Recommendations as of October 16th, 2008

Continuing with the updates...

IMPORTANT NOTES! 

I tend to recommend toward the cheap side.  Cut corners where you can.  There is NO WAY to buy a faster computer now to get an extra year or two added onto the computer's life.  In a couple years a CPU that costs $1000 now will be a complete piece of crap.  In a year a similarly performing CPU will sell for next to nothing.  Cut corners where you can, spend where you have to.  Most people screw up and pay for crazy fast CPUs and then get a cheaper graphics card.  If you're going to play PC games on the system an extra $50 on the graphics card will get you WAY MORE PERFORMANCE than hundreds more on a better CPU

Also, I know everyone likes to support their local economy and such but seriously, there is an INSANE price premium for doing that with computer parts.  There are NO good deals to be had locally.  Usually what you end up with is under-performing, absolute shit hardware that costs as much as top of the line products.  A good example is video cards.  Locally you can OCCASIONALLY find a graphics card for $50 that can't play even old games well.  $100 gets you crap that limps along on last year's titles.  Online, however, $50 gets you something that limps along on last year's titles and $100 can play any modern game (not at peak performance, but it'll play it).

CPUs: Right now Intel CPU s are about the only way to go.  Intel CPU's are 30% faster at the same clock speed in most applications and are offered at higher clock speeds.  Right now it seems the 65nm chips will do 3.3-4ghz.  The 45nm chips go a bit faster but most are usually limited by their incredibly high bus speeds if you're looking to overclock.

Cheap CPU: (Seriously, this is what MOST people need) Everyone's going to tell you to spend assloads of money on parts.  If you don't KNOW you need lots of CPU power, you probably don't.  The newer, low end "pentium" dual cores are actually Core2Duos with 1meg of L2 cache.  These are fine for most work...and due to their low bus speeds they're INCREDIBLY EASY to overclock!  BRAINLESS overclocking!  The speed limiting features of the chip may limit you to a maximum bus speed of around 1066mhz so if you're going to overclock, you might as well get a faster one (they're cheap).  The 2.5ghz E5200 (currently $85) with 2meg of L2 cache is a PHENOMINAL overclocker.  It should overclock to over 3ghz on crappy boards and on good boards that ignore the multiplier lock it will probably go in excess of 4ghz.  Also, it's a 45nm chip so it doesn't use much power.

Not so cheap CPU: (If you think you need more)  The (currently $140) Core2Duo E7300 has 3meg of L2 cache but is harder to overclock due to that pesky limiting feature. On the other hand, if you don't plan on overclocking or want a little more...you might as well go all the way up to a 3ghz E8400 (currently $170) with it's beefy 6meg L2 cache.  Just make sure if you get the E8400 that you get a motherboard that supports the 1333mhz bus speed.

Expensive CPU:  You almost certainly DO NOT need this type of CPU. Normal people won't get a thing out of this type of processor...and if you're gaming you'd be better off spending the difference on a better graphics card.  Anyway, the long and the short of it, the (currently $190) 2.4ghz Core2Quad Q6600 has 2x4meg of L2 cache and should overclock to 3ish ghz under normal circumstances.  Supposedly the (currently $275) 2.66ghz Core2Quad Q6700 has a better chance of hitting 3.5+ghz though. If you're not overclocking and want crazy power the highest I can recommend is the 2.83ghz Core2Quad Q9550 (currently $325).  It's got a HUGE 12 meg cache and is still in a tolerable price range.  For ever couple hundred mhz above this speed the price doubles!  Don't let someone dupe you into paying $500, $1000 or $1500 for a processor that's .2-.5ghz faster!  normal people can't even tell the difference.

Onboard graphics: This is technically not a graphics "card" but it's an important thing to note.  If you are fairly confident you will NEVER play a game on your PC (other than those crappy little web-based flash games)...this is really all you need.  Onboard graphics not only underperform in games, they  suck away memory bandwidth so the CPU runs less efficiently.  HOWEVER, in that "I'm never going to play games" world of PCs, what the hell difference will it make?  Besides, onboard graphics are essentially FREE!

Cheap graphics: Not going to say much about this group and I really woldn't recommend this bracket at all right now.  Basically if you have shitty onboard graphics one of the 2600Pro/2600XT cards from ATI is a tolerable way to go. Price after rebate on some of these things is insanely low after rebate.  Don't buy a more expensive one, you'll be throwing your money away!  I wouldn't pay more than $20-40 (after rebate) for them.

Mid-range graphics:  This is the bracket that gets you what you actually need.  You might get better frame rates with more powerful cards but every game should be between playable and spectacular.  The card I recommend most here is the ATI Radeon 4670.  The card is poweful enough to handle newer games well BUT unlike the nvidia cards available at this performance leve IT DOES NOT REQUIRE ADDITIONAL POWER!  If you have absolutely no idea what you're doing, this is the card I'd recommend.  If you're just into nvidia, the 9600GSO line gives the best bang for your buck and starts out at as little as $50 after rebate. The down side is that the 9600GSO is a bit of a power hog (it's actually based on the previous 8800 line).

High end graphics:  If you want absolutely fantastic framerates...buy a Radeon HD4850 (currently starting at $140ish after rebate) or if you want to spend a little more on the nvidia side, a 9800GTX+ $170ish after rebate).  There are higher end cards but these get you MOST of the performance and quite frankly, there's nothing these cards won't chew through effortlessly. (the HD4850 is really in the same league as the 9800GTX).  IMPORTANT!!!  DO NOT BE FOOLED BY THE 9800GT!!!  The 9800GT, while actually a good card to get, it's simply a rebranded 8800GT and nowhere near as fast as the 9800GT.

Crazy high end stuff: Just thought I'd mention...if you're just itching to burn extra money for performance that you probably won't normally see, the Radeon 4870 and the Nvidia GTX260 would be the cards to get. The top tier cards are just way too expensive for not much more power than these.

Hard Drives: Might as well get a fairly big one.  Just like video cards, toward the bottom you save almost nothing and have the space cut in half or worse.

Low end: 250gig drives.  On newegg the shipping's free on these, go a notch lower and you pay shipping. $60ish currently.  I just linked the whole 250-320 gig drive section because it's easier and SOMETIMES there are good deals on slightly larger drives.

Mid range: 500gig drives.  Sometimes there are good deals on newegg for 400gig drives but it's rare and might confuse people.  The deals on 500gig drives are almost always better per gig anyway.

Big drives: 750gig drives are currently the end of the sweet spot on the price v/s capacity curve.  However, the 1 terabyte drives are starting to come down...probably because larger drives are about to be released.