I need advice D:

I'm thinking about purchasing a new PC for thanksgiving to replace my stone-age laptop, but I'm not sure what the best place to look is.

I need a fast PC, but doesn't have to be absolute top of the line.
With design and gaming capabilities. Basically as long as it runs toribash with shaders without problems it's good to go.
I'm not exactly the most financially stable person right now, but my current one is barely working.

I imagine some of you bought PCs recently and did some research on your own.
I have heard numerous times that Dells suck in the long run. Alienware seems good, but the price tag isn't too friendly.

So yeah, any advice is welcome.
qwertyuhngn

thanksgiving? Don't you live in Russia?

Errr....I'm looking to spend in the neighborhood of $600-1500, it depends...
And yes I live in US for 5 years now.

Thanks all.
I may just copy the specs from Hector's article, except the cooler and video card.

So far I'm thinking:

Video Card: GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo E8500 Wolfdale 3.16GHz 6MB Cache
Motherbroad: Asus P5QL-E with IntelЎ P43 chipset
HD: Western Digital Caviar GP

Unsure about the cooler..