Sooo I'd like to build a new gaming machine who here can fill me in on what hawt and whats not? lol ok really, I'm just here to get some info because I'm looking to build a decent budget gaming rig for about $500 to $800 bucks. What would be a good build? It doesn't need to have all the bells and whistles just powerful enough so i don't have to upgrade it too much later on. ***NOTE*** I have not attempted to build my own machine before because I had just bought prebuilts in the past because of their low price. I'd like to attempt to build one myself this time and any help would be greatly appreciated. I will also attempt to sell my old prebuilt pc (bought back in 2005) to get some money out of it for a new machine. A list of sites with parts would be nice too! Thanks! Yes I did search Google but i prefer answers from actual people, because some of the guides are outdated. Thanks again for anyone that provides useful information. :)

Do you prefer AMD or Intel? Will you be reusing any old hardware or does a monitor, speakers, keyboard, mouse have to be included in that $500-800? Check out newegg.com for most of your hardware. Frys.com generally has the best deals on RAM. "And that's the fishing line, because Sharkboy said so!"

AMD Athlon 64 X2 System -- $1,004 Case: RAIDMAX Smilodon ATX-612WBP (with 500W PSU) - $94 CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6400+ (3.2 GHz) Retail - $160 Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 (AMD 790X) AM2+ - $123 Memory: Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 2x1-GB - $48 Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $70 Video Card: GeForce 9600 GT 512MB (PCIe) - $144 Monitor: 19" LCD with 5-8ms Refresh - $165 Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0 Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $55 CD/DVD-ROM: Samsung SH-S203B 20X SATA DVD Writer - $24 Communications: Onboard LAN - $0 Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $24 Keyboard: Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard - $15 Operating System: Windows XP Home or Vista Home Basic- $82 OR Intel Core 2 Duo System -- $996 Case: RAIDMAX Smilodon ATX-612WBP (with 500W PSU) - $94 CPU: Core 2 Duo E8200 (2.66GHz) Retail - $185 Cooling: included Retail HSF - $0 Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L (P35) - $90 Memory: Corsair XMS2 PC2-6400 2x1-GB - $48 Hard Drive: Western Digital Caviar SE16 320GB SATA 3.0 Gb/s - $70 Video Card: GeForce 9600 GT 512MB (PCIe) - $144 Monitor: 19" LCD with 5-8ms Refresh - $165 Sound Card: 8-Channel Integrated - $0 Speakers: Logitech X-530 6-Piece Speaker System - $55 CD/DVD-ROM: Samsung SH-S203B 20X SATA DVD Writer - $24 Communications: Onboard LAN - $0 Mouse: Logitech MX310 - $24 Keyboard: Microsoft Digital Media Pro Keyboard - $15 Operating System: Windows XP Home or Vista Home Basic- $82 In line with what jam was speculating about your budget & the possibility of some reusable components, the above is a typical example of a value system you could build today. It was sharkyextreme's May pick. But YMMV & the configuration is -- as always -- subject to changes based on when you actually plan to pull the trigger on the build. Good luck! Jabbering Idiots: Everywhere You Look!

Well the above list is quite a nice build for the budget, and I think besides that you can also consider getting a built one, some of the built ones are quite cheap now, a deal on the Dell Inspiron 530 2.4GHz 1GB 250GB 24 inch desktop is $699, if that video card is weak for gaming, you can consider upgrading it in Dell.