Processor choices are a bit more difficult now then they were before. It is still really a choice between an AMD and an Intel processor. The difference really comes in how many cores there are in the processor and its relative speed. Each company now has a performance rating system that isn't really easy to compare. Due to the complexity, its best to refer to my links below for a more detailed explanation of CPUs for budget and uses.

1. AMD Performance - Phenom 9850 Black Edition
AMD has fallen pretty far in terms of high performance processors. The Phenom processor lineup was designed to try and compete with the Intel Core 2 Quad lineup. The Phenom 9850 features four processor cores on a single chip with a default clock of 2.5GHz. This is step up from the previous first generation Phenom processors but much lower than Intel's offering for the high end. The Black Edition of the processor is clock unlocked though for those wishing to try and push as much performance from it as they can. The one big advantage that AMD has of course is price. This processor is roughly 1/4 the cost of Intel's Core 2 Extreme lineup.

2. Intel Performance - Core 2 Extreme QX9775
If absolute speed is your goal without the worry of cost, then the Intel Core 2 Extreme QX9775 is the processor to look at. This quad core processor runs at an amazingly fast 3.2GHz speed and comes equipped with a gigantic 12MB of cache memory. This gives it out of the world performance in just about any application on the market. Of course, the price of the processor is more than some complete desktop computer systems that still offer very strong performance.

3. AMD Value - Phenom 9850 Black Edition
AMD hasn't released any new processors in the past few months. As a result, the Phenom 9850 Black Edition price has fallen below the 250 value threshold. This makes AMD's highest performance consumer desktop processor also the best value processor. While not as fast as the Intel Core 2 Quad models on the market, it certainly provides a very competitive product for its price. And if you want even more, the Black Edition is always clock unlocked for easy overclocking.

4. Intel Value - Core 2 Duo E8500
While quad core processors are certainly in the headlines more for desktops, their frankly aren't many applications that can take advantage of all four cores. Unless you are doing desktop video or heavy multitasking, a dual core processor is generally going to provide you with a better overall experience. The Core 2 Duo E8500 is one of the fastest dual core processors from Intel on the market right now and comes with an extremely affordable price tag. And if that 3.16GHz core speed isn't fast enough for you, the series is well known for its bus overclocking for extra performance.

5. AMD Budget - Athlon 64 X2 6000+
For years, AMD was the budget alternative to Intel processors. They jumped out of this with the original release of the Athlon processors, but they have slid back down. Because of this, AMD has slashed prices offering some very strong performance for very little cash. The Athlon 64 X2 6000+ is currently the fastest of the older generation processors topping out at 3.0Ghz with two processors cores and support for DDR2 memory.

6. Intel Budget - Pentium E5200
The Intel Pentium E5200 is actually based around the Core 2 processor design. In fact, it uses the same 45nm core as the extremely popular Intel Core Duo 2 E8000 Wolfsdale processors just with lower clock speeds and caches. The main reason for it to retain the Pentium name is to separate itself from the more performance oriented versions as a budget oriented product. This 2.5GHz part has more than enough performance for all the basic computing tasks and can even handle some of the higher end stuff, just not as quickly.

next to consider is Memory (RAM)

Most desktop computers now use a type of memory called DDR2. Some high performance ones might use DDR3, but this is quite expensive. Avoid systems using the older DDR memory standard. In terms of amount, it is best to have at least 1GB of memory in the system and preferably 2GB. Memory speeds can impact performance as well. The faster the memory, the better the performance should be. When buying memory, try to buy as few DIMMs as possible to allow for future memory upgrades if needed.

The rule of thumb that I use for all computer systems for determining if it has enough memory is to look at the requirements of the software you intend to run. Pick up the boxes for each of the applications and the OS that you intend to run and look at both the minimum and recommended requirements. Typically you want to have more RAM than the highest minimum and ideally at least as much as the highest listed recommended requirement. The following chart provides a general idea of how a system will run with various amounts of memory:

Minimum Functionality: 1GB
Optimal: 2GB
Smooth Sailing: 4GB or more
The ranges provided are a generalization based upon most common computing tasks. It is best to check the requirements of the intended software to make the final decisions. This is not accurate for all computer tasks because some operating systems use more memory than others.

