I am married with two teenagers and my wife doesn't work. I have some money to spend, but not a ton. You will realize that I replace things as needed and don't usually buy 'bleeding edge' components.
After a recent power surge I lost my PSU and a Hard Drive. I bought a 700 OCZ PSU (now I know I should have read up first), and a WD 640GB Caviar Black HD. About a month later, I bought a PhenomII 555 BE, Asus M4A79XTD EVO, 2x2GB OCZ ram to replace my S754 parts (s754 3400+, 2x2gb OCZ, ePox mobo). I was able to unlock to a Quad core and I have it O/C'd to 3.5Ghz. Since I had spent a good deal of money (for my budget) in such a short period of time, I kept my BFG 640mb 8800GTS, Audigy X-Fi, Win XP Pro sp3, and my Samsung 20" TN 204b (4:3) monitor.
Ok, so now I have a few more bucks I am willing to part with for my PC. I usually read some forums (Auto + PC), play some FPS (BFBC2), and rarely watch a movie on my PC. While I still love my monitor, it is over 4 years old and 4:3. I've never used a Non-TN LCD, so I don't miss 'better colors'. I love Win XP Pro, but it is DX9 and since I skipped Vista, it might be time to see what Win7 offers. The 8800GTS still cranks out frames per second in BFBC2 (the most demanding game I play). At 1600x1200 with Fraps running, I sometimes get as low as 50+ fps while gaming, but usually it is 60-70fps (most setting at max). I'm sure I'd get lower fps if I was able to turn AA above 1x, but I can't because XP (DX9).
I figure that I should get a new 16:10 monitor that is at least 24" first, then get a new Operating System, and finally get a new Video Card. While my friend rants that I should get a new VC first, then Monitor, then OS. I don't see that a VC will make any difference if my fps are fine now. Perhaps having %20 more pixels will cause some drain on my card and I will need / want the get the Video Card before I get the O/S, but I am guessing that when I start running DX10 and AA above 1x, I will need the new Video card (by then maybe the Southern Island cards will be launched and a prices will be a bit cheaper for the older cards).
Here is what I am looking to get, please tell me what you think:
Asus VW266H (25.5" TN 2ms LCD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236047
Win 7 64-bit
I have NO IDEA which one to get. I doubt that I need to the the best version, but is the cheapest version fine? How about upgrade versions? Can I get a break if I want to go from XP to Win7? I heard that upgrade versions come with full install CD's anyway (no files would be left over from XP).
EVGA GTX 460 1GB EE (overclocked + lifetime warranty version)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-568-_-Product
I wouldn't mind getting a better color LCD (IPS?), but I wouldn't want to suffer while gaming from to slow of a response time.
I wouldn't mind getting the cheapest version of Win7 that will do what I need. I don't think that I needed the 'extra features' of XP Pro (over XP Home), but I don't know. For a few bucks, I'm a sport. For twice the price, I'd hope that there is something that I "NEED" to have.
I am not an Nvidia fanboy. I'd get an ATI card if it was as good / as cheap / as power efficient, as long as it had a VERY GOOD warranty (I hold onto my parts for a long time, remember?).
-I'm sorry for writing such a long post, but I wanted to be thorough, Ken
After a recent power surge I lost my PSU and a Hard Drive. I bought a 700 OCZ PSU (now I know I should have read up first), and a WD 640GB Caviar Black HD. About a month later, I bought a PhenomII 555 BE, Asus M4A79XTD EVO, 2x2GB OCZ ram to replace my S754 parts (s754 3400+, 2x2gb OCZ, ePox mobo). I was able to unlock to a Quad core and I have it O/C'd to 3.5Ghz. Since I had spent a good deal of money (for my budget) in such a short period of time, I kept my BFG 640mb 8800GTS, Audigy X-Fi, Win XP Pro sp3, and my Samsung 20" TN 204b (4:3) monitor.
Ok, so now I have a few more bucks I am willing to part with for my PC. I usually read some forums (Auto + PC), play some FPS (BFBC2), and rarely watch a movie on my PC. While I still love my monitor, it is over 4 years old and 4:3. I've never used a Non-TN LCD, so I don't miss 'better colors'. I love Win XP Pro, but it is DX9 and since I skipped Vista, it might be time to see what Win7 offers. The 8800GTS still cranks out frames per second in BFBC2 (the most demanding game I play). At 1600x1200 with Fraps running, I sometimes get as low as 50+ fps while gaming, but usually it is 60-70fps (most setting at max). I'm sure I'd get lower fps if I was able to turn AA above 1x, but I can't because XP (DX9).
I figure that I should get a new 16:10 monitor that is at least 24" first, then get a new Operating System, and finally get a new Video Card. While my friend rants that I should get a new VC first, then Monitor, then OS. I don't see that a VC will make any difference if my fps are fine now. Perhaps having %20 more pixels will cause some drain on my card and I will need / want the get the Video Card before I get the O/S, but I am guessing that when I start running DX10 and AA above 1x, I will need the new Video card (by then maybe the Southern Island cards will be launched and a prices will be a bit cheaper for the older cards).
Here is what I am looking to get, please tell me what you think:
Asus VW266H (25.5" TN 2ms LCD)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16824236047
Win 7 64-bit
I have NO IDEA which one to get. I doubt that I need to the the best version, but is the cheapest version fine? How about upgrade versions? Can I get a break if I want to go from XP to Win7? I heard that upgrade versions come with full install CD's anyway (no files would be left over from XP).
EVGA GTX 460 1GB EE (overclocked + lifetime warranty version)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...-568-_-Product
I wouldn't mind getting a better color LCD (IPS?), but I wouldn't want to suffer while gaming from to slow of a response time.
I wouldn't mind getting the cheapest version of Win7 that will do what I need. I don't think that I needed the 'extra features' of XP Pro (over XP Home), but I don't know. For a few bucks, I'm a sport. For twice the price, I'd hope that there is something that I "NEED" to have.
I am not an Nvidia fanboy. I'd get an ATI card if it was as good / as cheap / as power efficient, as long as it had a VERY GOOD warranty (I hold onto my parts for a long time, remember?).
-I'm sorry for writing such a long post, but I wanted to be thorough, Ken