buying a pc. gaming capability needed

[Blarg]

I bought an Alienware back when they were up and coming and their customer service was top flight. Since then, they have gotten tons of flack for poor customer service and poor quality. They are not the Alienware they used to be at all, apparently.

And -- they have always been expensive. I looked on their site the other day to get an idea of what certain levels of computer sold for, and their price was just astronomical. They were offering for around $1500 what I see for around $500 or even less sometimes.

If I were you I would go for a computer that uses a 64-bit AMD CPU, for future-proofing, as eventually computers will move that way. And the power is great. And I would get a computer that let you use SLI for your video cards -- basically, you put a video card in one slot and when you have the spare cash or desire, you can upgrade by putting an identical video card in a second spare slot. The second video card will work with the first one to create a single picture on your monitor, with each card doing half the work, for a very noticeable improvement in speed. This is a fantastic way to make your computer upgrade-friendly on graphics, which is the main thing you need for most types of gaming.

The AMD 64 bit chip will cover the CPU side, and the cheaper ones are even now highly upgradeable. For instance, you might start out with an Athlon XP 3200 chip, which has a 939 socket to slip the chip into. You can upgrade that all the way to a 4800 at this time, with more speeds probably to come.

By the time you feel a need to upgrade either CPU chip or to upgrade video by adding a second vid card into an SLI rig, the prices on both should have plunged. So your upgrade path will not only be easy, but cheap.

The only thing is, for a SLI rig(two vid cards in sync), you will want to be sure you do not get stuck with a weak power supply, so you definitely may need to go custom on that. Most rigs that I see testing two vid cards in review sites, or that I see recommended by good review sites, have power supplies of from 450 to 600 watts. Try to get a machine that starts that way so you don't have to mess around installing an upgraded power supply later; they can be fairly pricey to replace, and generics have a bad rep.