My old PC finally kicked the bucket, so this can't be put off any longer. I did a lot of research about a year ago so I know the basics about all of this, but I'm trying to catch up because a lot can change in a year. I plan on using the PC for gaming primarily. This is what I have so far, followed by a few questions.
COOLER MASTER RC-690 Mid Tower Computer Case
Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Corsair 650W PS
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Creative X-Fi Xtremegamer
And I can't decide on a video card, or whether or not to SLI two... currently looking at these two, I'm trying to figure out what kind of performance differences I'd see between the two individually vs. SLI'ing a pair of either one.
ASUS 9800GT 512mb
ASUS Radeon 4850 512mb
This may be a dumb question, but if I just want Vista 64-bit is this the one I'm looking for? There's like 9 choices for 64-bit Vista, I was a bit overwhelmed.
I also need a monitor. I like this Acer I found recommended on another forum, but would a 24" make a differnce in performance, or just give me more "real estate?"
Also, I really find the whole motherboard discussion to be a bit overwhelming. Seems like they're all so picky about what they'll let you stick in them, so my plan is to figure out all the other parts that I want and then once I have them all set in stone I can choose a motherboard that will house it all.
Am I forgetting anything? Right now, with all this stuff (even both video cards and the monitor) I'm only looking at $1161.89 + 35 shipping on Newegg and there's even a few mail-in rebates. I've got more like $1500 to spend so unless I'm missing some huge component or reading this wrong, where can I upgrade to spend a little more money? (never thought I'd say that).
Sorry for the huge post, and thanks in advance for your help. I'm hoping to have it all ordered in the next week, then I get to build my first computer. Doesn't seem too difficult though.
COOLER MASTER RC-690 Mid Tower Computer Case
Seagate Barracuda 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
Corsair 650W PS
G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 800
Intel Core 2 Duo E8500
Creative X-Fi Xtremegamer
And I can't decide on a video card, or whether or not to SLI two... currently looking at these two, I'm trying to figure out what kind of performance differences I'd see between the two individually vs. SLI'ing a pair of either one.
ASUS 9800GT 512mb
ASUS Radeon 4850 512mb
This may be a dumb question, but if I just want Vista 64-bit is this the one I'm looking for? There's like 9 choices for 64-bit Vista, I was a bit overwhelmed.
I also need a monitor. I like this Acer I found recommended on another forum, but would a 24" make a differnce in performance, or just give me more "real estate?"
Also, I really find the whole motherboard discussion to be a bit overwhelming. Seems like they're all so picky about what they'll let you stick in them, so my plan is to figure out all the other parts that I want and then once I have them all set in stone I can choose a motherboard that will house it all.
Am I forgetting anything? Right now, with all this stuff (even both video cards and the monitor) I'm only looking at $1161.89 + 35 shipping on Newegg and there's even a few mail-in rebates. I've got more like $1500 to spend so unless I'm missing some huge component or reading this wrong, where can I upgrade to spend a little more money? (never thought I'd say that).
Sorry for the huge post, and thanks in advance for your help. I'm hoping to have it all ordered in the next week, then I get to build my first computer. Doesn't seem too difficult though.