This thread has been reworked: I was originally going to suggest that people on these forums write guides to answer the above questions. As it turns out, most of these guides are already available online, so now this thread will be a compilation of useful links with some basic comments to help answer the most common questions. Please provide your suggestions/additions/corrections/comments to make this a more complete and accurate guide.
------ Power Supplies ------
* PSU FAQ on HF
* The buying guide on HF
* Great PSU reviews by jonnyguru
* General Comments: don't skimp on the PSU! It's one of the most important - and neglected - parts of a system. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of a reliable PSU: without clean, stable power, your system might be unstable or worse yet, the PSU could blow up and take your expensive internals with it! Stick with the reliable brands listed in the links above even if it means spending a little more.
* How many watts do I need?: the total wattage is NOT the most important thing to consider when getting a PSU. next to buying a reliable brand, the most important thing to consider when buying a PSU nowadays is how much current (amps) is available on the +12V rail(s). The most power hungry components, the video card & CPU, are fed from the +12V rail(s), so they must be able to provide enough juice! Moreover, some PSU's today have dual or quad +12V rails to divide the load and reduce the chance of one rail becoming overloaded. To make things more confusing, the total current available to +12V devices is usually quite a bit LESS than the sum of the current of each of the rails.
So, the appropriate question is actually: How many amps do I need on the +12v rail(s)? A safe ballpark figure (read: OVER-estimate) would be a total of 20A for low to midrange systems and 30A for high end (single video card) systems. Multiple video card systems (SLI/Crossfire) and "future proof" systems (for dx10 video cards) may require even more.
------ Storage: WD Raptor, RAID 0, etc ------
* A general Hard Drive buying guide
* Anandtech's article on RAID 0
* more info on the RAID 0 debate
* Is a WD Raptor worth it?: the typical user will get far more bang-for-the-buck by upgrading their CPU, RAM and video card instead of the hard drive. The new Raptor HD's are the fastest available, but in the real world, the only place this is typically noticeable is that games and the OS will load faster. Users who do very hard drive intensive tasks (servers, for example) may also see a benefit. However, Raptors are typically louder and run hotter. Moreover, you typically pay double the price for half the storage space. So, unless your system is already maxed out and you still have money to burn, or you are one of the few who does very HD-intensive tasks, a raptor is rarely worth the premium.
* Is RAID 0 worth it?: if you read the articles above, the answer is almost always NO. Much like with raptor drives, the performance increase is fairly small and almost unnoticeable for a typical user. On the other hand, if you have X drives in your RAID 0 array, you have increased the chance of a data failure (resulting in total data loss) X times! Multiple drives will also be more noisy, generate more heat and consume more power. Few people will see a benefit from RAID 0 and most of those who do would benefit far more from a RAID implementation that actually has redundancy, such as RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, etc.
------ LCDs vs. CRTs ------
* here's a decent comparison of LCDs and CRTs that covers almost all the major issues
* a discussion of the good, the bad and the ugly of LCDs (as compared to CRTs)
* The LCD Buyer's Guide
* General Comments: most manufacturers have completely stopped producing CRT's. So if you buy a CRT today, there's a good chance that you'll get one that's very old: since CRT's degrade with age, this can be a serious problem. One advantage that might not be mentioned above is that low and mid range LCD's are typically MUCH better than low and mid range CRT's. The only competitive CRT's today are the high end ones, which have become fairly affordable. A 24" Sony fw900 (one of the best CRT's ever produced) can be had for just $300 on ebay.
------ Power Supplies ------
* PSU FAQ on HF
* The buying guide on HF
* Great PSU reviews by jonnyguru
* General Comments: don't skimp on the PSU! It's one of the most important - and neglected - parts of a system. However, I cannot stress enough the importance of a reliable PSU: without clean, stable power, your system might be unstable or worse yet, the PSU could blow up and take your expensive internals with it! Stick with the reliable brands listed in the links above even if it means spending a little more.
* How many watts do I need?: the total wattage is NOT the most important thing to consider when getting a PSU. next to buying a reliable brand, the most important thing to consider when buying a PSU nowadays is how much current (amps) is available on the +12V rail(s). The most power hungry components, the video card & CPU, are fed from the +12V rail(s), so they must be able to provide enough juice! Moreover, some PSU's today have dual or quad +12V rails to divide the load and reduce the chance of one rail becoming overloaded. To make things more confusing, the total current available to +12V devices is usually quite a bit LESS than the sum of the current of each of the rails.
So, the appropriate question is actually: How many amps do I need on the +12v rail(s)? A safe ballpark figure (read: OVER-estimate) would be a total of 20A for low to midrange systems and 30A for high end (single video card) systems. Multiple video card systems (SLI/Crossfire) and "future proof" systems (for dx10 video cards) may require even more.
------ Storage: WD Raptor, RAID 0, etc ------
* A general Hard Drive buying guide
* Anandtech's article on RAID 0
* more info on the RAID 0 debate
* Is a WD Raptor worth it?: the typical user will get far more bang-for-the-buck by upgrading their CPU, RAM and video card instead of the hard drive. The new Raptor HD's are the fastest available, but in the real world, the only place this is typically noticeable is that games and the OS will load faster. Users who do very hard drive intensive tasks (servers, for example) may also see a benefit. However, Raptors are typically louder and run hotter. Moreover, you typically pay double the price for half the storage space. So, unless your system is already maxed out and you still have money to burn, or you are one of the few who does very HD-intensive tasks, a raptor is rarely worth the premium.
* Is RAID 0 worth it?: if you read the articles above, the answer is almost always NO. Much like with raptor drives, the performance increase is fairly small and almost unnoticeable for a typical user. On the other hand, if you have X drives in your RAID 0 array, you have increased the chance of a data failure (resulting in total data loss) X times! Multiple drives will also be more noisy, generate more heat and consume more power. Few people will see a benefit from RAID 0 and most of those who do would benefit far more from a RAID implementation that actually has redundancy, such as RAID 1, RAID 0+1, RAID 5, etc.
------ LCDs vs. CRTs ------
* here's a decent comparison of LCDs and CRTs that covers almost all the major issues
* a discussion of the good, the bad and the ugly of LCDs (as compared to CRTs)
* The LCD Buyer's Guide
* General Comments: most manufacturers have completely stopped producing CRT's. So if you buy a CRT today, there's a good chance that you'll get one that's very old: since CRT's degrade with age, this can be a serious problem. One advantage that might not be mentioned above is that low and mid range LCD's are typically MUCH better than low and mid range CRT's. The only competitive CRT's today are the high end ones, which have become fairly affordable. A 24" Sony fw900 (one of the best CRT's ever produced) can be had for just $300 on ebay.
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