[Berserk_Fury]

Well, I had some unexpected income, so I will probably end up building a gaming computer for myself in the summer. I know it may be a bit too early to pick the hardware not at the speed with which it gets outdated, but I still want to do some research.

Anyways, I am looking to spend $1,000 to $1,500, preferably with a decent 19" monitor. The one part I am pretty sure about is the nvidia 8800GT GPU, due to its low price and high quality. I know that some people AMD/ATI fan, but I do not know anything about AMD CPUs, so I will need you to explain some details to me. I also am not sure whether to go for quad core or it is too soon. Out of Intel quad CPUs, I believe the only affordable one is the Q6600 or something of the sort. Would that be a good choice? Finally, I know nothing about motherboards, so could you please give me some detail on which ones are better as well?

That price range does not need to include an OS. I get get Vista Home Premium for $90 from my college.