First off look for deals. That's how I got my motherboard. An Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless off eBay for $90 about two years ago. It was DOA but only six months into the three year warranty. Sent it in and go a whole new retail box. The rest of that build was an AMD x64 2x 5800. I just upgraded the RAM from 2 to 4 GB thanks to a good deal w rebate at Newegg. For a graphics card I have an ATI Radeon 2600. This runs all my games full out. Granted I would not allow me to run Crysis at full settings. Graphics card will likely be the next upgrade, sometime after Christmas. Not only is it my gaming rig but my TV too. I have Dual montiors for that. Media Center gets displayed on the 24" 1900x1200 Samsung.
Really, you don't need to spend alot to get a great working PC. Oh, I'm running Vista x64.
