Well my laptop is 5 years old, so I'm really looking at building a new comp. I have a friend that's going to help me pick some parts. He's got a solid graphics card he's going to sell me cheap, so I'll probably buy that from him. Any suggestions on particular hardware I should get? Any processor that is really awesome or something? Granted I need to decide all my other hardware stuff first so that I'm not limited by my motherboard and processor. I'm going to make it so I can easily upgrade later on as well.

Should I consider Vista?

To be honest, you can build a computer through HP website cheaper than you could build it yourself.

Refer to this thread which I built my own with their website:
https://www.vizzed.com/vizzedboard/thread.php?id=3494

I'll have to talk with my other friend that obsesses over this stuff. See what he says.

What is it going to be for?
Gaming?
College?
Multiple things?

Grad school next fall and whatever else I want to throw at it. Not necessarily games, but I should be able to run most because of the graphics card I'm getting. I want to be able to record TV through it as well.

I'm thinking at least 2 gb of ram, the processor is where my friend and I will have to talk.

MVash, the computer I got not only was powerful but had a TV Tuner. Which means I could plug in cable tv/satellite to it and also hook up other electronics to it. On top of that, it had recording software which came with it.

I'm thinking I can still build it cheaper. I'm going to see how it ends up working out, but I'd prefer to build one rather than buy one.

You're still sorta building it though when you do it thru HP. You basically customize every little thing you want to have placed in it. The computer that I customized and had them built, I looked up every singe part and to have built it myself I would've paid $1448 - $1548 (i looked up the parts on the internet and this is factoring in the cheapest deal I could find, usually it was newegg that had the cheapest for these specific parts) but I paid only $1318.74

HP can get these parts cheaper than what ordinary people can get them for and HP gets an insane discount on the operating system. Also the slap in tons of freebies, free shipping, etc.

Yep. http://www.newegg.com has THE cheapest parts on this side of the intrawebz.
Also, if you have Vista, I do recommend ATLEAST 3 GB of RAM, cause Vista is one HELL of a RAM hog. Other than than, XP is good, even great, with 2 GB.
On the topic of the processor, i do suggest a AMD Phenom Quad-Core 2.3GHZ Processor. I have one myself, got it cheap on Newegg for 100$. Total of 8.9 GHZ of Processing speed, pretty freakin' good for 100$. And people may say that AMD stuff glitches and whatever, but mine runs LIKE A CHARM. I do NOT know CRAP about graphics cards, but, I do suggest 2 more things.
ASUS brand Motherboards, very good and sometimes cheap.
And Western Digital brand Hard Drives. Sea Gate may sometime sell HD's (Internal) cheap, but there have been complaints of em breaking down super fast. WD is where it's at.

EDIT: Hey Dave, I looked at the computer you built, and I really feel that you got overpriced. Cause I got my 2 GB Ram free with my Processor on newegg, and it originally cost 44$ to begin with. Also, 100$ for a DUO CORE? This is why, personally, I don't like Intel.
Also, on the topic of Vista or no Vista: Personal Opinion - BEGONE SATAN! Actual Opinion - Yes and no, yes because they HAVE improved it, but I WILL be waiting for another SP, (Oh, and I do suggest getting 64bit Vista), but it is a big RAM hog.

In other words:
XP - Reliable, trustworthy, and hogs little RAM
Vista - Sort of Reliable, recently updated (SP 1), somewhat glitchy, hogs plenty RAM.

Depending on which you get, pick your RAM FOR the OS.

Neyro: I don't have a duo core I have a quad-core, a "Intel Core 2 Quad processor Q9450" to be exact and it goes for about $320 on newegg. Additionally, in my other thread, I said I had 3 GB of ram and I said that it'd cost about $75 on newegg and not all ram is the same either.

So, what exactly makes you think the computer I got is overpriced? The the processor I got is insane and is pretty hot on the market right now (and so hard to find that even newegg is sold out) and can overclock stabily at about 3.5 GHz....that's 4 processors overlocking at 3.5 GHz which means that's a total of 14 GHz all together.

Yeah Neyro, I was going to go with 64 bit. And like I say I was going to get at least 2 GB anyways. Ram is dirt cheap now comparatively. Once my friend gets me a list of stuff, then we'll see how the price works out.

David I don't pay tax on anything from Amazon, so if Newegg and Amazon are close, and shipping is close it's pointless for me to go to Newegg.

