Hello, I have been wanting to buy a decent gaming computer for some time now, and I am wondering what is the cheapest way to do so. I know a decent amount about computers, but I have not needed to purchase a computer in a long time, and have not been keeping up with the latest technology. I have seen some pretty expensive graphics cards on ATI's website, but I am not sure if those highend ones are really needed, or are the basic ones fine for most games. If you could give me a couple tips and some links to nice websites that would be appreciated.

I just saw the community tech thread. I feel stupid now

You say that you are pretty competent about computers so you could build your own. However the "ultimate" and I do mean ULTIMATE question is how much you are willing to spend. My current rig about 2 years ago cost me $2300 and it probably would have been about $3500 if I went through a company like Dell. Also I would say that it depends upon your preferences of dealing with bad components yourself or going with a totally built machine then getting it from a store. I've seen some pretty decent rigs both pre-built and built from parts for around $1200 so it's really up to you OP.

I'll also say that mentioned in a previous post both AMD and Intel are supposed to release their new chipsets soon. Intel from what i've read is moving to the new 22nm design which will have better processing power, lower heat production, and more goodies. However that may not be until 2012 so it's up to you if you want to wait close to a whole year to get that shiny new chipset. At the moment the best chipset out there would be the Core i7 920 if they are still selling it since those things are SUPER stable from what I hear. People are overclocking them from 2.60 gigs to like 4.5gigs though i'm betting they're running some kind of liquid cooling system.

Anyways here's the checklist:

1. What are you looking to spend?
2. Can you wait or do you need it now?
3. What do you want the computer to do?
4. Do you have a brand preference if so what?