Id put it together yourself piece by piece and get everything from newegg. They have the best prices and best shipping and everything for build your own shit. This is what i recommend and let me tell you it fuckin screams and beats 2600$ dell XPS system cause ive benchmarked em side by side with my friends who did pay 2600 for his.

Asus k8v se deluxe mobo

Athlon 64 3400+ (i have a 3200+ that beat his shit but the prices have come down enough where I would get a 3400+)

Graphics card your choice but dont go lower than a radeon 9800 pro if u want it to be kick ass (as low as about 200 now I think)

Sound card also your choice but I recommend an audigy 2zs platinum with the live drive. Not that big of a deal what u choose though. The motherboard has built in dolby 5.1 with optical out anyway so u really dont need anything.

Ram get the corsair 1GB twin kit that comes with 2x512mb sticks and is pc3200. its about 154 i think. Dont get expensive ass shit thats like 300 cause the difference in performance is nihl and it doesnt even come almost close to justifying the price. If ur gonna upgrade anything make it the graphics card.

Just get a western digital hard drive ATA with 8MB buffer or use your old one whatever size you want. Get SATA if u have a decent amount of computer knowledge cause u have to do some special shit. All the other shit is real easy.

Um nothin else I can think of. Just about any case will do but dont go too cheap. Get a decent thermaltake powersupply or one of the other major manufacturers some they usually come with shit ones.


Now I realize you probably arent gonna get anything I just said but seriously it is a phat ass machine and can play doom 3 with ultra everything and same with half life 2. Its a very nice setup. Shouldnt cost you more than like 700-800 maybe as little as 600. I got a lot of added shit that took it up past 1000 but u dont need it. They have nice NEC dvd burners for about 62 bucks. If you have any questions ill be happy to answer em.