In fact David you wouldn't pay tax on Newegg due to the state you live in....

Sorry Dave, I saw Duo Core.
And I don't Overclock. Ever.
I learned a lesson a while back when I was a kid: Do NOT mess with something you don't understand completely.

And I doubt I will even need the full capacity of my Quad Core anyways. XD
I just got it cause 100$ was cheap at the time.

Sorry.

I am trying to decide between Vista Premium and Ultimate. There's like an $80 difference.

Ok Vash some advice, I am pretty knowledgeable on the subject, built 4 computers myself and helped a lot of friends.

First let me say something about the x factors. They include making sure you have reliable long lasting parts, and more importantly NOT LOUD AS A HELICOPTER!

Personally I like shuttle cases but you might want to go with something more traditional, and more roomy.

Your college probably has a program you can get xp for cheap, 10-30$, or you could run Linux. I'd say stay away from both Vista and 64-bit computing. Thus far both have been failures. Microsoft will release a new OS before you know it,xp will do everything you want it too for now. 64 bit might have problems, it was built on a different NT base, I don't know if they've changed it but last I checked. Better to stay with the crowd in this case. I ran 64 bit for a year and saw a lot of downside and almost no benefit.

Ram is really cheap now days, might as well pick up 4 gigs right off the bat. You really can't go wrong with either intel or amd. The main thing you should think about is the "sweet spot" for components. YOu don't want to pay a premium for the top components. You want to be a little behind the curve.

100$ videocard
100$ case
60$ PSU
100$ CPU
100$ 4 gigs of ram
40$ hard drive
Now a videocard that is slighty old is worth less than nothing. I mean your friend should give it too you for free basically, because you can get one near the top of the line for 100$ or spend 50 to get one that is probably twice as good as his. I bought a 9600gs for 100$ and got a 50$ rebate.

So you shold be able to put it together for under 500 excluding a monitor, cheaper if you want.

As far as recording video goes your best bet is too have a videocard, and then have another tv tuner card. A decent one might run you 30-40 dollars. I saw some high def ones on www.woot.com the other night for 30.

The hardrive, might as well buy a terrabyte one, they are cheap enough now days.

The last thing I have to say is... if your running a 600 watt power supply, that when idle takes about 200wats or when using it takes more that is a lot of energy. Right now your probably in a dorm room where you electricity is free. But that won't be the case forever. So I would suggest finding a psu that is efficient. In a year when you are paying for electricity it might save you 50$

In my opinion, shell out the extra $80 USD and just get ultimate. Might as well.

In my opinion you should just listen to Zylo, he said everything I wanted to say but better!

And I'd just say pirate vista (Even better: pirate XP), but that's just me being an ass.

Alright Zylo Dragon Master dude, I would want the media center edition of XP, any idea what it's based off of? Pro or home edition? It's $120 on Newegg as I don't have access to the way I could buy stuff at college anymore since I graduated.

Secondly just glancing at Newegg, I couldn't find any 1 TB hdd for under $130. Also I'd like to go with Western Digital as they seem pretty reliable, but it's not a must. The one I see for $130 is 7200 RPM SATA.

-RAIDMAX AZTEC ATX-619WU Black/ Blue 1.0mm SECC Steel ATX Mid Tower Foldout MB Computer Case
-ASUS M2N-E AM2 NVIDIA nForce 570 Ultra MCP ATX AMD Motherboard
-Rosewill RP500-2 500W ATX12V v2.01 Power Supply
-G.SKILL 2GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Desktop Memory Model F2-6400CL5S-2GBPQ
-AMD Athlon 64 X2 5000+ Brisbane 2.6GHz Socket AM2 65W Dual-Core Processor Model ADO5000DOBOX
-Microsoft Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 w/SP2B for System Builders - OEM
-EVGA 512-P3-N802-AR e-GeForce 8800 GT 512 MB DDR3 Superclocked Edition PCI-Express Graphics Card
-Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB Caviar Sata 7200 Rpm 16MB Cache SATA Hard Drive
-DVD/ CD Reader/ Writer Not sure on Specific yet
Price= $728
Probably will get a monitor for Christmas. And maybe add in a TV tuner

Pretty sweet case it has, when it comes to specs though I don't know a damn thing about what is good or not lol. I just know what brands are good thats all

Dude, you're basically constructing a god box awesome!