[Blink]

I really have no idea what makes the difference between a PC that's considered powerful, and one that's really weak, but I do know that my laptop, which crashes after a few hours on maple story from overheating, is anything but powerful. Now, I just got a new TV, and I'm currently seeing if there's any way to hook up a tower PC to that(which I'm sure there is) but I'm also looking into buying a tower PC to put in with my TV. I'm really no good at identifying good PCs from bad though, but I'm sure by winter I'll be well versed in PC purchasing(as I was well versed in TV buying after the summer), and I figure a good place to start is here.

I know that GHz are the main thing considered as the level of power of the PC, but what else? RAM is important, though I don't know how much, and if you want a PC that's going to last you a while, get something over 30Gb Hard Drive. I don't care much for noisyness, but my PC might get overheated often, so what do I look for to prevent that?

Thanks for any and all help you guys can give me on this. I know I'm probably a lot of work... :P

[Andross]

#1: Build your own. It's EASY. It's like playing with Lego's - just follow all the necessary instructions, but EXTRA careful.

#2: What's your budget?

[Blink]

I really don't have any idea what to set as a budget. Right now, money isn't what I'm concerned about, it's finding something. Once I find something/decide what I'm buying, then I'll try to earn enough money to compensate.

But, generally, I'm trying to stay under $500 if possible. $400 to $200 would be the easiest for me, though I'm not so concerned about easy...

[Max]

Well, uh, $500 can barely buy you a new computer at all, let alone a decent one. If you want to be doing any gaming at all and not just email/web browsing/word processing, then you'll want at least $800-1000.

[Andross]

As Max said, $500 will get you nowhere. You can probably build a $300 word processing box, but for mid-end gaming, you'll need $1000. With any luck, you can build it for $700. But that's about it. My own PC cost me about $1500, fyi.

[Elliott]

My PC is pretty good and I got it for around 900USD (1200AUD). Like the others said, you would most likely need about 1k to get something that could play decent games, run good programs etc.

[Blink]

Dang. I thought that was only for laptops. That explains why my $800 laptop can't do ****. Well, I guess I better start earning up some...

Then again, I'm freaking good at defying prices. I got a prokector(it does work, thanks) for $300. It's not perfect, it was used, and I found it on Half.com, but it is a tad blurry at times compared to other projectors. The only other thing notable is it's not mega super bright like most projectors, since it's older, but it still makes the superbowl look freaking awesome.

I also got my TV locally off ebay about 15 miles from here for 1/3 the price in store. It's nice too, Sharp aquos 26" LCD HDTV with HDMI. New, but taken out of box before and checked to make sure it works.

So yeah, my first step is always finding out what I want to aim for, and then I can usually get to it eventually. Eventually being a very key word there >_>

Ok, so say I do extend my price range up into the $800-$1000 price range, where do I go from that to start searching? And this better be something that can last, because I'm not serious about keeping up with the latest Half Life 2, but I do want to be able to play the occassional Gunbound when I get sick, for long periods of time if I want. Really, I guess it's more of a modest power level, but still something to last a good 5 years in gaming without too many upgrades.

[Elliott]

If you want top of the line in every department, start thinking $1500 :P
As for looking, look in your area for PC shops, and ask if they order in, then surf the net and look for compatible good parts, and ask the shop to order those in.
Also, the shop I went to had deals on for custom built PCs, so I just got on of those. Everywhere will be different though.

[Blink]

I'm actually a bit more interested in what to look for in terms of companies and numbers. What can really multitask, what can really play games, how much ram should I need, stuff like that. For right now, I'm gonna see if I can get together a list of what I think I could do based on what I hear in here, and then come back and see with you guys how that list looks. It might not be as effective, but it will help me learn it a lot better.

It's how I got my TV, small suggestions one at a time, and dang did that work well. It just really all needs time to sink in.

[Elliott]

512 RAM is a necessity, 1gig would be better though if you want something that will last.
At least 3ghz CPU, but again for something that will last, look into 3.2+ and see if you know anyone (in real life) who can overclock.
For space, at the bare minimum you would want 80gig for all your games/programs, but 160 would be better.

[Andross]

3GHz? C'mon Agatio, everyone knows that's a joke now. Architecture matters more - the Pentium M is less power-hungry than the P4, but it is a lot more stable and can run just as efficient. And it's all because it was designed much better. This is also why AMD can beat out Intel 3GHz processors while only running a 2.4GHz processor.

Anyway:

-Athlon 64 Socket 939 CPU, 2800+ (since you're on a budget)

-Gigabyte, MSI, DFI or Asus motherboard with a PCI-E slot. You can get the SLI if you want. Hell, I haven't seen a lot of single slot PCI-E AMD boards actually. (DFI and Asus are best.) Make sure it is Socket 939.

-eVGA 6600GT PCI-E video card OR ATI X800 PCI-E video card (depends on budget)

-1GB Dual Channel (512MB X 2) RAM (Corsair, OCZ are best). You'll need 1.5GB if you want to play Battlefield 2.

-Any SATA HDD you want. Western Digital, Hitachi, Seagate - they all are good. And you can get high capacity for $50 if you know where to look.

-Any media drive you want. For DVD, you can get NEC Combo drives (DVD burner/CD burner) for good prices.

-Antec, Thermaltake, or Lian Li case. I'll probably need to find you a specific one since these are kind of hard to tell quality wise.

-Antec, Enermax, or Thermaltake 450W - 500W PSU (SLI approved is nice). Note: Antec TruePower 2.0 and NeoPower series is excellent from what I hear.

BUY FROM NEWEGG.