Price everything out first. pricewatch.com is a good site to use.
Don't forget shipping. I still say doing it yourself doesnt safe much if any $$ overall.

 

^^ I agree. My next computer will likely be an Alienware. I have always loved them but just never put the loot aside for one. Those things are solid.

 

it does in the long run, when you only need to upgrade certain parts as oppossed to whole sets with oem setups (i'm reffering to case/mb/cpu/ps)

Dell power supplies are notorious for not working with other mb's.

 

... thus alienware. Everything in there is interchangeable with ease.

 

If you really think that youre gonna have to replace alot of stuff get the service plan. I'm not sure about the Alienware products from 6 years ago, but like Clokwork, I've only been hearing good things recently.

 

Did they use to have a bad reputation?

 

I was refering to this.

 

If you want good performance, get a fast HDD, Memory, CPU in that order. Believe me, a fast harddrive makes a huge difference. Also, I wouldn't pay a premium for the lastest and greatest equipment knowing that in a few months, it will be a thing of the past. Get what fits your budget although I think $2k is way too much unless you're heavy into graphic cards. If you want to put that $2k to good use, get the Dell 24" LCD monitor for $800. With the remaining amount ($1,200) it's more than enough to get a nice machine. One last piece of advice, if you can build it, DO IT. No need in paying for brand name computer companies like Alienware to put something together you can do for a fraction of the price.

 

How ironic, caught this today on CNN
http://www.cnn.com/2006/TECH/fun.gam....ap/index.html

And I say again price it out first. From my experience its really hard to do things cheaper, even when bargan hunting for parts. These companies good bulk rates on all of this stuff, and yea they don't pass all of that on to you, but it does tend to be better than buying things piecemill.

 

Beginning March 17 Newegg.com is supposed to have free shipping (until April 27) - Code: PCG10406. Thread of interest is :
http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/mess...hreadid=585746

Even without free shipping, Newegg still has some great prices, but if the free shipping coupon does work, then it definitely will be the place to order your new parts from.

Don't go ATI unless you want to go all the way and get the top end 1900XT (forget the XTX though) - for anything of lesser power, Nvidia is the better buy. The best deal for price/performance right now on video card by FAR is the new Nvidia Geforce 7900GT. So I'd recommend either one or two Geforce 7900GT (an SLI setup of 2 x 7900GT isnt that more expensive than a single ATI 1900XT).

Other recommendations have been on target also. For gaming, AMD is the way to go. Also, make sure to get 2 gigs of system RAM whatever speed you get. Also, don't skimp on hard drive space - you may feel that you dont need more than 150 gig, but games are getting larger and larger and its always nice to have extra room to download media. Get two of those WD 250 gig SATA III hard drives with 16 meg cache and run in raid 0 array (pretty cheap). Or if price is no issue, get the WD Raptor 150 gig hard drive that's 10k rpm and ultra fast.

 

I second the WD 10k rpm hard drive (just got one for mine and its blazing fast...)

 

I heard those HD's are noisy!

 

i am getting 23inch sony LCD so dont worry about monitor
yeah i am pretty sure that i will be getting my parts from newegg.

ok here's another story.
i always bought VAIO because of the fact that i am biased to japanese products and especially sony. (TV, computer, most of electronics in my house is sony) anyways, i spent about 500dollars @ bestbuy to get 512bm ATI radeon graphics card, 1gig memory, power supply. problem was...my vaio was too small to replace the new 430watt antec power supply.
i decided to open other newer VAIO but needless to say, it doesnt fit.
my parents were saying that how i kept my computer for 2~3years and the fact that i am moving out for college...they told me that i can spend about 2000 on computer (w/o monitor). also, my mom has to use computer so she is taking mine and my bro is using his computer (1.5 year old VAIO, which i put extra 1gig memory in)

w/e...i decided recently and this is my "2nd" time building it so...yeah...

also, needless to say, i love computer games (i play WOW and CS...etc)

once i decide which parts to order, i will let you guys know

k i will dig into nvidia geforce...

thx!

 

www.newegg.com..........go with ASUS main board.....can't go wrong

 

i amma meet up w/ my friend on friday afternoon to decide which parts i am gonna get. ty