You need

1. Raspberry Pi + power supply
2. HDMI cable and possibly HDMI-to-DVI adapter
3. Monitor with HDMI or DVI input
4. 4GB SDHC card
5. Ethernet cable and Internet connection (or Wifi USB adapter)
6. USB Keyboard (prefer one with built-in hub) and mouse

Download Raspbian. I’m currently using “wheezy”:

http://www.raspberrypi.org/downloads

Windows users: Download Win32DiskImager

http://sourceforge.net/projects/win32diskimager/

1. Extract the img file from the zip and use the writer to write to the SD card.
2. Plug in keyboard, mouse, HDMI cable, monitor (turn on monitor), Ethernet, SD card
3. Plug in power
4. You should see an option screen. Select timezone and set your time zone.
5. Then choose expand_rootfs.
6. Choose the auto login option (“Start desktop on boot”)
7. Choose Finish, you will be prompted to reboot, choose Yes
8. After startup you should be in the graphic interface

The official quick start