I want to build a gaming computer, for pretty cheap. I want to spend somewhere around $500 bucks, maybe $600. I have no idea where to start, with the componets, I don't plan to overclock, unless you think its needed (i don't know how). So any advice would be greatly appericated!

What games do you need the pc to be quick enough for?
Are you an AMD or Intel man?

You really need to answer those questions before we can really help.

It wouldn't hurt if your location was in your profile so we know where in the world you are, there are quite a few countries out there that use dollars.

Im in U.S.A, i perfer intel. I would like to play most current games like Halo 2. Im thinkin about uppin my budget to $800 if needed. But cheaper is better. Ive done alot of research about what things to get. But i can't decide.

Next, can you buy online or do you have to rely on local shops?

I can buy online and have been looking at newgg. Also this is my first pc build.

Hmmm, well I'm in the UK and newegg don't export to here so I'm not the best person to advise you really.

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3600+ Brisbane - $65.00
Biostar tForce 550 ATX AM2 Motherboard - $78.99
Corsair ValueSelect 1GB (512MB x2) DDR2-667 RAM - $64.99
Seagate Barracuda 160GB SATA-2 HDD - $56.99
eVGA e-GeForce 7600 GT 256MB -$109.99

Other:
ASUS 80mm CPU Cooler - $8.99
Apevia Turbo-Link 500W Power Supply - $39.99

Total Price (With shipping) - $438.22

This build is the cheapest I have seen that is good enough to play games with, it doesn't include a Case, monitor, keyboard & mouse so keep that in mind, a decent case is about $40+ but usually aren't good in quality or have like 1 fan ( which is very bad for a gaming PC )

I used this case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144128 it's expensive so I would wait untill someone else picks out a case :)

I am building another system, but this is what I am going to do..

With the $600 bucks you can build AMD X2 X64 6000+ (3.0GHz) and motherobard round $214.. www.pricewatcher.com Check there first. If you got a staples in your town you can get MAXTOR and WD SATA 500GB drives for $139. The 720GB are $234, 1TB cost $320.

CPU AMD X2 X64-bit 6000+ 3.0GHz
CASE + PSU 600W
2x 80mm and 2x 120mm Case Turbo Fans
MOBO (MSI)
RAM 2-4GB
HDD 500GB or 720GB (1TB if you have that in your budget)
Video Card (PCI-Express 16X)
Sound Card (PCI-Express)
Optical Drives (CDRW/DVDRW)

stuff to play with...
Joystick USB2
Steering Wheel if you want to drive vehicles

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz 4M shared L2 Cache LGA 775 Processor - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115029) - $194.99
GIGABYTE GA-P35-DS3L LGA 775 Intel P35 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128059) - $99.99
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227139) - $51.99 after $40 rebate
HIS Hightech H195PRF256DDN-R Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161060) - $119.99 after $40 rebate
SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151153) - $31.99
Seagate
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 ST3250310AS 250GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148261) - $64.99
OCZ StealthXStream OCZ600SXS ATX12V / EPS12V 600W Power Supply 100 - 240 V CB, CE, CSA, UL, FCC - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341010) - $74.99 after $15 rebate

Grand Total = $638.93. That leaves you with enough money for a suitable case, monitor, mouse and keyboard. A great budget system with a lot of power. Good luck and let us know how it goes. :)

Sweet build Rage :D

If I do build a new system it'll have to be that one ( after tweaking some of the parts ofcourse ;) )

The only problem I have is choosing a good case when im building stuff because I don't know which is a really good brand for cases, I usually get a full tower that has alot of fans ( like this one: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811133154 )

The only problem I have with a full tower like the one I linked is that once all the parts are in it can easily be around 80-100 pounds which is insane!! :D

Wow thanks for all the help! Im thinkin about this setup,

Intel Core 2 Duo E6750 Conroe 2.66GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6750, XFX MB-N650-IUL9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard ($264.98 combo)
Apevia Turbo-Link 500W Power Supply -$39.98
OCZ Platinum Revision 2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory - $51.99
HIS Hightech H195PRF256DDN-R Radeon X1950PRO 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card - $119.99
SAMSUNG Black 20X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 12X DVD+R DL 20X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 12X DVD-RAM 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM 2MB Cache SATA 20X DVD±R DVD Burner - $31.99
Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 (Perpendicular Recording) ST3320620A 320GB 7200 RPM IDE Ultra ATA100 Hard Drive - $79.99

