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I built all of my PCs myself. It's not too hard. Just get a good motherboard with a Socket that fit's your desired CPU, enough RAM for your needs and a hard drive that you think is big enough. A good graphics card and, as you said- soundcard (maybe one with some recording I/O for home recording?) and DON'T FORGET THE FLOPPY DRIVE! There are many "Power supply calculators" online where you can check how many watts your machine will need. Get a good PSU! I can't say it enough- don't get a cheap PSU! I have Corsair PSUs in all the PCs I've build.. and not a single one failed. Also, if you think about overclocking your CPU, get a decent cooler.

There are three things I don't skimp on.

Motherboard.

Powersupply.

Ram.


For everything you can defiantly do a PC that will run games very well for that price point. Newegg.com is the best place to get a good bundle deal that will have everything you need.

Things I do to save me time:

-I try to bring a price list with me of the parts I want and see if the store will match what is offered on line. Saves hassle with shipping.

-For not much money a lot of large electronic stores (besides best buy) will seat the processor for you, install the CPU fan and to a test boot for you. I feel it is worth it because if the mobo is faulty I am at the store and can turn around and get a new working one rather than come home to find out that my shit does not work.

-The reason I list power supply as one thing I don't skimp on is that if you want to invest more money down the road for a new video card you are going to need a power supply that has good draw and will properly power everything as needed. 450 watts will not cut it. Invest the money and get something reliable and good.

-If you get high quality ram the most you are going to need for playing any video game is around 8 gigs.

If people have good used parts that maybe a great way to save money and get more, but you take a risk because most things can break easy.