For games, you need a graphics card more than a processor. If you are looking at playing Half-Life 2 or Doom 3,. go for either a Geforce 5900 FX or a Radeon 9800 Pro, both being excellent cards (as a side note, Max PC now reports both cards are approx. just as good as the other now. They did report that the 5900 smoked the 9800, but this was believed due to 'optimizations' nvidia made to their drivers). Both are quite expensive however. The best value in a video card right now is the Radeon 9600, which is roughly comparable to the Geforce FX 5600 but faster and with better image quality.
Look around at
www.newegg.com, which is a VERY reputable site (click a link at the top of the page so TIMO gets some $$$
). You can also look at
www.pricewatch.com , but there are some shady vendors there. Cross-check them with
www.resellerratings.com , which is owned by the same team that runs TIMO.
You'll also want to stock up on RAM. Odds are you;ll be using DDR RAM. The best mfg.s I can think of off the top of my head are Kingston (
www.kingston.com ), Crucial ( link at top ), and Corsair (
www.corsairmicro.com ). Corsair is arguably the best quality but is more expensive. Going generic is generally not a good idea, since RAM quality can adversely affect performance and stability.
For a motherboard, look for a board with either an nVidia nForce 2 or a VIA KT400A chipset (that's 400
A, not 400). The preference goes to the nForce 2, although I have heard issues with the IDE controller on such boards, in which case the excellent return policy at newegg comes into play. As far as the manufacturer, it's not really a big deal. MSI, Gigabyte, Asus, and Abit are all safe, and it's really a matter of what doo-hickeys they throw in with the mobo.
It's probably a good idea to use the CDRW from your old machine, and the HDD if it's new and big enough. I built a machine 3 years ago for $600 with a custom case, 300 watt PSU (which was fairly big then, you'd probably want to shoot for 400 or so), and a new mobo and proc. I saved money using the soundcard and video card from the old machine. A CD Burner and a hard drive will save you money you can burn on some good stuff. Oh, and the integrated sound on the nForce 2 boards are accelerated and Tom's Hardware says it's great, so you could probably skimp there (unless you have an audiology in your old machine or something
). The on-board NIC will also save you some cash, as it works quite well for internet surfing. If you play anything more intense than Half-Life, however, you will want to avoid using on-board video.
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