So, title says it all. I've recently got TOB and G-Mod on PC. Yet have to run them on low-med settings. I'd love to start PC gaming proper, as I feel it's alot better than console gaming.

A ton of oldie stuff from www.gog.com like Fallout 2, Freespace 2, Jagged Alliance 2, Beyond Good & Evil, Prince of Persia: Sands of Time, Far Cry, Ghost Recon, Painkiller, Arx Fatalis, all for $6-$10.

The Blizzard online store for things like Warcraft 3, Diablo 2 and Starcraft before their sequels arrive.

Impulse for many games like World of Goo, Galactic Civilizations II, Unreal Tournament 3, and tons of other titles, including many indie releases.

Steam for similar to the above including anything related to Half-Life and Half-Life 2.

I just ventured into PC gaming myself, and it's a good time I must say. I went Mid-high end when I bought mine, but it depends on what games you'll be playing and what settings you're happy with. It also depends on how much you want it to be future proof. Since DDR3 Ram is coming around, getting a motherboard that is compatible with DDR3 is a good start. From there you just have to go with what fits your budget.

I'm very happy with my Dual-core Wolfdale E8500 processor, although many people will probably urge you to go quad-core. It's usually a matter of preference there, as some dual cores can keep up with all but the fairly high end Quads in most games.

This is all useless without some actual product suggestions so I'll try and make a couple. Make sure you get a PSU that's really good, like a PC Power&Cooling one. Also make sure your Ram is of good quality -- something like Corsair is usually a safe bet. The big thing is to get a versatile motherboard. I'm a total EVGA slave, so any products from them I'd recommend. The same goes for your graphics card. EVGA is an awesome company to go with thanks to their awesome customer service and trade-up program. If you dont want to be TOO expensive, 9800GT cards are still pretty solid (I have SLI 9800 GT superclocked cards and they're fantastic). If you want to be a bit more future proof, try maybe buying one GTX 260 and then if you want to buy a second for SLI later for extra performance you can. I would say Newegg.com (or .ca depending on where you live) is the best place to buy all your parts without question. NCIX.com is also an option, although they tend to be a little more expensive.

The best thing for you to do is to really do your homework. Check up on everything, and ask around like you're doing here to see what people can tell you. Information is your best friend when it comes to buying PC.

Oh. Lol. Sorry.

I suggest a Core 2 Duo or Core 2 Quad because imo i7 processors are still too expensive. I got an E8500 myself and there's no game I can't run. An Asus mobo like p5q models, those are a good choice, at least 4GB DDR2, corsair, kingston or other good brand. A decent speaker setup of your choosing. A nice case with built-in fans for good airflow, I got a NZXT Lexa Redline. A nice PSU with detachable cables to have a lot of free space in the case, like a Coolermaster M700. A DVDRW, LG is a good brand. Good capacity hard drives, perhaps a couple 500GB ones, personally I'm happy with two 250GB ones, I just burn most things so I don't need much more space. And a GTX 285 (I hate dual GPU solutions so I didn't go for the 295). That should end up with a modestly priced system that can run most anything you want smoothly, but probably start lagging behind in a couple or so years because it seems there are many advancements about to be done soon, but not soon enough to simply wait for it to happen before diving in. Can't help with where to buy sorry, just throwing my 2 cents.

I should explain, I know NOTHING about PC's, well I have obvious knowlege. But things like 'GTX 285' mean nothing to me. If it isn't too much to ask, can someone explain all the technical stuff? I'd really like to know about it, before I go and buy my own PC. Thanks.

PC needs basic parts like: Motherboard. That's where everything else is fit on. Processor. That's the workhorse of the PC, the Core 2 Duo stuff we mention etc. Power Supply Unit (PSU). Obvious what it does. Ram. Memory basically. Not for storage, for what it needs to access to show you what you're doing. Hard drives. For installations, storage etc. Optical drives. DVD, Blu Ray, Burners, whatever. Monitor. Duh. Graphics Card. That's the GTX 285 I suggested. The workhorse behind the graphics. It's not the absolute top of the line so it doesn't cost a fortune. Keyboard. Mouse. Duh. A nice case, the box to put all these in. Here's what i bought several months ago if it helps. It's not the complete picture because I also used a few things from the old setup. It's a modest setup that will hopefully last a while.

1st item is a new heatsink, u don't need to worry about that, you can use the one that comes with your processor. 2nd is the graphics card. 3rd is the hard drive. 4th is dvd burner. 5th is the motherboard. 6th is the power supply unit. 7th is the ram. 6th is the case. 7th is the processor. On top of that you can't see my monitor, keyboard, mouse, speakers, extra hard drive, xbox 360 wired controller, adsl modem, headset, and other accessories I already had. You'll also need to buy Windows I guess, I recommend XP for now, to upgrade to 7 when that's out. All of these items are probably much cheaper by now or depending where you buy, I guess.

