I posted here a couple months ago about building a rig just for fun to learn more about building one. But now I seriously want to build one. Just seems better overall than console gaming and plus with college coming up, it'd be nice to have a good computer. So what are some good parts (psu, cpu, chassis, RAM, gpu, MoBo, HDD) as well as a monitor for $1000 or less? I don't necessarily need something to max out everything, but at least high settings with a good frame rate on all games that are currently out.
Thanks in advance!

Also, I have an old copy of FFVII Ultima Edition that my friend gave me, but it won't work on my laptop, so will the potential parts be able to run it?

so if I were to upgrade the gpu used in this guide (the same kind, but with 1GB instead of 512MB) and upgrade the RAM to either 4 or 8 GB, and use the other components used in this guide, would it max out current games out as well as stay in good performance for at least a few years to come? Thanks

Thanks, I've actually played the heck out of Fallout 3. Finished all the quests, level 30, etc which is why I'm looking for another game like that. I tried Oblivion, but couldn't get into it. So I think I might get Mass Effect. But what do you think about the Xbox original Indigo Prophecy? It looks pretty good plus it's cheap

Hey everyone, any fun and long single player games? I was thinking Mass Effect, Record of Agarest War, or games similar. I was also considering the Orange Box. Thanks

Thanks for the feedback...so if I were to dual boot with Windows 7, it would be able to actually run Windows games right? I wouldn't be limited to just the Mac versions of games?

2.66GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor
3MB on-chip shared L2 cache
1066MHz frontside bus
8GB of 1066MHz DDR3
500 GB HDD

I don't necessarily want to run EVERYTHING at max settings, just games from like '05-'09 to the point where they won't lag or overload the computer....is it possible to game on this?

Well I was going to mention that UC Irvine is adopting a specialty for game design for computer science majors this year, but you don't live in California, so scratch that :x

Alright well I really like role-playing games and have had my eye on both Mass Effect 2 and Borderlands for a while, but can only get one. Which do you Gamespotters recommend? I love games where you choose dialog from a list and can be good or evil (like Fallout 3 and KOTOR 2, my two favorite RPGS) so yeah. And also, which one of the two will I get more play time out of?

Xbox:

Fallout 3
Rock Band 2
Tales of Vesperia
Guitar Hero 2
Sonic Unleashed (whaaa?)

All time:

Tales of Symphonia
Fallout 3
Pokemon Blue (I like 'em all, but can't beat the original)
Sonic Adventure 2: Battle
Paper Mario

So Gamestop has this deal where you trade in an old 360 and you get more money if it's used to pay for the new Slim. I plan on doing this, but I was wondering if it is possible to transfer the licenses AFTER having traded in the old xbox 360? Or do I need to transfer licenses and THEN purchase the new Xbox?