Buying PC, need help! ^^

Im assuming this is the right place to post this...

Here is my current situation. Ive been playing/using a laptop for the last 2 years (I know... ouch) and am now thinking of buying myself a PC.
Since I have been a little out of the loop on hardware related issues... I need a little help on what to look for. Mostly on graphics cards since there are so many different numbers and stuff :/

Also I am on a student budget, so I aint looking for something really high end which pwns all others. I just need something which makes most games look pretty ^^

So thanks in advance for any help!

Well, until we figure out what's causing problems with the GeForce 8x00 cards in The Matrix Online, I would recommend against getting one of those cards.

So, if you choose to make a PC "on the cheap" (so to say) that is very powerful, then I recommend getting something such as these two suggestions:

[Suggestion 1]
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo E6420 (~$190)
Motherboard: DFI Infinity P965-S (~$130) - Supports Crossfire (and SLI... with proper BIOS configuration)
Power Supply: Antec Neo HE 550 (~$110)
Memory: 2 x Patriot PSD21G667KH (~$85 for both sets) - Each set comes with two 512 MB modules, two sets would total 2 GB of memory
Video: 2 x Sapphire Radeon X1950 Pro (~$300 for both cards)
Total without case and other required items (such as harddrive and OS): ~$815


[Suggestion 2]
CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ (AM2) (~$100)
Motherboard: Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe Wireless Edition (~$170) - Supports SLI
Power Supply: Enermax EG851AX-VH(W) (~$130) - 660 Watt, SLI Certified
Memory: 2 x Corsair XMS2 CM2X512A (~$140 for both sets) - Each set comes with two 512 MB modules, two sets would total 2 GB of memory
Video: 2 x EVGA 256-P2-N636-AR GeForce 7950 GT (~$400 for both cards)
Total without case and other required items (such as harddrive and OS): ~$940


Keep in mind that your mileage may vary with any of this hardware and that I'm not playing favorites with any of the makes/models listed.  If you want to see what I personally use at home, then look at my profile for EverQuest II.

Also just an FYI the Nvidia 8000 and 8800 appear to have issues with MxO so for now I would avoid both if you intend to play MxO with any regularity.

Yep, the 7950 GX2 is a much better solution, but those cards are sort of rare and expensive.

Getting two is awesome, though.  With special drivers on Windows XP, one can set up two of those particular cards into a "quad SLI" mode that's better than an SLI set of 8800 GTX cards, for the most part.

Ah! Sweet. Thanks for those suggestions, their roughly in the ball park of what I was looking at.

I saw the issues with the 8800 so I thought I might avoid that one for now and might go with either one you listed.

Thanks for the insight! ^^