If you want something premade, then as Coastie said, it's good to find a cheap computer with a good processor, then upgrade from there. For instance, here is an amazing deal for a Gateway that comes with a Q6600, as well as plenty of other goodies:

Gateway GT5678: $779.99

Intel Q6600
4GB DDR2 667
750GB SATA2
18x DVD Burner
HD2400XT 256MB
Included keyboard, mouse, and speakers
Windows Vista Home Premium

The only problems are that it doesn't come with a monitor, and the video card is crap, but they are both easily fixed. Along with the new video card, should be a new power supply. This is because the included power supply with the computer either wouldn't have the power necessary to run a modern video card, or wouldn't have the cables necessary to power it. Unfortunately though, you might want to get your friend to help you on the power supply installation, since I'm not sure if you know where everything plugs in and such.

EVGA 8800GTS: $229.99
Acer 19" LCD: $179.99
Corsair 650W PSU: $109.99

Total price: $1299.96 (excluding shipping and rebates)

So that's a cheaper alternative if you sub out a few parts. With the Q6600, you'll be future proof for when apps and games start to utilize multithreading. The 8800GTS is still one of the best cards out there for the price, and will play modern games for years to come. 4GB of RAM is plenty for gaming, and a good amount for Vista. The 650W PSU leaves some headroom if you ever want to add more components. Lastly, 750GB is a good chunk of storage, but there's always room for more hard drives if you need it.

If you do ever want to make a custom built computer, then don't hesitate to ask. I think it's better, since you have a lot of quality parts to choose from, and you can customize everything down to the last detail as you see fit. Plus, it's a great experience, and lots of fun. But it's entirely up to you.

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Athlon X2 5000 BE 3.1GHz, Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro, Gigabyte GA-MA770-DS3 AM2+, Visiontek HD4850, Corsair XMS2 2GB DDR2 800, OCZ StealthXStream 600W PSU

Of the 2, I would take the FX541X over the FX541S because of the slightly better video card(the hundreds value in those nVidia names says how good it is with the 900s being the best, 800 as second and so on though these have changest for the latest ones which are now a 200 series with the 280 being the best card in terms of performance though the 260 is the better bang for the buck card from reviews I've seen), though there are some new generation of cards coming out from the last few weeks to the next month as the Radeon 4000s come out and nVidia has a new line of 200 series cards if you want bleeding edge performance as these cards are pretty pricey. Tom's hardware is a site that has a monthly list of the best video cards for the money that would be something I'd consult if I was putting together a gaming desktop in terms of what level of leading edge do I want as there are some very expensive cards at the high end where you are spending $600+ for the card while if you take a small drop in performance the price may come down a bit more. There is also a site called ExtremeTech that has a "Bang for the buck" build that may be of some interest if you do go for the build it yourself. You do realize that maintaining a gaming desktop means possibly buying a new video card every 18 months to keep up with the latest games and stuff as there is now DirectX10.1 that nVidia isn't supporting in their latest cards I think but AMD is supporting it so who knows how that will pan out.

JB

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Home Desktop: VoodooPC Hexx. AMD Athlon FX-60, 2 GB RAM, 2 x 250 GB HD, 7900 GTX video card. Home Laptop: HP dv4000, Pentium M, 2 GB RAM, 80 GB HD, ATi 700 Radeon Mobility

Can you pull up some official information about the mysterious card. I wasnt able to get any. 9500GT is yet to be launched near the end of july 2008. There is another one - 9500 M GS but that is for notebooks. I havent heard anything related to 9500GS. Are you sure it wasnt a typo or the HP people are cooking something ?????

btw - gateway looks fine.

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Nothing is true , Everything is permitted.

Good point, Coastie. Thanks for bringing that up.