So I figure it's time to ditch my 8-year-old half-broken once-resurrected laptop for a nice big gamin' machine. And I figure I might as well try to customize it as best as I can to make sure it does what I want it to. So I guess I'll try to build one.
Problem is, though, while I would say that I more or less "know my way around a computer", I'm not too knowledgeable about hardware in general. So I guess I'll ask for help from the internet-people who seem to know what they're talking about.
Hey, internet-people! So, to start with, what are the major components that I'd be looking to buy in order to build such a computer? Motherboard, CPU, hard drive, various cards... what else? I've got people who can help me with the actual construction part, so right now I'm just picking out the parts. I'm looking things up and trying to figure out what's best for me, but I'm also looking for suggestions on what to buy.
I'm looking to spend about $1,000 (USD). I might be persuaded into going a bit higher than that if necessary, but I don't plan on running a whole lot of demanding programs n' stuff (no Crysis at maximum resolution), so the computer doesn't have to be amazingly awesome. And of course it's always cool when I don't have to spend a lot of money on stuff, so I might just stay relatively cheap with this.