Allright so im looking at buying a computer (well building) to do the same exact things as you want

first go intel they are currently at the top and they are afordable if you want to and can wait till after xmas and prices should drop due to the cuadros and scoop up a duo.

for a graphics card id sujest looking at the 7900 GTO from nvidia its an awsome card and if you need more from it its overclockable

anyways heres waht i want to buy its about 1003 us $ so yeah lol

CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 ( you can overclock it to 3 ghz or more if you really need to) ~ 183 US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819115005

MOBO: ABIT AB9 Pro Socket T (LGA 775) Intel P965 Express ATX Intel Motherboard ~ 149 US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16813127004

GPX: eVGA 512-P2-N573-AR Geforce 7900GTO ~ 253 US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814130065

RAM: CORSAIR XMS2 1GB (2 x 512MB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) ~ 132 US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820145566

PSU: Antec TruePower 2.0 TRUECONTROL II-550 ATX12V 550W Power Supply ~ 100 US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16817103933

HD: Seagate Barracuda 250GB 7200 RPM 16MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive ~ 75 US
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16822148144

CASE http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16811128010
its all up to you on a case its what ever your like... its a nice build case, id look for a case w/o a psu tho

TOTAL COST ~ 892 + what ever the case is


A few notes about the stuff above its a overclocking machine if you really want to get it up to 1.1k upgrade to a better cpu and ram (id go with more ram if i were you tho so yeah...)
CPU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16819115004
RAM: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16820145034

anyways this should do pretty much eveything out there atm and then some, id wait till the new 8series cards come out and get one of the new gpx cards with dx 10 ready (the 8 series) they will be newer and cost a bit more so id just stick with waht ive listed above and get a dx 10 card instead of the 7900 GTO

feel free to pm me if you have any questions otherwise tell me what you think lol

also PLEASE DONT SKIMP ON THE PSU you need 550 = watts now adays for the new gpxs cards... so SLI the 8series its something crazy like 700 watts i think... so just go with the one i put above and you will be happy i can almost guarentee it

This post has been edited by tdktank59: Oct 21 2006, 05:56 AM

Make sure you get a core 2 duo, those processors rock! Remember not to go cheap on the power supply, it is the backbone of the computer. Get corsair memory or higher rated memory like that. If you don't have a place to buy parts from yet I would recommend newegg.com.

its been a year, and im curious what you have bought and is it working well?