Another noob thinking of building a new PC

[wiarumas]

Okay, so I've been pretty busy with my job and whatnot and have gotten out of the loop with hardware news.

My old pc has been collecting dust for a few years now. I believe its an overclocked AMD 1800 with a GeForce4 haha (and thats my GOOD pc... I have 2 others... one is a Pentium 233 with a tnt2 and the other is a 1.2GHz Compaq with an 8500le). I've been mostly gaming on my one laptop with a 2.0ghz dual core with 2GB RAM and a x1600 (which I built from a barebone asus s96j)...

So as you can see, I'm desperately in need of a new PC AND I feel completely out of touch with the hardware environment. Dual cores, PCI-e, etc - a lot of these concepts are somewhat unfamiliar for me.

Basically, I wanted to play Fallout3 - and I was thinking about buying an Xbox360 or building a new PC. I would like to keep it under $1000 and I'd like it to last a while. Aesthetics is not important - I don't need a flashy, expensive case.

What would you suggest - and if you could, please provide links, tips, advice, articles, etc that you may feel be helpful for me to get back in touch with things. And I'd prefer if it weren't too loud. My last PC sounded like a harrier.

Thanks ahead of time!

 

[wiarumas]

ah, I forgot, I'd like to add the fact that I would be primarily using the PC to game. I have a ThinkPad that I do most of my casual computing on.

I don't necessarily need everything on high all the time, but I want to run games at Medium-High settings for a while. Browsing articles on this, I feel as if having a strong ability to game is my priority.

 

[Poookie]

Here's a start on what you could get;

Samsung SATA dvd burner - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827151173
Seagate 640GB HDD - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148335
HIS 4850 512mb - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161243
Mushkin 4gb DDR2 ram 1.8v - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820146731
ASUS P5K Pro - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299
Intel Q6600 - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16819115017
Antec Three Hundred combo'd with the Antec Neopower 650Watt - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811129042
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371011
Windows Vista OS - http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16832116485
Total Price before shipping with $30 MIR's - $846.87

 

[wiarumas]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Everything looks good so far.

Just out of curiousity though, how does that processor and video card rank in the current market? Is it a midrange processor/video card or is it more towards the high end? I wouldn't mind spending a few extra bucks to get some more bang for my buck.

The numbering system now is somewhat cryptic. I can't really tell what is good and what is aging.

 

[Zecow]

that spec is well ok. The Q6600 is the best bang for the buck. I recently bought my rig and I chose the Q6600 (stock 2.4Ghz ->OC 3.6Ghz) as it overclocks well.
I'm gaming with a 4850 @ 1680x1050 res. Serves me well. Makes no sense to pay for a highend card if you are not gaming at 1900x1200. Save the case. get a 4850 now, and in the future if you need an extra 'umph' you can always crossfire it.

 

[wiarumas]

Awesome. I'm already starting to add some of these items to my wish list on Newegg haha.

I got another question though...

Is the Q6600 good for gaming? Even at stock speeds with the stock heatsink? If I'm going to need to overclock it, would investing in a heatsink and some thermal paste (artic silver) be worth it?