How should I start building my PC?

[CatFangs806]

Mudface said:

Slimebeast said:

Soleron said:

Looked up a few more parts, to save you from that ridiculous DVD drive price.

Here's the PC I'm recommending:

CPU: AMD Phenom II X3 720 ($120)
Graphics: AMD Radeon HD 4850 ($100)
Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-MA770-UD3 [AMD 770 chipset, Socket AM2+] ($75)
4GB DDR2-800 RAM [5-4-4-15 timings] ($48)
640GB HDD ($75)
DVD Drive/Burner ($29)
Case + 500W PSU (~$100?)
Windows Vista OEM ($100)

About $650 for the whole thing, and as I said will play anything you throw at it.

Concerning Windows, you have to choose whether you want 32-bit or 64-bit, or even whether you're going to wait until Windows 7 in which case I would wait until it comes out then get a DirectX11 video card, should be a lot faster at the same price.

I haven't chosen a case as it's a personal thing, but get one with a PSU already in it and remember it's cosmetic so don't go overboard.

Also if you have more money than $650 to throw at it I can suggest some faster parts - Radeon HD4870 or a quad-core Phenom. But only if you need it, if it's just 1600x1200 gaming on High then this'll be great.

This is very very good. Extremely valuable PC that is balanced in such a way that it will last you 3-4 years playing all the latest games if you make sure to switch the GPU after 1.5-2 years.

Seconded. Excellent build. For future proofing, go for a 64 bit version of Windows (there's no reason not to these days) and also see if you can wangle a free upgrade to Windows 7.

I've heard lots of bad things about 64 bit, mainly that a lot of programs don't support it. Is this true? I heard XP 64 bit was terrible because of this. Will Vista or 7 64 bit have the same problems or are they fixed?