Choosing New Gaming PC- Guidance Please

[ArtistofWarfare]

LeftEyeNine- That does pretty much tie up any loose ends remaining after my research thus far...indeed. Good stuff, thank you. I especially like how you categorized certain things as "unpredictable"...as this goes along with some of my suspicions, and makes my search easier as a result.

My only remaining question is about the motherboard...

Could you please look at this: http://www.ibuypower.com/ibp/store/c...mid=119#header

I'm almost sure this is the set I'll be building off of and I just would like you to take a look at the motherboard options there and tell me what's viable for price/longterm compatibility etc...

This last bit of help would pretty much give me what I need to wrap this thing up tomorrow or the next day.

Over time, I'll spend some more time reading the forums here and learning more about hardware and programming in general. I knew the day would come when I would eventually get as learned in PC knowledge as I am in some other things. That day has clearly come.

Just to mention as well- I got a little lucky. As I'm sure you guys know, you're looking for any tug in any direction as far as what company to order from. I was at the mall today and I stopped in the local game store and was talking to some guys a few years older than me...intelligent. They had both gone with this IbuyPower company in the past and said that things should work out just fine. So at least I can start pegging down the hardware (which other than the motherboard is just about done as well).

Thank you again LEN and EMFM. Upon finding out that I would be able to go after a PC in the first place, and then immediately deciding to come here for help, this is exactly the kind of detailed information I was looking/hoping for.

You both clearly spent time on this...I'll definitely send you some screenshots etc when I finally get the PC on my desk running some TW.

Oh- Also, just in case it comes up...(it might...I'm looking at a couple of other models quick just to make sure) Could you please clarify that AMD Athlon to Pentium Dual Core?

As in...AMD 5200...what would be it's pentium equivalent? Thanks.