OK guys...I FINALLY got the wife to OK the purchase of a new computer after 5 friggen years! So here goes....the one we currently have is an AMD 1.6 CPU, with a whopping 1 gig of DDR ram, and a HUGE 128 AGP vid card..LOL!!! Yeah i know its basically a childs play toy, but its no longer serving what i want it to do. SO...im getting my tax returns back, and i will have about 1000 bucks to drop on a new comp. ive been looking at tigerdirect, but with all the new firmware upgrades that have hit the market, i feel like im not informed enough to make a valid decision on which tower/parts to purchase. And this is where i need you guys help...basically im looking to get the best bang for my buck, as i wont be able to upgrade for probably a few years. I know i want at LEAST a dual core, preferably a quad core, with at least one GOOD vid card if not two. prolly should go with a minimum of 2 gigs of ram. I figure i can cut some of the cost down by using the HDD i currently have in this tower as its a 250gig HDD...but as for the rest, i gotta buy new...now as far as the case goes i dont care about looks as this will eventually go into the wife's mod and be fully encased....so no need for super looks...just gotta be super functional.
Any ideas / links? I would LOVE to get schooled in this as much as possible before i get my money so i can make a good purchase