My Junior semester in college is coming up soon and my PC that I built many years ago is closing in on its last days. Lots of crashes, ports going out, lights flickering, fans turning off....well I think you've heard enough. Needless to say, I'm in the market for a new PC.

I've been out of the building game for so long now that I do not have a clue on what's top of the line anymore. I could really use some help building a reliable budget PC that I'll be using for programming and gaming.

Budget: $600 (I can work above a bit if need be)
Uses: Programming/Gaming (I really want to try Crysis at full settings if it's not too much to ask. Haha)
Special Wants: (Plenty of USB ports. I miss my firewire ports. I wouldn't complain about a pretty hefty hard drive.)

I won't be doing a lot of gaming on my PC other than a few titles honestly. I don't have a lot of time to play around with these days with work, school, and music.

Thanks for the help in advance,
Blake

I have no idea what is what at the moment, Something like this on a budget in the UK works out around $550 with no OS . I guess it gives you an idea where to start. Plus the stuff in the US is a lot cheaper than over here.

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http://tinyurl.com/bqqrvx

Although I question this sites choices for builds at times, the following link has decent information for what you're looking for. I would change a few things here and there, but it's more of personal preferences then anything else. Hope this helps.

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Thanks for the links guys.

http://pcper.com/hwlb.php

I usually find myself in agreement with these guys about 90% of the time. Most importantly they do a good job of keeping it up to date.

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The artist formerly known as FreakOfNature/sCaryDeth