Wow, those are still damn low fps rates... Crysis is the epitome of horrible optimization! Why would you build a rig around that atrocious game anyway?

I haven't played many new computer games. I thought that was where it was at as far as powerful games was.

@Mummelmann

No. Crisis is well optimized. It's demanding because it's so advanced. But I agree that it don't look as great as it is advanced. But I fink other devs can do much better looking games with that engine (like the forest mod).

@Sharky54

You mite want to check if the forest texture mod to Crisis requires even better hardware than vanilla Crisis.

Nevermind I just found out. :P

Okay I would guess so. I won't be making this untill starcraft 2 comes out anyway. So I have quite some time. I don't need to be able to play Crysis and its mods at 100% power to enjoy the game.

Vanilla always means the un-modded version of a game.

Yeah I just googled it :P I have always been more into console games with no mods. Wait a second. Are there starcraft mods? hmm

General advice:

- Always spend the most on the graphics card. Spend a lot more on the graphics card than the CPU as most games are GPU-limited. Since this is the most important part, choose a budget for this and then design your PC around it.

- 4GB of RAM is sufficient for anyone. Don't worry about the speed or brand of the memory unless you're overclocking. DDR2 is much cheaper than DDR3 at the moment, and DDR3 provides little benefit, so DDR3 platforms are not good value even for high-end systems.

- Any motherboard will do. The features and so forth don't really affect performance. Just make sure it supports the CPU you want to buy. You should probably buy a motherboard without integrated graphics but with integrated sound.

- Buy Vista 64-bit for 4GB of RAM, or 32-bit for 3GB or less. There is no compelling reason to buy 64-bit except for the RAM limitation. XP isn't really an option anymore, despite its better performance, because it's eight years old.

- Beyond the CPU and Graphics card, there is nothing worth spending money on. Any spare cash could always be used to improve the CPU.

- If you are going to be doing multimedia encoding or other CPU-intensive work, a quadc-re is appropriate. For gaming alone, it is MUCH better value to get a dual-core - they tend to be both faster and cheaper.

- Multiple-card Crossfire or SLI is not worth it. If you have a huge monitor, then it can be worth it to get two-on-one card. The HD4850X2, HD4870X2 or GTX295 are the options there depending on price point.

- For a high-end gaming PC, you want Radeon HD48xx or Geforce GTX2xx graphics.. For dual-core CPUs, the Athlon X2 7xxx or any Intel Core 2 Duo E5xxx, E7xxx or E8xxx will do. For quad-cores, the AMD Phenom II 9xx or Core 2 Quad Q9xxx are the best choices.

--

With that in mind, here are my suggestions, depending on dual or quad choice per above:

AMD Phenom II X4 920 or Intel Core 2 Duo E8400. The Intel will be faster in dual-threaded apps; the Phenom faster in quad-threaded. These are the best options at a reasonable price point; there are diminishing returns above this.

ATI Radeon HD4870 graphics. If you can go higher, my limit for a sane value would be the HD4850 X2.

I would probably go with a quad core.I rather be able to play games on this computer for like 6 years lol. I don't need to play games on the highest settings. I just want a computer that will be able to last me with games. Sounds like a pretty good setup. I will see what my brother thinks too. He can build the stuff, but he isn't very up to date on what chips do what etc etc.

Great. A X4 920 / HD 4870 combo would be great then. Should play all games except Crysis on the highest settings at resolutions of 1600x1200 or below. For a suggested build like this, how about:

http://www.anandtech.com/guides/showdoc.aspx?i=3497&p=4

You can cut the speakers, monitor, keyboard, and maybe the case/power supply if you have one. That will bring it to about $1000. Ignore the "value midrange" label - they have a warped sense of perspective. That will run all games great.

Well I mean I want to play the current games at the highest settings. I just don't think 3 -5 years from now when I can only play games at half settings that I will care very much. Ya dig? :]