I don't know if this thread is already in existence or not but here goes nothing! If it is still active somewhere else then I don't mind this one being turned off or moved.   Anyway I have a youtube channel that I've been wanting to get back into.   However my laptop can only handle so much information before the memory runs low.   Is there a gaming computer you would recommend? Is it better to build one myself? And is there any useful locations to look up how to make one since I have never made one before? Which is more cost effective :p 

Thank you for the info.   I was really looking for a Desktop anyway and the monitor I already have on it is relatively new especially compared to the working bits.   I guess I just need to find someone around me that knows how to build one!

Building a computer is actually extremely easy and very fun, and typically several hundreds of dollars cheaper than buying an off the shelf model. You just have to be sure to pay attention and make sure everything you buy is compatible. I'll include an image which contains a pretty recent representation of the current state of do-it-yourself computing.

If you live on the west coast, you can check out Fry's, they have pretty good deals on components, and people are actually there to help you out. If not, Newegg.com is probably your best bet, or Tiger Direct. They're both pretty comparable in prices.

But, before we start, how much money do you have to spend? Like Oldschool said, you should be looking to spend no less than $500, but it's very easy to go overboard and spend upwards of $5,000 on a single build! So give us a price point and we'll start making suggestions. Another thing you might want to look at is the DIY-kits on Newegg. They come with all the components pre-configured, you just assemble it at home, which will give you confidence in your abilities to put everything together, without the worry of accidentally buying an incompatible component.

Let us know what you want to do, there are quite a few experienced users here willing to help!

Hmm I'm not entirely sure how much money I want to dump on this project yet, but I guess it seems fair to say that $500 will be the minimum price range seeing as it is the lowest amount you both gave me (haha that's about a total of one paycheck for half a month xD)   I'm just not looking to spend thousands of dollars trying to get a new system so if we can avoid going over 1.5k then I should be good to save up until that point

Now, another question is what type of games do you play? You say you want to get back into Youtube, so I'm guessing you're thinking about doing some Let's Plays for retro games, am I correct? If that's the case, you'll need a good processor, but you can save money on the video card. But if you are more interested in playing the newest games on the highest settings, you definitely shouldn't skimp on that.

Well I am interested in doing both as I re-enter the world of Vizzed.  I was doing games like Solar 2, Mount and Blade, and was attempting to do Empire: Total War but with fraps going at the same time I was lagging badly on the last game.  Mount and Blade lags a little, and I just want something that can handle more than four games being on and still provide lag free (or as lag free as possible) gameplay while I do recordings.  I do like let's plays and with steam I'd like to try doing first plays and other types of things that would help gamers decide on what to play; I'd like to branch out from what is the norm on that website as far as content goes.

It really depends on what you're looking for exactly. I built my PC for around $600... but I also wouldn't call it a "gaming PC". Yes, I play lots of games on it, but it's mostly retro stuff like what Vizzed offers. The only modern PC games I've run on here were simple stuff like Sims 3 and I also can play Alice: Madness Returns. I don't really play fancy stuff, though I do have a video card for the more modern 3D games. It can handle some of them, but I doubt it can handle the top end games without issue.

I do enjoy the ability to set quality to max in everything I play though. I have friends that need to set it to the minimum to get any speed in the games.

Do you know what's the most intensive game you plan to play? If I know that, I can use that as a basis for your minimum specs.

Go check out www.ibuypower.com, it where I got my desktop PC. They give you a wide amount of customization, and have good deals. My rig was about $1000 and it runs everything maxxed out.

Crazy Li : As far as what the most intensive game I plan to play on it, well I play Empire: Total war, that seems to be more intensive as fraps and that game lag like crazy on here where as Mount and Blade and fraps runs great.   After that I'm just going to plan to play any obscure titles from steam, maybe the occasional big name game that I can't get on a console.   
traxusv : thanks for the info I think I'm getting a good list of things to do and check out!

Deadman9001 : In that case, here are my recommendations on minimum to shoot for...

CPU: Intel Core2 Duo @ 3 GHz (I don't know AMD processors, so I can't give a recommendation if you wanted an AMD build instead of Intel... I'm guessing an Athlon 64 X2 of some sort)
RAM: 6GB DDR2 only if you have a 64-bit OS otherwise, your limit is 3GB.
Video Card: nVidia GeForce 9800 (or ATI Radeon HD 4830 if you prefer ATI cards) with 2GB VRAM

Remember... these are just the minimum I would shoot for to have a decent gaming experience. I don't know if this will cover you for recording from FRAPS while gaming (FRAPS is an EXTREMELY laggy recorder in my experience), so you may need to go higher than that on some parts... if it's not too much more expensive to buy the next up, you may wish to do. This is just a general idea anyway.