Note: If you inted to use more than 4GB of memory, you must have a 64-bit operating system to get past the 4GB barrier. More information can be found in my Vista an 4GB of RAM article.

The type of memory does matter to the performance of a system. There are two basic types of memory currently used: DDR2 and DDR3. There are older RDRAM and SDRAM modules, but these forms are both outdated and should be avoided in a computer purchase. DDR is still available, but unlike to be installed in any currently sold PCs. Beyond the type of memory, each memory type also has a related speed to that ram as well. Below is a chart detailing the order of the type and speed in order of slowest to fastest:

DDR2 400 MHz or PC2-3200
DDR2 533 MHz or PC2-4200
DDR2 667 MHz or PC2-5300/PC2-5400
DDR3 800 MHz or PC3-6400
DDR2 800 MHz or PC2-6400
DDR3 1066 MHz or PC3-8500
DDR3 1333 MHz or PC3-10600/PC3-10666
DDR3 1600 MHz or PC3-12800
These speeds are all relative to the theoretical bandwidths of each type of memory at its given clock speed when compared to another. A computer system will only be able to use one type (DDR2 or DDR3) of memory and this should only be used as a comparison when the CPU is identical between the two systems. These are also the JDEC memory standards. Other memory speeds are available above these stardard rating

One other thing that you might want to consider is how much memory the system can support. Most desktop systems tend to have a total of four memory slots on the boards with modules installed in pairs. Smaller form factor systems typically will only have a two RAM slots. The way these slots are used can play a key role in how you can upgrade memory in the future.

For example, a system may come with 2GB of memory. With four memory slots, this memory amount can be installed with either two 1GB memory modules or four 512MB modules. If you are looking at future memory upgrades, it is better to purchase a system using two 1GB modules as there is available slots for upgrades without having to remove modules and RAM to increase the overall amount.

next comes Hard Drives

Hard drives really boil down to size and speed. The larger the drive and the faster, the better the performance and capacity. In a desktop, it is best to have at least 250GB or more of storage space these days. In terms of speed, they are pretty much all running at 7200rpm now. A few high performance 10,000rpm drives are available. Most drives use the Serial ATA interface now for ease of installation. Performance wise, there is little difference still between Serial ATA and the older IDE standards.

next optical
Optical Drives (CD/DVD)

Most systems sold now feature DVD burners, even the budget systems. It is best to make sure that you get a multiformat DVD burner that can support both the +R/RW and -R/RW formats. Speeds should be 16x for the recordable speed. Dual or Double Layer media support is also a common feature although less likely to be used due to media cost. If you don't need a DVD burner, try to at least get a CD-RW/DVD combo drive of 24x recording speed to allow for CD media storage and DVD playback. Options also include LightScribe or Labelflash support for burning labels directly to compatible media

Drive Types

There are three basic forms of optical storage used in computers today: compact disc (CD), digital versatile disc (DVD) and Blu-ray. Compact disc storage was derived from the same media that we use from audio compact discs. The storage space averages around 650 to 700 MB of data per disc. They can contain audio, data or both on the same disc. Most software for computers is distributed on CD formats. DVD was the development for a compact digital video format that also spun off into the data storage arena. DVD is seen primarily for video and has only recently really started to be used for software distribution. DVD drives are still backwards compatible with CD formats however.

Blu-ray and HD-DVD were both in the high definition format war but Blu-ray eventually won out. Each of these is capable of storing high definition video signals or data capacities ranging from as low as 25GB to over 200GB depending upon the number of layers on the discs. Since the two formats are incompatible with one another, drives may use one or both of the formats. They use a different type of laser from standard CD and DVD so a drive may not necessary be backwards compatible with CD and DVDs, but many are.

