I've been contemplating building a gaming PC for quite some time, but have decided to finally take the plunge - albeit at a low level. Since I still intend to be purchasing and playing on consoles primarily, with PC gaming mainly just so I can play some cooperative games with my friends, I don't need one with the greatest of specification. I just want to be able to run games at a comfortable level at 720P resolution on my 42" television. What sort of processor and graphics should I look to? How cheap can I build one to meet this demand?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lGaNceBUXOk

or

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lv60r_cS8kw&feature=c4-overview-vl&list=PL441D9BF9F40D0E5E

Why is it that we can't for some reason keep a solid thread going to contain these questions? They always seem to die..

Anyway, the problem I find with making budget builds is that they always end up being far more expensive than they look as your first build. This isn't necessarily true in your case since you have a tv, but most of the time adding in a monitor, speakers, mouse and keyboard, and most importantly the OS, you tack on a few hundred dollars. It hurts.

Around ￡450 without OS ￡550 with.

Sandy/Ivy i3 or AMD 8320 for a Proccessor (Possibly an i5 but its not really necessary) , GTX650 or 7850 1GB for GPU is your best bet imo.

EDIT - Here's an example http://uk.pcpartpicker.com/user/sev07/saved/1WgU

Know what you mean Renix, it's hard to keep them up and about. Would probably require a mod to sticky it, and do the same with the tech help thread.

As for the OP's question, I'm not sure how to answer that question since the only time i've played on my TV was through my laptop. It entirely depends upon your budget for parts. This would need to include the S&H fees as well. My Case was probably the most expensive to ship to me; think my case was like $150 because I got the Thermaltake Armor series which acts as an ATX/BTX case, and the shipping fee was around $30 to $50.

This is probably the 5th or 6th thread that the OP has made on the topic, always finally ready to "take the plunge" .