Hi, everyone. I've recently begun thinking about building my own desktop computer instead of buying the alienware laptop from my uncle. I know about the specs on the CPU, the RAM, GPU, Hard Drive, and the optical drive.

I just need your help with this. I know for about $500 or less, I could build a decent gaming machine that could rival some Alienwares out there (okay, not all, but most. I don't have the money for 24 GB of ram. lol).

Here are some parts I was looking at in the store last night.

RAM: 2 GB of Kingston DDR2 ram for $40. I'm thinking about getting two for 4 GB

GPU: A $100 Nvidia Geforce 9400GT

Sound Card: A $20 5.1 sound card (I forgot the company name)

Optical Drive: A $60 DVD drive. I don't remember if it was rewriteable or recordable or not. I'm sure it was at least recordable but I don't remember.

CPU: Where do you buy CPU's from?

Motherboard: Where do you buy these from, too? I know the motherboard is the first step in determining what hardware I need to buy.

And lastly, where do you buy the power supply from and how do I apply that to everything in the machine? I know I'm a noob at this, but I want to create a gaming powerhouse and not have to pay an outragous amount of money for one. Help. I wanna learn how to do this too.

9400gt for $100? Yeesh...

$60 for DVD drive is way too expensive.

A sound card is optional as integrated audio is usually fine.

See here for some good information: http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=366177. Two good PC builds for $550 or $400.

Yeah, I was surprised that the GPU is so cheap for a powerful card. It's not top of the line, but it exceeds Crysis's recommended settings. It also has 1 GB of video memory.

No, a 9400gt is a complete ripoff for that price. Please read that GAF thread OP and go on tomshardware or some such place to research what's involved in building a PC along with other relevant information in regards to part selection and pricing.

Reply back here if you have any unanswered questions after doing some substantial research.

Where are you shopping for these parts? A 9400gt for $100 is too much when you can get a 9800gt on newegg for about the same price. Same thing for a DVD drive, $20 is all you need to spend on your DVD drives and burners.

If you want to build your own PC, newegg is the way to go.

I'll check out Newegg. Only problem is buying online. I don't like putting all my info online, even if it is a trusted source.

Understandable, but the money you can save on buying parts is worth it and they're usually very good with shipping orders quickly. Here, I'll list some prices on newegg.

Ram - G. Skill 2x2gb DDR2 800 $49
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231122

GPU - EVGA 9800 gt $110
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130380

        - or Gigabyte 4850 $120 (more powerful)

        http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814125236

LG DVD burner - $25
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827136144

DVD drive - $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106275

Sound card - Usually you can find it included on motherboards

Hmm, a 9400GT for $100 and a DVD for $60 (!). Do you live in a little village with just one computer vendor within a 100 miles radius or something?

ATI Radeon HD 4850 is the GPU to pick.

1. The 9400GT sucks (SERIOUSLY, DO NOT BUY IT), for a gaming machine I would at least get an HD4850 or GTS250, whichever is cheaper (as they perform similarly). Or even wait until the next set of DX11 GPUs in September time, if you play to get Windows 7.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121253

2. Buy from online, it's cheaper and, honestly, no one ever has problems with Newegg. They have good return/RMA policies and don't rip you off. I'd trust them more than any store.

3. Don't bother with the sound card; motherboard integrated sound is great these days unless you're an audio freak.

4. CPU: For a gaming PC, you buy them from online. I would say get a Phenom II X3 720, seems to be the sweetspot for gaming these days. If you do serious work like audio encoding or rendering then go up to a quad-core like the Phenom II X4 940. In your price range AMD is better value than Intel.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819103649

5. No, motherboard is the LAST step. You choose your CPU and graphics first then get the cheapest board that supports them. All motherboards perform the same these days, you don't need an expensive one. Go Asus or Gigabyte, they're reliable brands. How about an AMD 770V? You'll need to make sure it's Socket AM2+ if you're using DDR2, or Socket AM3 if DDR3 (that's if you have an AMD CPU, which I recommend for your budget).

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128376

6. Power supply to cover that would be between 400-500W.

7. Such a setup will play any game on 1600x1200 or even 1920x1200 resolution on High settings, and Crysis on medium. And it's seriously cheap.

8. For building it, you can take the parts to a specialist PC shop and have them build it for a fee, or ask a friend/relative who can, or do it yourself. There are plenty of tutorials on the internet, put it into Google.