Getting a gaming rig. Buy or Build?

[Epoch]

Nabraham said:

Epoch said:

tallgnome said:
Whats your price range?

MAX I would spend would be $1500. But that owuld take some convincing.  I'm comfortable with $1200-1300.

 

Dude, f that. You can build a kick ass rig for under 1,000. Especially if you have the monitor and can get the OS for cheap.

Alright, so any idea what parts I should start with?  I have very little knowledge of individual components, which is why I'm hesitant to just buy a bunch of stuff and slap it together and hope it works.

Also: it appears that I can get Windows 7 for free from my school?? This seems very odd to me, also whats the difference between Windows 7 Pro x64 vs Windows 7 Pro x86 ??