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[breadbocks]

So, I've been looking to buy a sweet new computer, which will be my first serious rig. I've got 1 or so grand to spend (Haven't done the math yet) and don't need anything bleeding edge, but want something that can handle serious games. I've been looking at Alienware, which seems like a good choice, but rather expensive.

I don't know a whole lot about what things mean, so I would have a fair bit of trouble picking blind.

Thanks in advance.

[Sowelu]

I've heard bad things about Alienware, but I don't know what I can say beyond that.  Picking the parts yourself is a good idea.

[Nistenf]

Yes, I would buy the parts sepparately and then build the thing

[Burnt Pies]

I'm in pretty much the same boat, although I've got £800-900 to spend.

Alienware's out of my league, and the strength of the pound probably means I have more to spend than you, so I don't think that's likely to happen.

I suppose what we need is a list of what you actually need in a computer, examples of what's likely to last a few years without being hopelessly redundant, and all that fits inside the budget...

[breadbocks]

Hmm... OK, parts it is. What will all the parts I need BE though? I know I'll need a tower, a graphics card, and a processor, but I've no clue what other sorts of parts are needed to make a computer work.

[Sowelu]

Even if you have to pay some Best Buy computer jockey fifty bucks to assemble them for you, the choice of exactly what parts you want is worthwhile.  Protip 1: RAM is pretty cheap, but if your machine can take four sticks of up to 4GB each and you only want 8GB, you might consider getting two 4GB sticks instead of four 2GB sticks so that you can upgrade easier later.  (Think about, not automatically do--work out the prices yourself.)  Protip 2:  Two hard drives are better than one.  You should be backing stuff up off-site anyway, but copying important stuff from one drive to the other is better than nothing--plus, hey, it's easier to keep things organized that way.

Get a tower with totally sweet lights on it, but make sure you can turn them off if you want (I'm sad because I can't, and the rainbow cycling LED on the front of my case is jarring when playing Left 4 Dead.)

[Kiwi]

Build your own, saves tons of money for the performance you can get.
I bought an Alienware comp and it's excellent. It should have been for it's price, but could of saved plenty money
buying and building myself.

[Tellemurius]

build it yourself, its easy too just don't fuck up.

[Burnt Pies]

Everyone has a friend who could be persuaded to put a computer together for a few beers. Everyone.

[Tellemurius]

got one of those friends for a bottle of rum

[breadbocks]

Again, for those tech gurus out there, I must ask for a list of parts I'll need so I know what I'm looking for.

[Tellemurius]

motherboard Intel or AMD
processor Intel or AMD
ram memory chip
hard drive
disc drives
PC case
graphics card/s Nvidia or AMD

[Burnt Pies]

Power Supply.

[Tellemurius]

Power Supply.

definitely need that

[Sowelu]

Power Supply.

definitely need that

Do not skimp on it!  Check the requirements of every piece of kit you put in there.  If your GPU needs more wattage than your PSU can put out, you will be sad and confused a few months down the line when things just keep not quite working sometimes and you don't know why.  Powerful PSUs can be expensive, so future-proof yourself; get one that exceeds your specs by like 100W capacity or so.  (I hope I'm remembering this right.)