Building a new PC.

[Cthulhu]

HELLO THAR.

I'm going to build a new PC eventually and I have no idea what I want to put in it; so I'm putting it out there to you, the people, to build me one or recommend me the parts and I'll build one.

These are some of the specs I'd like but I'm not limiting you to these:
First of all: Budget
Intel CPU 32 or 64-Bit
Nvidia graphics
and at least 2Gb of ram.
The rest is all open game.
Ok, Go.

Oh and I plan on it being a gaming rig.

[Flaming_Arrow]

do you just want the tower? or the whole system(eg. monitor, keyboard etc.)

[Cthulhu]

do you just want the tower? or the whole system(eg. monitor, keyboard etc.)

just the tower not worried about monitor/keyboard I already have those

[Flaming_Arrow]

just wondering why do u want an nvidia card? ATI has better performance to price ratio

[Cthulhu]

I'm not fussed I've just always used nvidia. These are only things I've thought about for a few minutes each they are subject to change and I'm open to whatever people think is the best.

[Flaming_Arrow]

very similar to the build i have atm

[Cthulhu]

I spent most of monday at a friends place doing this: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=rgKFbziV5KXXFnj15vmiMEA It's roughly the same price as FlamingArrows with a few differences.

I think it will be a reasonable beasty. I also decided to go with a new screen but I'm not sure about the blu-ray writer at the moment maybe just a reader; I have a dvd burner I can put in there already and I wont be burning any HD movies.

[dekoyl]

Instead of the 9600GT, have you considered the GTX 260 series?

[AppleXY]

just wondering why do u want an nvidia card? ATI has better performance to price ratio

I've always had problems with ATI for some reason :S lol

nVidia has never let me down

[Flaming_Arrow]

just wondering why do u want an nvidia card? ATI has better performance to price ratio

I've always had problems with ATI for some reason :S lol

nVidia has never let me down

lol, i've always used nvidia up until i bought my 4890 and its awesome

[excal]

just wondering why do u want an nvidia card? ATI has better performance to price ratio

NVIDIA cards, especially the lower-end models, tend to have their advantages in performance for each power unit consumed. To you, this makes for less cooling and therefore less noise.

You might notice some 9600s being passively cooled without a fan.

But yes, ATi does hold the performance:price crown at the moment.

[Cthulhu]

Instead of the 9600GT, have you considered the GTX 260 series?

I have but I'm thinking about the price mostly.  Again I might get rid of the blu-ray writer and put a 9800GT or GTX260 in (I'm looking at benchmarks now). The GTX penetrates the 9800 and 9600 anally. I'll have to think about this.

[dekoyl]

Instead of the 9600GT, have you considered the GTX 260 series?

I have but I'm thinking about the price mostly.  Again I might get rid of the blu-ray writer and put a 9800GT or GTX260 in (I'm looking at benchmarks now). The GTX penetrates the 9800 and 9600 anally. I'll have to think about this.

I don't think a blu-ray writer is needed now (unless you often watch blu-ray movies). And unless I've been living under a rock, blu-ray format hasn't risen to major popularity yet.
I think the GTX 260 series instead of a blu-ray writer is a good decision to make but that's just my opinion.

[IntoTheNewWorld]

Instead of the 9600GT, have you considered the GTX 260 series?

I have but I'm thinking about the price mostly.  Again I might get rid of the blu-ray writer and put a 9800GT or GTX260 in (I'm looking at benchmarks now). The GTX penetrates the 9800 and 9600 anally. I'll have to think about this.

especially within your price range the Blu-ray writer saps your budget too much, which could be devoted to things of better value.

[Adit]

CPU
- Intel C2D E8500 (3.16GHz/6MB/1333FSB) ~$325 (C WORLD)
          OR
- Intel Core i7 920 ~$450 (CPL)

G/V card
- XFX 896MB GTX 260+ ~$305 (CPL)
          OR
- Gigabyte 896MB GTX275 ~$355 (CPL)

RAM
- Kingston 6GB DDR3 ~$145 (CPL)
          OR
- Corsair 6GB DDR3 ~ $165 (CPL)

Monitor
- 19" Acer X193HQ (1440*900) ~ $150 (CPL)
          OR
- 20" LG W2043T-PF (1600*900) ~$189 (CPL)

HD
- Seagate 1TB SATA II ~$135 (CPL)
          OR
- WD 1TB SATA II ~$138 (CPL)

These are the parts I have an idea about, I'm not too sure about Motherboard, Power Supply, Case & Cooler. I wouldn't recommend Blu-ray drive as 1) The average gamer wont need to use it often. 2) Pioneer Blu-ray drive costs ~$299.
 
With the cheaper alternatives: $1063, which leaves $437 for remaining parts. Assuming you already have keyboard, mouse, speakers, OS etc $437 might just cover the rest, although unlikely.

NB: OS will have to be 64bit in order to support 4GB+ RAM, if not, consider 4GB DDR 3