Which would bring my total up to $588.92 bucks. Does this sound good? I also was thinkin about this cpu and motherboard combo instead of intel
AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Windsor 3.0GHz Socket AM2 Processor Model ADX6000CZBOX
ABIT KN9 SLI AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI MCP ATX AMD Motherboard -$254.98.
Which one seems better? And anything i should put in/take out. Thanks for all the help! :)

@TimeParadox, thanks bud. I try. :) Although I do agree with you, paying VAT in the UK sucks.
@snowthedirtbub, The Intel one is far better. So stick with it. Your build is pretty good too if you're not planning for a dual card setup or for an upgrade to the latest Penryn processors and DDR3 RAM when they're readily available, which the P35 mobo I suggested will afford you. But I'd change one thing. The PSU you're thinking of getting is from a brand that is known to produce rubbish ones. Get a good-quality 500W one from Antec, Thermaltake, OCZ, Corsair, Enermax, FSP Fortron, CoolerMaster, Silverstone, Seasonic or PC Power & Cooling and you should be fine. Think everything through and decide on the parts. In any case, you'll have an excellent PC. Good luck with it and let us know if you have any more questions. :)

Thanks for all your help. if anyone has any recommendations about books or websties on how to get put computers toghter im all ears. Is theis a good case? http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811144119

The case is not a bad one, but I wouldn't trust the PSU that comes with it. Apevia isn't exactly known for its stellar reputation as a PSU maker. ;)

Most of the time the PSU that comes with the case sucks badly, just get a PSU that me or Rage suggested and you'd do good :D


Also make sure if you're going to be playing tons of games ( that are system resource hoggers like BioShock ) to get more then 1 fan so you can get proper ventilation, The big *** full towers usually have 3-4 fans which is really good if you have a high wattage PSU ( around 600-700 is enough if you don't go crazy and install 5000 DX10 cards or something :D )

Alright probably gonn go with rages setup. one last question (most likely not)
how hard is it to overclock, and if i do overclock could it save me money?

OCing is not difficult at all, since it doesn't involve getting down and dirty with anything. When it does, it's usually something as simple as changing a heatsink off a GPU or CPU. Most of the time, you OC by tweaking settings in the motherboard's BIOS. OCing normally allows you to save money by getting you the most bang for your buck. For example, instead of buying an E6600, you could buy an E6320 and OC it to the same speed as the E6600. But in your case, if you're getting the E6750, it's already quite fast so if you overclock it even a little bit, it will give you a good boost in performance. There are lots of great guides out there for OCing. Google for them.

how about this power supply http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817171016, and this case http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16811119077 . Both got good reviews, and said good airflow. And they are Coolmaster which Rage said is good. Thanks for all ur guy's help, youve really helped! :) And whicp OS, im thinkin about vista, is it still to early for vista? Should i stick with xp?

Yeah that PSU will do fine. The case looks alright too. As for the OS, go with XP SP2 ATM. You could upgrade to Vista later when it's more stable.

AMD Athlon FX-62 Dual-core beast is $169 at newegg. Socket AM2. Do it!

An E6320 OC'd beats the crap out of the FX-62, and then some. And for the same price as well.

I agree Rage, but AMD = the best :D

But if he doesn't want to bother with overclocking then it wouldn't.

Either way, LGA775 or AM2, C2D or FX, roughly comparable in terms of price and performance.

OCing is not very difficult since it'd just involve changing settings in the BIOS. And if it gives you a performance boost of that calibre, why not do it? The E6750 is blazes faster than the FX-62 for the extra $30. So it is a better buy in either case.

Would a Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 Conroe 2.33GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80557E6550 - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115030) + XFX MB-N650-IUL9 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i Ultra ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813141004) combo ($246 after 30 dollar rebate compared to the 295 for the other 2) work in place of the E6750 CPU and P35 Mobo? I'm in a similar situation, but money's a bit tight so I'm trying to shave dollars where I can. As long as the performance hit isn't too bad and there aren't compatibility issues, saving $50 would be nice. I don't mind sacrificing the ability to play the most hardcore top-of-the-line games out now for saving some money if that's what it comes to.

Yeah it would work fine as well.

is the intel e6750 a good overclocker? Just in case i decide to do it sometime, oh yea where do i get those static band things? iv never seen them before, do i need one of those

All Core 2 Duos are great overclockers. And yes, you'll need the static wristband. It's available in almost all small computer shops.