Hello,

Just as the thread title implies I am planning to build myself a PC in very near future considering that my old PC died on me and I cant use a laptop for proper gaming. Anyways, I would appreciate any advice, hints, tips and links that you guys can provide me so I can build a better PC for a lower price without blowing myself up or destroying expensive parts.

My main goal is to build a PC capable of running all current games on at least High setting and be able to play games several years into the future. 

Here are some specific details:

Budget: 600$-800$

I already have all necessary accessories I just need to build the tower.

Any case that works, I could care less about "cool" looking cases.

Motherboard: PCI-express 2.0 slot(1 or 2, preferrably two) , in the end all I really need from the motherboard is to be able to support all other parts and not constrict my future upgrades: I hated in the past having to buy a new PC just because my motherboard could not fit more ram or support better video cards.

CPU: from what I have heard CPUs dont need to be that powerful since most games dont use that much processing power.

RAM: at least two gigs, I would like to know how big the difference is between DDR2 and DDR3

Video Card: I think any good 512mb PCI-express 2.0 card for a reasonable price would work

Power supply: I have no idea here, need advice

Any other parts that I can not think of at the moment.

I will later on edit my post to show the parts that I am thinking of using for my PC for feedback. Thank you in advance.

I know nothing about PCs but...

I wish you good luck!

i like asus motherboards i have it on my pc for 2 years and never had any driver problems, cpu any decent daul core cpu at around 2.4 - 3.0 ghz will do,
video card i dont know really but i heard the new 9600gt is very good and cheap
power suply get one thats about 600 to 700 watts

edit: forgot about the ram DDR2 is the standard for now but DDR3 is faster though its very expensive 

gotta be careful with the power supply - don't go for the cheap stuff.
I'll be building my own PC soon as well.

600 watt is fine, you're usually good if you're above 400-450.

Graphics cards, I'd try to find a deal on an 8800 GT or something similar.

Also you don't have to worry about cool-looking cases, but the more spots for fans the better...get plenty of circulation in your tower.

I am looking through some motherboard on newegg right now and I am having trouble trying to decide which one I should pick, mainly because of the fact that it is hard to tell whether the motherboard has a PCI-express 2.0 or not.

One site that will help a lot is http://www.newegg.com/

They have good deals on all items.

For the video card I would suggest an nVidea card preferably in the 8000 or 9000 series. The CPU is not as important as the rest of the PC but still get as good as you can with the money you have. I only have an ancient 1.8 GHz single core Pentium IV Processor and I can run Crysis well with some things set to medium and high with relatively no lag.

Well, i was currently looking at building one myself recently, and i have a decent build that i can send you at 900 bucks (not counting shipping and handling, unfortunately) that came at 2.4 GHz quad core (easily over-clocked to 3.0), 2gb DDR2 ram, and a geforce 8800 GT card (256mb though), along with a fairly upgradeable MOBO. let me know if you want me to send you it and see if it works for you.

as for your questions -

DDR2 and DDR3 - the difference seems to be that one can take in more data, but returns it slower. Meaning to get the best use out of DDR3 you need a fairly large data going into it - which explains why the highest DDR2 is roughly 1060 or 1300 MB, but DDR3 currently goes up to 2000 or so. but basically, it won't make a significantly difference. lookie this thread if you want to read it for yourself, since i probably did a crap job at summarizing it - i don't get it very well myself.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/249591-30-ddr3-ddr2-ddr2


As for power consumption, a friend of mines recently showed me this site:

http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp

i haven't used it yet, but it should give a fairly good estimate of your set-up's power consumption. basically - if you plan to upgrade, try going 50-100watts over what they give you.

And of course, when buying pieces, i recommend Newegg.com. Decent prices, easy to navigate after a while, etc., etc. it just kicks ass.

Hope that helps =]

 EDIT: I see you already know about Newegg, goodie. just a note - on the side bar when looking at power sources, there will be "guided search", "power search", and "Advanced search". If you click on Advanced seach you can specify components, such as "PCI Express 2.0 Slots", and select how many you want. 

just a side note - i've been really fond of this one:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.aspx?item=N82E16813131284
Good FSB, 2 PCI 2.0 slots, 4 RAM slots and supports DDR2, and a bunch of other crap. enjoy

Antec Sonata III 500 Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail
Item #: N82E16811129024
Return Policy: Standard Return Policy -$30.00 Instant

You should definately look at that one. $90 for a good quality case with a good 500w PSU.

Theres also one for $60 with a 430w PSU

Now you don't need a huge PSU unless you intend to SLI/Crossfire your cards. If you intend to SLI/Crossfire then you're better off with either Intel or AMD motherboards and Graphics cards as Nvidia chipsets are crap and expensive.

The question is will you go high end in the future with your graphics cards? If so then you'll need a high wattage PSU with 2 6 pin and 2 8 pin connectors.

I am kinda conflicted on SLI with video cards, on one hand it would be nice to have 2 512mb video cards provide 1 gig of video memory but I have seen quite a bit of discussion talking about how it is better to just have one expensive/superior video card due to cards in SLI not being as efficient.