. Btw do you know Gocomp will build the machine and test it for $100?

This seems like a good build, I might suggest a few changes however. First, you dont need a CPU cooler. Since it's your family's computer, youre not going to be doing any overclocking I'm assuming!! Save that for when you can afford your own. Instead, spend the extra money from that plus the $150 that was left over anyway getting a Radeon 5850 for the video card as the performance increase from the 5770 to 5850 is huge.

If you live near an MSY, I suggest sourcing parts from there as they have very very cheap prices, just don't expect amazing customer service.