Hiya, Anandtech forums! I've spent the past hour or so browsing around, trying to pick up any new information for my addled mind and future build. Seems to be a lot of very knowledgeable and helpful folks around, and I'd like to partake in some of the advice here. Please excuse me if I rattle on, but I figure more information is always better.
Just recently I received a windfall of about $2500. My aging six-year-old beastie of a computer (1.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 40GB HD, GeForce 5500, it has a floppy drive for crying out load) is all set for retirement, so it couldn't have come at a better time. I've been doing some research, but hardware ain't my thing and I haven't paid any heed to it in years or built my own before so it's a bit like jumping into the deep end. I was pleased to see that some of the choices I'd made echoed in the June '08 sticky.
So, while I have $2500 to spend and can be pretty flexible in the budget, I'm going for a "best bang for the buck" gaming computer... I'm a very frugal person and I'm promising myself I won't go six years without investing a bit of cash in my machine again now that I'm set with steady employment. That said, I think I've already settled on the E8400 3Ghz CPU, but I'm waffling on most other things. I'd narrowed the GPU down to 8800 GT or GTS 512MB, but read about while the GTS has some advantages, it takes up two PCI-E slots and I have no idea how that would affect the internal case logistics. For a mobo, I'd been thinking a P35 something something, but it seems the vast majority of those aforementioned GPUs use PCI-Express 2.0, which seems fairly restricted to the P45 boards. I get the feeling the PCI-Express 2.0 stuff is totally backwards compatible, but want to make sure, and to ask whether or not getting a P45 mobo that supports PCI-Express 2.0 would be worth the money.
Oh, yeah, and the repeated warnings to wait for Radeon's new offerings. I'm in no hurry to build, so I can hold off until those get some ratings.
What else, what else... Ah, memory. I'm doing okay with 1gig right now, so my frugal nature was telling me 2gig ought to suffice, but I know more is better. So 4gig of 800-somethings is the recommendation? If so, does that mean Vista's inevitable, since XP won't handle that much memory? (I'd like a dual boot system, it's about damn time I got my feet wet with Linux.)
Ah, yes... Something else to ask on mobos. Most come with onboard ethernet and audio stuff, I'm led to believe. I'm no audiophile so I probably won't need a dedicated card for that.
I'll direct my monitor inquiries to the appropriate forum subsection, but I think UPS falls under General Hardware... what's a good 'un?
I think the last question mark I have in my notes is on overclocking. Given my propensity to let components sit in use for years I wasn't initially planning on doing any, uncertain of the benefits and difficulty of the procedure, plus the added cost of whatever additional cooling it requires and increased failure rates. Is it really as easy/worth it as some have said in my readings?
Thanks a bundle, everyone who answers. Hopefully that wasn't too bad.
Just recently I received a windfall of about $2500. My aging six-year-old beastie of a computer (1.8Ghz, 1GB RAM, 40GB HD, GeForce 5500, it has a floppy drive for crying out load) is all set for retirement, so it couldn't have come at a better time. I've been doing some research, but hardware ain't my thing and I haven't paid any heed to it in years or built my own before so it's a bit like jumping into the deep end. I was pleased to see that some of the choices I'd made echoed in the June '08 sticky.
So, while I have $2500 to spend and can be pretty flexible in the budget, I'm going for a "best bang for the buck" gaming computer... I'm a very frugal person and I'm promising myself I won't go six years without investing a bit of cash in my machine again now that I'm set with steady employment. That said, I think I've already settled on the E8400 3Ghz CPU, but I'm waffling on most other things. I'd narrowed the GPU down to 8800 GT or GTS 512MB, but read about while the GTS has some advantages, it takes up two PCI-E slots and I have no idea how that would affect the internal case logistics. For a mobo, I'd been thinking a P35 something something, but it seems the vast majority of those aforementioned GPUs use PCI-Express 2.0, which seems fairly restricted to the P45 boards. I get the feeling the PCI-Express 2.0 stuff is totally backwards compatible, but want to make sure, and to ask whether or not getting a P45 mobo that supports PCI-Express 2.0 would be worth the money.
Oh, yeah, and the repeated warnings to wait for Radeon's new offerings. I'm in no hurry to build, so I can hold off until those get some ratings.
What else, what else... Ah, memory. I'm doing okay with 1gig right now, so my frugal nature was telling me 2gig ought to suffice, but I know more is better. So 4gig of 800-somethings is the recommendation? If so, does that mean Vista's inevitable, since XP won't handle that much memory? (I'd like a dual boot system, it's about damn time I got my feet wet with Linux.)
Ah, yes... Something else to ask on mobos. Most come with onboard ethernet and audio stuff, I'm led to believe. I'm no audiophile so I probably won't need a dedicated card for that.
I'll direct my monitor inquiries to the appropriate forum subsection, but I think UPS falls under General Hardware... what's a good 'un?
I think the last question mark I have in my notes is on overclocking. Given my propensity to let components sit in use for years I wasn't initially planning on doing any, uncertain of the benefits and difficulty of the procedure, plus the added cost of whatever additional cooling it requires and increased failure rates. Is it really as easy/worth it as some have said in my readings?
Thanks a bundle, everyone who answers. Hopefully that wasn't too bad.
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