I'm copying this from another forum... but it should all make sense.
Advice and tips appreciated.
I narrowed things down a lot after reading up a ton yesterday. Here's what I'm looking at now:
I have a 500W power supply. I should probably get a new one. I have enough hard drive space, but they're so cheap, and I've been hearing big things about the new 320gig platter WD hard drives as far as their read times... so I'm thinking I'll get a 640 gig HD so I can start fresh. I might get 2 of them and go RAID0. Not sure on that though. Or I could get a Raptor instead. I'm going for 4 gigs of RAM, although I could go to 8 pretty easily too, especially if I don't get any hard drives, since I don't actually need them. Or I could get a 2nd vid card and go 4 gigs and no new hard drives for a similar price. I'm going to get Vista Home Premium, because I don't have any legit OS's right now, and if I'm gonna buy a real one, I might as well make it Vista, even if it's somewhat shitty (although I heard SP1 has helped it a lot). I might sneak up to 8 gigs of RAM since it's so cheap too. I want an 8800GT vid card for sure. I've heard they have a different engine than the GTS/GTX models and it's superior.
I have a case, dvd burner, mouse, keyboard, monitor, all that already. Just need the key guts.
And I'd like to stay under a grand if I can help it.
What I'm looking at so far:
Mobo -- EVGA 750i SLI
Proc -- E8400 Wolfdale C2D (Newegg had some this morning but is sold out again already. CompUSA/Tigerdirect have some at $220)
RAM -- G.Skill 2x2GB
640 GB HD (this is a maybe, I want better read speed and this is better value than a Raptor)
Vid Card & PSU Combo -- BFG 8800GT 512 MB & 650W PSU.... GREAT deal imo
Vista Home Premium sys builders ed -- should have everything I need from ultimate, while being much cheaper
Total on that is around 950-975 with shipping/tax included.
Advice and tips appreciated.
I narrowed things down a lot after reading up a ton yesterday. Here's what I'm looking at now:
I have a 500W power supply. I should probably get a new one. I have enough hard drive space, but they're so cheap, and I've been hearing big things about the new 320gig platter WD hard drives as far as their read times... so I'm thinking I'll get a 640 gig HD so I can start fresh. I might get 2 of them and go RAID0. Not sure on that though. Or I could get a Raptor instead. I'm going for 4 gigs of RAM, although I could go to 8 pretty easily too, especially if I don't get any hard drives, since I don't actually need them. Or I could get a 2nd vid card and go 4 gigs and no new hard drives for a similar price. I'm going to get Vista Home Premium, because I don't have any legit OS's right now, and if I'm gonna buy a real one, I might as well make it Vista, even if it's somewhat shitty (although I heard SP1 has helped it a lot). I might sneak up to 8 gigs of RAM since it's so cheap too. I want an 8800GT vid card for sure. I've heard they have a different engine than the GTS/GTX models and it's superior.
I have a case, dvd burner, mouse, keyboard, monitor, all that already. Just need the key guts.
And I'd like to stay under a grand if I can help it.
What I'm looking at so far:
Mobo -- EVGA 750i SLI
Proc -- E8400 Wolfdale C2D (Newegg had some this morning but is sold out again already. CompUSA/Tigerdirect have some at $220)
RAM -- G.Skill 2x2GB
640 GB HD (this is a maybe, I want better read speed and this is better value than a Raptor)
Vid Card & PSU Combo -- BFG 8800GT 512 MB & 650W PSU.... GREAT deal imo
Vista Home Premium sys builders ed -- should have everything I need from ultimate, while being much cheaper
Total on that is around 950-975 with shipping/tax included.