Tom's $500 Gaming PC

Tom's Hardware Guide has a great 'How-to' article on building your own gaming PC for around $500. Like Pete, the author, I'm a big fan of buying behind the techno-curve as well. Not just with PCs but with lots of other products -- TVs, DVD players, microwaves, vacuum cleaners, and of course cars. Buying a model that's about to be, or has already been, replaced with a newer model can save you a lot of money and still get good value.

Pete ended up with a PC sporting an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, 512Mb RAM, 256Mb Geforce 6600 video card, an 80Gb HDD, a DVD-ROM and a 330W power supply. Not cutting-edge, but a respectable game system that fit within his budget.

Link: Tom's $500 Gaming PC