Can someone give me a final say on what I should buy?

With my new job my first project to save up for will be my own computer, as my family's is terrible. My budget will be a round $650, only a little bit more if required. I'm hoping to play the Dawn of War series and Starcraft II well, and any games before that I presume I should also be able to play well. I'm not looking for an amazing $1,500 rig.

So, can someone walk me through on what to buy and from where without breaking $650? I'll have saved up enough by late October, early November. Side note, I know nothing about computer hardware.

With my new job my first project to save up for will be my own computer, as my family's is terrible. My budget will be a round $650, only a little bit more if required. I'm hoping to play the Dawn of War series and Starcraft II well, and any games before that I presume I should also be able to play well. I'm not looking for an amazing $1,500 rig.

So, can someone walk me through on what to buy and from where without breaking $650? I'll have saved up enough by late October, early November. Side note, I know nothing about computer hardware.

criinok

do you need an operating system, monitor, mosue, keyboard, speakers? or are you just looking for the tower of the computer itself.

[QUOTE="criinok"]

With my new job my first project to save up for will be my own computer, as my family's is terrible. My budget will be a round $650, only a little bit more if required. I'm hoping to play the Dawn of War series and Starcraft II well, and any games before that I presume I should also be able to play well. I'm not looking for an amazing $1,500 rig.

So, can someone walk me through on what to buy and from where without breaking $650? I'll have saved up enough by late October, early November. Side note, I know nothing about computer hardware.

ionusX

do you need an operating system, monitor, mosue, keyboard, speakers? or are you just looking for the tower of the computer itself.

Operating system, but I have an extra monitor, mouse, keyboard, and speakers, although they are a tad ancient. They'll get me by for the meantime, and I'll gradually buy newer of each as time goes by. For now though, the tower and an OS

With 650 you could build a pretty good one. way above starcraft 2 and dow 2 lol

okay time to saddle up.. how do you feel about the color blue?

ill move quick before smc start posting his ugly cases and el cheapo motherboards and shoddy samsung hard drives *shudders*

rosewill challenger case w/ free 2.5 inch ssd rack mount (normally sold separately) + oem windows 7 64-bit (one time use) ($135):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.437504.11-147-153

athalon II x2 620 cpu 3.2ghz + ASUS M4A785-M motherboard ($125):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.455954

g.skill 4gb memory ddr2-800 2 x 2gb kit ($75)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820231207

seagate barracuda 320 gb HDD (sata) ($45) (free shipping):

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148316

OCZ modxstream 500 watt modular powersupply 80+ certified, active pfc ($60)($20 dollar mail in rebate)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341016

sony generic dvd-rom black w/ 198kb cache ($18)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827118031&Tpk=dvd-rom

HIS hd 5770 1gb w/ free copy of blacklight: tango down ($140) (free shipping) ($10 dollar MIR)

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161338

total before any shipping or handling or any other special saving is:

$599 this system will play most any game on high.. i left a 52 dollar spot unused to give room for that shipping and handling.

your welcome to wait on smc's take on your budget which will include a biostar motherboard, a boring pc case with little aesthetic appeal, and a budget brand hard drive all for the sake of perhaps an athalon iI x3 rana cpu or a gtx 460 which are both unnecissary for the tasks at hand :P