Hey everyone. About a month ago I posted asking everyone's opinion on a 650.00ish dollar gaming build for a new computer. I'll be frankensteining the hard drives and dvd writer out of my current machine and already have a monitor. (max resolution on it is 1280x1024.)
I posted some parts and the discourse that followed can be seen here. Unfortunately, money didn't quite pan out at the time, but I should be receiving my tax return this weekend. As such, I was curious if the parts outlined in the above post would still be my best bet. I live in Tennessee which unfortunately means I will have to pay tax on the items, so if the total itself could be closer to the 600.00 mark that would be helpful. I DO have some wiggle room in terms of the price, probably all the way up to 700 total. I hope to spend that much only if you guys feel the performance boost would justify it. (I.E. a slightly better video card for a little more cash, etc.)
So, all that said, what do you guys think? I know it's still a little early in terms of which combo deals will be available (We're supposed to get our return on the 29th) but I wanted to know if the system would still be competitive or if there may be some better components to add at this point. Thanks for any thoughts offered!
P.S. On a side note, in terms of video cards, what exactly is the best determining factor to choose one? I'd like to get a 5850 or so, but how much does manufacturer/ram size matter?
I posted some parts and the discourse that followed can be seen here. Unfortunately, money didn't quite pan out at the time, but I should be receiving my tax return this weekend. As such, I was curious if the parts outlined in the above post would still be my best bet. I live in Tennessee which unfortunately means I will have to pay tax on the items, so if the total itself could be closer to the 600.00 mark that would be helpful. I DO have some wiggle room in terms of the price, probably all the way up to 700 total. I hope to spend that much only if you guys feel the performance boost would justify it. (I.E. a slightly better video card for a little more cash, etc.)
So, all that said, what do you guys think? I know it's still a little early in terms of which combo deals will be available (We're supposed to get our return on the 29th) but I wanted to know if the system would still be competitive or if there may be some better components to add at this point. Thanks for any thoughts offered!
P.S. On a side note, in terms of video cards, what exactly is the best determining factor to choose one? I'd like to get a 5850 or so, but how much does manufacturer/ram size matter?