So I'm building a new box............

[Ned Flanders]

and have some research to do at tomshardware. Still, I wanted to give the masses here a chance to pimp any new gear he/she may be running. I'm setting my ceiling at 1000 bucks USD.

Here's what I need/what I like

Mobo: always liked MSI, open to others, needs sATA interface, thinking about giving PCX a shot also
CPU: used both Intel and AMD in the past, leaning towards Intel p4 3.2 GHz this time around
video card: hate ATI, always too many problems (VIA chipsets, drivers, ad infinitum), not sure which nvidia to buy, limited with PCX options
Memory: I need a Gig of RAM.....done
HDD: I like the new Seagate sATA drives.
case: I have no opinions here, just need one that can handle the guts it's being given.

anything else I need to pick up will be generic, these are the only parts I'm real concerned with. Since this will be a gaming rig, I'll be using winxpPRO.

Feel free to pimp your favorite gear if your happy with some toys you've purchased recently. I've been out of the new hardware loop for a while and have some catching up to do.

[Rookierookie]

Athlon64 3000+ (don't use Intel)
NForce 4 Motherboard
2x512MB DDR
ATI Radeon X800XL - I don't care what you have against ATI, ATI's PCI-Express cards are better than Nvidia's
SATA Hard disk with NCQ

[moltovir]

I would suggest an AMD processor. They are by far superior to intel, both in price and performance. If you have a limited budget a 3000+ would be a good choice. Either way, if you go for AMD, you have to choose a socket. S754 supports old AGP cards and is cheaper, while S939 has all the fancy modern stuff (like PCI-E) but is also more expensive. If you go S939, an nForce4 board is a good choice. MSI is known for its quality and you get some handy tools with it (like Corecenter), and Abit & DFI are known for good overclocking qualities. I don't know where you got the "ATI stinks" rumour, but it dates back to the old Rage series when ATI had in fact crappy drivers. If you want maximum performance, the new X850 is the current top-of-the-line card, but this will use half of your budget. I suggest a Geforce 6600GT because it performs better than ATi's medium-class counterpart, the X700 (if you aren't afraid of some overclocking you can also check out the GF 6800LE, great card if you know how to tweak it). You can't do anything wrong in choosing a Harddisk as long as you stick with the A-brands. Western Digital is a little bit faster, Seagate is a little more quiet, and Maxtor is a little cheaper. If you want maximum performance the WD Raptor series would be the way to go. The case isn't really important, just pick one you like and make sure it isn't plastic crap. More important is the power supply, a 430 watt is a necessity. Whatever you do, don't buy a power supply from an unknown company. Generally, Antec is always a good choice.

Hope that helped

Edit: I think the new nForce4 chipset supports Dual Channel memory, but if you want to use this feature (memory speed is very important for AMD processors) you'll have to buy a pair of matched DDR's (like Corsairs TwinX serie)

[Ned Flanders]

Thanks for the replies guys. Still researching so I'm not able to post much yet.

Moltovir, my ATI stinks rumor comes only from years of first hand experience to the point where my opinion is so jaded, I simply refuse to buy their products. There isn't a high tech benchmarking review on earth that can change my mind. I'll live with a card that simply doesn't perform as well as the new ATIs for the piece of mind that the video card I own actually functions.

Final note for the moment: I should be able to hit my budget if I stay a notch or two below cutting edge where I find the prices to be overinflated anyway. The biggest choice right now affecting budget is the PCI express vs. an AGP card.

[Rookierookie]

The ATI X800XL, at USD 300. kicks the ass of every other graphics card of that price range.

And I've heard just as many people complaining about Nvidia releasing drivers that don't work well with their older products, causing them not to function in some games and having to roll back to old drivers.

[Mr Flibble]

My recommendation would also be for an AMD64 processor on the s939 platform. I'd also strongly advise the nForce4 chipset as this will give you SATA2 support and on most boards (MSI included) proper RAID functionality up to RAID5.

As for video cards, I stay stick with the devil you know. For me that's nVidia. I've been through several different cards over the last few years from both manufacturers and have come to the conclusion that both driver sets are crap. However, I'm more familiar with nVidia gear, so I know how to tweak a system to get the drivers working to a decent level of speed and stability. Either way, the nVidia 6600GT or ATi X700 cards would be the better choice. Not cutting edge, but still very good cards with the added advantage being they are actually PCIe cards not AGP bridged to PCIe (like the PCX6800 or X800). If you're building a new system PCIe is the better option as AGP is expected to disappear over the next couple of years, so why go for the old dying technology?

I will also second the decent power supply as suggested by moltovir. Antec and Enermax are the two brands I'd recommend.

Memory brands aren't too important unless you're going to overclock it, but you will need matched DDR400 modules for the nForce4 board. Most generic RAM will do, but as with most things in life you get what you pay for. Don't go too cheap here.

[Rookierookie]

like the PCX6800 or X800

The X800 series are native PCI-E and the new version of the 6800 PCI-E is also native PCI-E.