Im looking to get a PC to play games on ONLY. Im new to the whole PC gaming genre (i use the xbox), i want a PC that can handle HALO, Half-Life 2, and all of the other high res games which are due for release.

Can you give me any recomendations? thx

P.S. I have around £1000 to spend on the PC.

Thx

I would say to look at around on the internet for the system requirements of those games, and then buy a computer that exceeds the requirements of the most processing intensive game.

u should look for the following config:
P4 2.4Ghz upwards
256 or more DDR Ram
a graphics card with at least 64MB of DDR video memory and hardware transform and lighting support. Budget concious: XFX Geforce 5200 Budget unconcious: Geforce fx 5900 ultra.
that should let u play the games u have mentioned.
good luck!!

neonuker2004-- The games he listed require higher specs than what you have said.

I recommend:
2.6-3.06ghz
GeForce 4 128mb or GeForce FX 1.28mb or equivalent.
512mb or RAM---Although games nowadays recommend around 1gb
And-For Half-Life 2, I beta tested an E3 version of this game and just the beta took more than 3gb of my HD... so look for a fairly large hard drive.

Get yourself these and make a comp from scratch.

Processor - Amd Athlon XP Processor 2400+ or higher is fine enough

Video Card - DO NOT listen to these guys. Get yourself a ATi Radeon 9600 Pro(which is way better than FX) or if you're wanting a decent cheap video card, get a Geforce 4 Ti 4200. Test Results show that Geforce FX sucks badly and it is WAY slower than ATi Radeon. Half-Life 2 is best for ATi Radeon 9600 Pro.

RAM - Get at least 512mb

Hard Drive - 60gb hdd with dma is enough for even an extreme gamer. i got a 40gb and have no problems.

Cd-Rom - Keep the old ones you have, as long as they are decent. Buy yourself a DVD-ROm if you want.

Sound Card - Creative PCI series

Speakers - I use a headphone for LiveChat CS 1.5. Get ALtec Lansing though if you want surround speakers.

Monitor - Doeent really matter, but 17inch flat screen would be nice to have

I concur with [d]lod's recommendations.

But realistically you'll probably end up using your comp for more than just gaming, so investing in things like a DVDROM or a CDRW might be a good idea.

Have fun.

- mako

A good gaming machine can get very expensive. Check www.alienware.com for some great examples.

i agree with alienware they provide u all fetures with top lined and ready for use with any latest game realese! ;)