Ordering new MOBO plus memory

[Sircoop]

Dear Forum,

It has been 4+ yrs since I last built a new PC and I have some questions.

I mainly use my PC for gaming (FPS, etc..)

I am looking at website for a mobo and I want to make sure I match CPU to MB to RAM which is stable. I also do not want to spend too much $ and if the team here has additional information which indicates I can get this X CPU for $100 cheaper with only a 2% difference in performance it would be great.

I am thinking:

Windows Vista Home
Intel core 2 quad processor probably the Q9550 (I will not be over clocking)
Motherboard needs the obvious stuff Ethernet port. I do not need on board sound or video.
Looking for 4Gigs of Ram (Gaming ram like Corsair TW3x4g1333c9dhx)
I will research and figure out the video card. (At least 512MB)
PSU suggestions?

Also instead of building my own should I just go to alienware or another place and just but a prebuilt?

Thx in advance.

 

[DaveSimmons]

There are a bunch of threads covering this in General Hardware, you might want to do a little reading there.

The sticky in GH also lists a set of questions to let us give the best recommendations.

For games, quad core is going to be almost useless for the next couple of years so unless your budget is high or you plan to massively overclock you'll probably want dual-core not quuad.