Help a newbie build a decent gaming/work computer

[Hoop]

I would go down to Fry's and see what mobo/cpu combos they have (brand, speed doesn't matter really. Newer intel dual core 2.2ghz or faster would be my preference). Then, get a decent but cheap case, antec power supply, corsair ram, and a 80gb solid state drive w/500 or 1tb drive to use as secondary storage (aka put your operating system and games on solid state drive, movies, mp3's other crap on secondary drive).

I think you could pull off the above for about 500$ or less.

[slo5oh]

I would go down to Fry's and see what mobo/cpu combos they have (brand, speed doesn't matter really. Newer intel dual core 2.2ghz or faster would be my preference). Then, get a decent but cheap case, antec power supply, corsair ram, and a 80gb solid state drive w/500 or 1tb drive to use as secondary storage (aka put your operating system and games on solid state drive, movies, mp3's other crap on secondary drive).

I think you could pull off the above for about 500$ or less.

Hoop, Fry's hasn't had any good mobo/CPU deals since the early dual core days, I used to build computers based on their specials. I can't even recall how many now.

OP,
IMHO decide how much you want to spend and work down from there. I'm not saying decide a total, but decide for the most important part, the CPU. If you want to spend as little as possible, around $100, under $200, $500... or what. I still say you get the best bang for your buck with an AMD processor. Right now they're selling solid 3+ GHz quad cores for just over $100. Pick the right one and you have some great overclocking potential via a "black edition" (if you even need it) and some even unlock to 6 cores with the right motherboard (google Phenom II X4 Zosma).
Just be sure you're buying the right parts. The different chips even in the same brand require a different motherboard. AMD's newest chips are FM1 but the still VERY available AM3 chips and motherboards are just as fast but their prices are dropping fast because everyone wants to get rid of their inventory ASAP. Don't get me wrong, I've read the charts and the sandy bridge cores are smoking everything out there, but be prepared to spend more for it.
As several others above had said, don't go cheap on the case (a flimsy case sucks) and do NOT go cheap on the Power supply. There are some good options in the $50 area, but you really have to shop around. Look first for ones with good ratings and a known name like Antec, Thermaltake, Corsair, OCZ, Seasonic... do NOT spend your money on junk like Rosewill, kingwin or PC Power (all of that is taken off newegg, shop where you like though). To determine how much power you'll actually need use something like the extreme power supply calculator http://extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.jsp. You would be amazed how many people drop $100 or more on a 600 or 700 PSU that only really needed a 400w. As an example my 6 core unlocked CPU with a decent Nvidia card 2 HDD's and 1 Blu Ray drive only NEEDS 271w and recommended is 321w PSU so as you can see I can get buy with a lot less than my 600w.

[JDay]

Hoop, Fry's hasn't had any good mobo/CPU deals since the early dual core days,

Yep, the motherboards they give you with those combo deals are junk. Two things you never skimp on, the motherboard and the PSU.

[ryno066]

F all that stuff im SSD whore now. lol

[JDay]

F all that stuff im SSD whore now. lol

I use SSD for the system drive in my desktop (256GB Samsung 830) and notebook (128GB Corsair Force) but I still use regular drives for storage. It'll probably be about another 3 years until SSD are cheap enough to use for storage drives, and even then HDD will probably be the better choice for that.