A new computer

hey i decided that im getting a new computer.....once ive got a job, seeming as i know nothing about hard whare, i need some reasonable conponments for it, so can you please reply saying what i need for:
prossessor:
graphics:
ram:
gig:
and anything else i have forgotten.

thanks in advance

step 1 - give us a reasonable budget.

sorry umm, under 4 grand, mum will put in a few bucks for christmas/birthday

- Athlon 64 3500+
- NForce4 motherboard (depends on what features you want)
- 6800GT video card
- 1GB Corsair RAM
- 200GB WD SATA HDD
- Dual layer DVD burner
- Case, 480W+ PSU
- Logitech keyboard / mx1000 mouse combo
- 17" LCD 8ms response screen

adam that would be a nice pc you should get that and it will equal shanes

swap the 6800GT for a X800XL... I think, and maybe 2*200 gig hdd in raid? but what beefy said is good... and make sure its all PCI Express!!

6800GT > X800 / X850

no 7800 gtx they go like stink best card on the market at the moment, until the r520 comes out

.... delta that is a tad wrong.. the X850 is the fastest in almost everything...cept d00m 3.. but that has its reasons... go read a few reviews...

damn right it's a tad wrong, it's way wrong actually. the reason why doom 3 goes faster is that is nVidia are gods when it comes to OpenGL, simply ATi's OpenGL driver is not on par, for years ATi linux users have done nothing but bitch and moan about 3D performance. but a whole different story when it comes to Direct3D. almost every benchmark i see the X850 *CAN* keep up (and sometimes beat) the 6800 unless SLi is involved or eyecandy crap that has almost zero significance on today's gaming (yep, im talking about 3dmark). sure, the 7800 decimates all at the moment. but as someone said, ATi will be releasing a card based on the R520 core soon and that could very well shake things up, to say the least. bottom line is, unless you are playing all of your games in Linux or your entire game collection comprises of titles written in OpenGL you cannot go wrong with either the 6800 or the X800/X850 series of graphics cards

Both the 6800GT and X8x0 series are pretty close in performance. Depending on the game, it could swing either way. I'm an ATi fanboy as much as the next person, but for some reason the 6800GT has impressed me. But yeah, you could easily swap that out for a top end ATi card.

Regarding the 2 x 200GB HDD mentioned, I personally wouldn't put them in a RAID. If you were going to get a 2nd HDD, I'd go for a 74GB Raptor drive and use that as the main system drive, and have a 200GB+ drive beside it as storage.

raptors are good very fast i think 10k which is fast for a sata drive

That's the idea...