I recently got a new job that has given me a little bit more cash than I used to have, so I thought "what to buy" ? Perhaps it's time to update my venerable PC which has been with me for some amount of time. 
I'm pretty set on this idea and have been doing a tonne of research.   
To fill you all in, here's what I'm going to be moving from:  Pentium IV 2.6GHz 
       2 GBts of RAM 
80GB hard drive! 
7800GS AGP graphics card 
 
So that's the important stuff.  I know what you're thinking, "holy crap, that shit is archaic!" and you're right.  That said though, it's done me proud pretty much up until fairly recently.  I was able to play STALKER with reasonable settings and FSX. 
So, after loads of research and swaying, here's what the new system will be (I think):  Phenom II X4 BE  (possibly X6 if the price is right) 
   80GB Solid state drive & 1TB storage drive 
           4GB DDR3 RAM 
    ATI 5850 
So, those are the important parts.  Windows 7 as well.  It's pretty exciting as I know that I'm going to see such a phenomenal speed boost and gain.  PCI express/USB 3/ SATA 2/3 all didn't even exist when I built that old system.  Games I'm super looking forward to are Call of pripyat, Anno 1404, ArmA 2, Empire:Total War, Dawn of War 2 and a few others. 
 
Let me know what you think of the system and any other recommendations you guys have.

I recently got a new job that has given me a little bit more cash than I used to have, so I thought "what to buy" ? Perhaps it's time to update my venerable PC which has been with me for some amount of time. 
I'm pretty set on this idea and have been doing a tonne of research.   
To fill you all in, here's what I'm going to be moving from:  Pentium IV 2.6GHz 
       2 GBts of RAM 
80GB hard drive! 
7800GS AGP graphics card 
 
So that's the important stuff.  I know what you're thinking, "holy crap, that shit is archaic!" and you're right.  That said though, it's done me proud pretty much up until fairly recently.  I was able to play STALKER with reasonable settings and FSX. 
So, after loads of research and swaying, here's what the new system will be (I think):  Phenom II X4 BE  (possibly X6 if the price is right) 
   80GB Solid state drive & 1TB storage drive 
           4GB DDR3 RAM 
    ATI 5850 
So, those are the important parts.  Windows 7 as well.  It's pretty exciting as I know that I'm going to see such a phenomenal speed boost and gain.  PCI express/USB 3/ SATA 2/3 all didn't even exist when I built that old system.  Games I'm super looking forward to are Call of pripyat, Anno 1404, ArmA 2, Empire:Total War, Dawn of War 2 and a few others. 
 
Let me know what you think of the system and any other recommendations you guys have.

The PC that the dudes from Tested.com built is a nice computer for $1500.   I'd build another computer but i'm waiting for prices on the i7 980 and geforce gtx 480 to drop in price by a hundred or so then i have a core to build a new super system.

Dude, if you're looking for performance in the long run; I'd stick with the new Intel stuff. AMD has had a great track record for the past 7 years or so, but it's declining rapidly. This, coming from a guy who has an AMD Phenom X3 and has used them for a while. 
 
I'd kick up the DDR3 for sure; and make sure your mobo has USB 3.0 support, or you're going to be left in the dust when it comes to transfer rates.  Solid state drives bog down pretty fast right now as well - I'd consider waiting 6 months or so before investing. The archetecture isn't very solid; and the way it stores and organizes data is congruent with current flash drives; needless to say, not very good on a large scale unless you plan on formatting every 4 months or so.

If you can find one of these:
 
 http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=027361&cid=MBD.303
 
You're set.

Yeah, I agree about the transfer rates.  Definitely getting at least an 890GX chipset. 
 
The core i5 is was actually very close to being the one, but I swayed to the Phenom II for futureproofing.  Everything I've seen says the the socket 1136 is a dead end, which totally sucks.

Maybe include a crossfire mobo, also a fermi GTX470 instead. Ati is cheaper and so are amd cpu's. I recommend an i5 or i7, however it's your choice. Still if you do buy that card, you can always crossfire it after a year or two if you want more power.

1. You do not need 6 cores for games, and it will probably provide no benefit for another 3-4 years (considering dual cores are only just now being saturated) where better processors would be out anyway. Unless AMD is crazy enough to release their new X6's at the same price as current X4's you should not get an X6. 
2. Do not get an SSD right now, their prices are constantly falling and there are a bunch of new technologies coming out since it's pretty much only in its infancy. You will likely be able to get something twice as fast with double the capacity for the same price mere months from now. In addition, they provide little to no benefit in games. Putting that money into the video card would be a far wiser choice. 

Yeah, the hexacore setup entirely depends on the price.  AMD is going for the "undercut Intel" route, so I'm interested to see what they price them at.  Should be out in a couple of weeks. 
 
Agreed on the videocard.  I do feel that if I get a 5850 then that should see me through for a long time, especially with the choice of crossfire in the future. 
I like the look of the new Nvidia cards, but their price/performance ratio is not so good.  That said, it's Nvidia and they have a knack of pre-empting future technologies/working with vendors on future tech.