Now optical drives can come as read only (ROM) or as writers (designated with either an R, RW or RAM). Read-only drives will allow you to only read data from discs that already have data on them, they can not be used for removable storage. Writers or burners can be used to save data, create music CDs or video discs that can be played in DVD players.

CD recorders are very standardized and should be compatible with almost all equipment out there. Some CD burners maybe be listed as a combo or CD-RW/DVD drive. These can support reading and writing to CD media and can read DVD media ut not write to it.

DVD recorders are a bit more confusing as there are many more types of media that can be used with them. Most drives at this point can support both the plus and minus versions of the standard along with rewritable. Another new format is the dual-layered or double-layered, typically listed as DL, that supports twice the capacity.

Speed Limit Ahead

All optical drives are rated by a multiplier that refers to the maximum speed the drive operates when compared to the original CD or DVD standards. It is not the sustained transfer rate while reading the whole disc. To make matters even worse, some drives have multiple speed listings. How does one know what it all means?

Read only or ROM drives can list up to two speeds. For a CD-ROM drive, there is typically a single speed listed which is the maximum data read speed. Sometimes a second CD ripping speed will also be listed. This refers to the speed at which data can be read from an audio CD for conversion to a computer digital format such as MP3. DVD-ROM drives will typically list two or three speeds. The primary speed is the maximum DVD data read speed while the secondary refers to the maximum CD data read speed. Once again, they may list an additional number that refers to the CD ripping speed from audio CDs.

Optical burners get very complicated. They can list over ten different multipliers for the various media types. Because of this, manufacturers tend to just list a single number for the drives and this will be for the DVD media that it can record the fastest at. Because of this, try to read the detailed specs. A 20x drive may run up to 20x when recording on DVD+R media, but it might only run at 4x when using the DVD+R dual-layer media.

next very important
Video Cards

Video card technology seems to change every three to six months. If you aren't really doing any 3D graphics at all, then integrated graphics may be just fine. Beyond this, there are a wide selection of cards. Things to consider include performance, the amount of memory on the card, output connectors and the version of Direct X supported. Those looking to do any gaming should really consider a Direct X 10 card with at least 256MB of memory onboard. Pretty much all new systems will use the PCI-Express graphics standard.

1. VisionTek Radeon HD 4850
VisionTek
ATI has made a huge commitment to provide strong performance graphics cards for reasonable prices. Their Radoen HD 4850 certainly provides a lot to offer in the sub-200 graphics market. The latest grophics core from ATI provides some very surprising performance that puts it in the same league as the new NVIDIA GeForce GTX 260 graphics card that sells for nearly double the price. It also has support for Direct X 10.1 which NVIDIA has yet to implement into its cards. ATI has also improved their anti-aliasing engine so that it doesn't have nearly the performance hit that their previous HD 3000 series cards had.

2. eVGA GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB
eVGA
This graphics card is generally priced over 200, but with the new product releases and manufacturer rebates, it should make it under this price. The GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB was based around the G92 graphics core that offers some outstanding performance for its time. It still provides very strong frame rates in 3D games.On the downside, the card does take up additional space because of its large cooler that makes it not functional for those with limited space within their PC. This eVGA version of the 8800 GTS offers overclock core speeds of 670MHz over the stock 650MHz but retains the memory speed of 1940MHz.

3. eVGA e-GeForce 9600 GT KO
eVGA
The GeForce 9600 series graphics card wasn't really a revolution in terms of design, but more of an update to the 8000 series cards. The 9600 GT did offer some impressive performance especially for the price. In many tests it is the equal of the more expensive 8800 GT series. eVGA has boosted the base clock speed up to 700MHz and the 512MB of memory to 1900MHz. This gives it very strong performance. The new card also uses the PCI-Express 2.0 and SLI compatible. The card is also only a single slot width which can help for those with desktops that have limited internal space.