Also since you're new to this, unless you have a friend you can trust to know this stuff 100% and assemble it for you, have the store you buy it from assemble it instead.

Protip: Build your own PC don't buy one.

Oh, sorry haha. GTX 260 is the low end version of the new Nvidia line of graphics cards. There's a 260, 285, and I think they released a 295. They also have a 275 coming out soon. Basically, the higher the number, the higher end the card. Nvidia has been known to have convoluted naming systems but these aren't too bad.

DDR3 is the new era of RAM, but not a whole lot supports it yet. One thing about RAM you should look out for is the speed and latency. If you get DDR2 (the most used version of RAM currently and still very much useable, I use it myself) make sure it's faster than 800mhz. I'm running DDR2 RAM (don't ask me what the DDR means I ha no idea, although its not super important haha) at 1066mhz. Latency is kind of also related to speed, and you'll see a series of numbers kind of like 5-5-5 or 3-5-5 or something. Generally, the lower the numbers the better; however, unless you're a complete computer nutt, this won't affect you in the slightest. Only overclockers and die-hard computer nerds worry about the latency. In other words, you won't even be able to tell the difference unless you run a test to see the speeds.

What other kind of technical stuff do you want to know?

EDIT: If you tell me what kind of games and what level of detail you plan on using the computer for (such as your monitor's resolution) I can help you more.

Wow, thanks for all the help guys! Seriously, thanks! :D

Lol ok give me a few minutes (girlfriend on phone...) and I'll type you up some suggestions!

If you're just shooting for that kind of thing, and you're not looking to be ultra-future proof (based on your statement of wanting to be on the fairly inexpensive) here are my suggestions for an under $1,000 US (tax and shipping not included) gaming computer:

EVGA 750i FTW edition Motherboard (made for 1066mhz RAM so it's a good choice) -- $159.99
PC Power & Cooling Silencer 500 watt power supply (can run SLI or Crossfire set ups) -- $79.99
Intel dual core Wolfdale E8400 CPU (one of the best CPU's ever made) -- $167.99
Corsair 4GB (2 x 2 gig sticks) 1066 5-5-5-15 RAM (will need this much to run stuff nice and smooth) -- $64.00
EVGA GeForce GTS 250 video card (slightly better than the 9800GT for barely any more money, and can SLI down the road if necessary) -- $129.00
Western Digital Caviar 500GB 7200 RPM Hard Drive (don't get the 5400rpm, its slower) -- $64.99
NZXT Guardian 921 Computer Case (great airflow and fits long videocards) -- $79.99

The total without tax and shipping is $745.95 US based on the prices from Newegg.com. Based on where you live, the prices will change I'm sure; however, it's all relative so it doesn't really matter much. I didn't list an operating system as it's really a matter of preference. I would STRONGLY suggest Vista 64 bit edition though, because otherwise the 4 gigs of ram I have listed will not be fully used (32 bit operating systems will only recognize 2 gigs of ram). If you go with XP, just downgrade to 2 gigs of the same RAM, which is available. Again, though, VIsta 64 bit is the best you can do for now.

This system will run every game out right now at medium - high settings based on the game and resolution. It will most definitely run L4D and the other games you have listed that are out now without any problem at their highest settings as far as I know. As for SC3 and D3, I can't say as I don't know what Blizzard is doing to optimize for lower end PCs. They're usually pretty good about making those games accessible though, and so I would imagine you'd be at medium settings without much problem in both games. If you added another GTS 250 in SLI (remember, it needs to be an identical card for SLI) you'll be running them on high settings probably without much trouble.

If you need to go cheaper than this, I can probably make one up, but you'll start to get into the zone where you'll need a full upgrade in the near future which you want to avoid in the PC gaming world as much as possible for obvious reasons. If you have any questions about what I have here just let me know!

32 Bit Operating systems will utilize up to 4 gigs of RAM that includes video card RAM as well however. Most XP or Vista 32 bit machines for gaming run 3gigs of RAM and then a video card for maximum capacity.

It all comes down to a budget and what you want to play currently and down the road. If the highest settings are important to you and what size monitor and resolution you will be playing at. You can build something for 500 bucks or something for 3000 bucks.

And SLI is a waste of money, running SLI nets about a 30% performance increase. If you want more power you buy a new graphics card and sell your old one. You'd only run SLI if you can get a second card really really cheap or if you are starting out with the highest end graphics card and want power/benchmarks from the getgo.

Why would you call yourself a fag?

Because I like dick in my ass?