Ok, well I really want to get into PC gaming again because of Starcraft 2, The Old Republic, Diablo 3, etc. Right now my Geforce 5500 and 766mb ram wont cut it. Let me start off saying I know building it myself would be the most bang for my buck, but I tend to screw these things up very often and I simply dont trust my limited computer knowledge enough.

With that being said I have found this website where you select the products and specs you want and they build it for you.
http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/configurator.aspx?mid=72#header

Does anyone know if this is a reliable website, or know any similair sites like this one?

I am also wondering what the difference is between DDR-2 and DDR-3 ram. And how much more would DDR3 cost?

I am thinking of upgrading the GeForce 9500 to a 9800 for 50 more bucks. Is this a significant upgrade or worth the price? Another thing about video cards is, some are 512mb while others are 1gb, this seems like a considerable difference, but only very little price increase. Whats the deal?

When you go to the second page of thesystem configurator it asks about the OS. One of the selections is, None- Pre-formatted Hard Drive Only , what the hell does this mean? Is there a default like Windows XP on the Harddrive?

I think that is most of my questions for now, Thanks for the Help!

And please dont try to convince me to build it myself and buy all the parts from newegg because I will not do it.

Ibuypower, will send you.. a computer.. whether or not it'll be in good condition is questionable though.

DDR3 is basically a step up from DDR2, im not sure how much of a performance difference you will notice from going from DDR2 to DDR3 but i would get DDR3 for future proofing.

I dont really trust Ibuypower unless you plan on buying a laptop, thier PC's tend to come with a rats nest on the inside and a bunch of things loosened during shipping.

If your really hardset on a pre-built, and your willing to shell out some cash, i would go with Alienware.. yeah they are pretty expensive but they build and package thier computers to withstand all the shit that shipping will do to a computer.

IbuyPower is a great site. There are others that are similar they just slip my mind on their name, I believe CyberPC is another.

DDR2 and DDR3 is a pretty good performance jump, cost would be at least double of DDR2; however DDR3 ram requires a DDR3 compatible motherboard from the list so that will be another upgrade.

9800 is a dated card already, i'd go for something higher atleast a GTX260 Core216 at this time in the market; they run for about 150 bucks. RAM on a video card isn't a costly expense to the manufacturer so they often make 2 models.

None-Pre Formatted means the drive is formatted and ready for an install of XP, Vista, Windows 7 RC. There is NO operating installed, you will need to install/buy one yourself.

I'd suggest going with a NewEgg pre-built IBuyPower machine this will include the operating system and everything you need, you won't need to do any custimaztion yourself as you aren't completely in the loop on the hardware itself.

Not sure what your budget it is; but if you can afford this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883227146 i'd go for it.

XP is a poor choice in operating system and i'd personally go with Vista; Windows 7 is around the corner and upgrading from Vista to 7 will be easy compared to XP to 7 which will require a full format (wiping the drive) to perform the upgrade. You'd have to find out from iBuyPower if a pre-built Machine from NewEgg will warrant a FREE upgrade to WIndows 7 as Microsoft and its vendors are giving free upgrades to Windows 7 in order to continue sales of systems while the wait. If they won't do it, match every part from that build to an ibuypower custom if possible.

And lastly Core i7 is the current powerhouse on the market and nothing comes close. If you are going to be buying a gamer machine, you'd be wise to go with it.

PM if you need help or have questions; I won't be checking back til tomorrow morning when I get to work.

IBuyPower and Cyberpower Inc are OK I hear.  My friend bought a PC from them, it worked but he had some fairly minor problems at first (they didn't send a actual OS disk, so he couldn't reformat at first, they scratched his glass case...).

Personally when I was pricing around for my new PC recently I considered them.  I've built my PC in the past and the actual building isn't too bad, but I'm too afraid of having to RMA a CPU, or fucking something up, or really just spending the time and money to fix any potential problems so I'm going to go with prebuilt this time.  Anyways, ibuypower didn't have a great selection of components, not everything was name branded, they didn't always give an exact model, their case selections especially sucked and they charged more for building than I wanted to pay.

Do NOT go with Alienware no matter what you do.  They're basically horribly overpriced Dells.  Often worse quality components than what you'd get at ibuypower or newegg.  Most of those big names charge way too much and deliver a inferior quality product.  When I was pricing around a bit, HP was extremely bad, charging more than $400 builders fee and delivering some of the worse selection of generic parts.

Ended up going with AVADirect, but I in no way endorse them YET, as I haven't recived my computer yet.  It's ordered and so far they seem very respectable.  They have a great selection of parts, but you have to know more of what you're doing, but they'll tell you if there are any incompatabilities.  I'm paying a pretty nominal builders fee.

DDR2 and DDR3 performance jumps is really only relevant in synthetic tests, real world performance difference is very small.  Talking like 1% to 3% performance difference.

I'd say definitely go with AT LEAST a GeForce 9800, unless you plan on a bigger video card upgrade in your future.  RAM is very cheap, so go with the 1GB when you can.  Not a whole lot of games really use that much RAM, but it's definitely worth it with the small price diffs.

Formatted HDD means no OS at all.  You'll have to own your own disk and do all the installing yourself.