Need help building a decent gaming pc

[Herox]

Hi I'm new here, sent by a friend saying this was the best place to ask.

I was going to get a nice laptop with a geforce 9600GT and a athlon x2 2.0ghz, but it seems like the closer I get to having the money roll in, the sooner they disappear from global/tigerdirect. So I've decided to build a desktop, even though I have a lack of room, I do not care If I have to sit it on my Night stand.

With a $600 limit. I really only play source games, but I recently bought GTA 4 and id like to buy MW2. Is this do able? I do not mind AMD cores, but Id like a geforce card. I do also need to incorporate a monitor, and a keyboard. If the mobo has a decent chipset that I can play source games from at least (tf2 and css mostly), I am willing to skip the gfx card till a later time.

Thank you for any input. :3

[Computer Hope Admin]

Bumping post and moving to hardware section. I believe you'll get a lot more help there.

[kpac]

Well, mine runs fairly well. All the specs are listed under my name on the left.

[scottisaNOOB]

Go get a 199$ barebones kit from Tiger.  It will play your games. For 120 you can get a decent monitor and for 80/90$ you can get video.  I wish I had 600 to spend.     
GO GET'EM

[mypersonaltechadvisor]

I would take a look at PC Perspective's Hardware Leaderboard here http://www.pcper.com/hwlb.php?. The site has four configurations (Budget, Mid, High, and Dream) with a single paragraph describing each one. while the Budget is the only one <$600, and it doesn't include monitor, keyboard, or mouse. However, I think the real benefit you might find is that this site does a great job at rating hardware in a no-nonsense way. They also have free podcasts and other information you might find useful.

I remember building my first system. You will learn a lot. Don't do it unless you are prepared to do a lot of homework and be your own tech support. One thing to consider is buying a pre-built system from HP, Dell, Gateway, etc. You might be surprised how cheaply you can buy a complete system these days.

Good luck!