Three words.

Core. Two. Duo.

Mine has never let me down, and if you're concerned about the price and wondering why I'm so adamant about the Core 2, check out this and this.

Then also note this, for clarity:

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Yes, SuperPI is a single-threaded benchmark. It also tends to produce dramatically better results on the Intel Pentium M and Intel Core architectures than on AMD's competing products, even if in other benchmarks the two processors score similarly.

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Your mileage may vary. It seems to have a lot to do with the amount of available L2 cache, so the only worthwhile option is an E6600 or higher. I recommend the E6600 because the E6700 is only about 200MHz faster and yet in the UK costs another 100+. I imagine the price would rise just as sharply on your side of the pond too.

PS: Whilst the Athlon 64s often have trouble getting below the 20s on that test, someone's managed to get an overclocked E6600 to complete that test within ten seconds. The chips are also renowned for being overclocking kings; they can be overclocked like crazy just with air cooling.

AMD is out of style these days. Their high-end chips are slower than mid-range Intel chips, and it doesn't help that those same Intel chips can overclock like crazy. I recommend an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 processor, but the E6600 is a good choice too. Get an Asus P5B motherboard of some variety. Having said that, any motherboard with the 965 or 975 chipset will do. For memory, OCZ is the best on the market right now.

I know you already have a monitor, but if you can afford it I really suggest getting a Dell 2407WFP. It's huge and high-res, and it has a great stand and metric shitton of inputs on the back. Either that, or get a DVI to HDMI adaptor and hook it up to your TV. Seriously, with a videocard like that you're going to want a big, high-res, widescreen monitor.

For hard drives, my personal favourite is Seagate, but you probably have your own brand loyalties. Whatever you get, I suggest a pair of 500GB units in RAID-1.

Creative still haven't figured out how to get their stuff to work with Vista, so it might be best to just stick with onboard sound for the time being.

Don't forget power supplies. You can probably get by with a 500W unit, but I suggest a 700W OCZ GameXStream, because they're relatively cheap and you'll have room for upgrading.

I'm still leary of intel. I get conflicting stories from people.

I AM looking at the 500gb seagate's though. Does the 'cuda still have a 5 year on it?

I have a 550W I was going put in it for now. Trying to save money were possible.

And I already have a DVI-HDMI with it hooked to my bigass DLP tv.

I'm still staying CLEAR of Vista. With all the bugs I'm going to run into with all this new equipment I sure as all don't want vista's finicky ass in there @#%$ it up more.

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I'm still staying CLEAR of Vista. With all the bugs I'm going to run into with all this new equipment I sure as all don't want vista's finicky ass in there @#%$ it up more.

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Vista is the new Me: sucky beyond belief. If you want proof I can find literally buttloads of articles proving that even on a technical level, let alone an ethical one, Vista sucks ass. I will go so far as to recommend you NEVER get Vista, especially as Microsoft are already saying they'll have a replacement for it by 2009/2010.

If you want 64-bit applications or a stable computer, Linux is the way to go for the time being (and probably forevermore, but I'll spare you the zealotry :P). The only reason to stick with Winblows right now is for gaming purposes, so in your case you might need it. For the sake of your computer, if you have to use Winblows, use XP Pro.

(Generally speaking though, 64-bit software is thin on the ice everywhere right now; people are having a hard time making the switch because the programs have to be recompiled - and often reprogrammed - from scratch for 64-bit systems. :/)

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Creative still haven't figured out how to get their stuff to work with Vista, so it might be best to just stick with onboard sound for the time being.

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They can't seem to get the X-Fi cards right on Linux either - I'm stuck with on-board sound until May at the earliest. :/

I noticed you haven't bothered with an Optical Drive yet: these days extremely competent 18x DVD-RW drives can be found for as little as 20 ($20-ish) so this purchase is merely a matter of taste now - just make sure you get one that supports as many formats as possible otherwise you've wasted your money.

Oh, and FYI: DON'T. GET. HD-DVD. OR. BLU-RAY. The DRM on the formats makes them stink to high heaven of grade-A BS. Not worth the effort to get them running especially as you'll probably get DVD-quality out of them at best anyway.

Again, if you want the articles, I'll go get 'em.

Finally, the monitor - is your TV at least 1080p-capable? Otherwise, you'll never get your GeForce 8800 up to top-whack, so it's wasted $$.

Honestly, all this DRM BS is going to stall technological progress for the next five, ten years. .__.

Vista is the new Me: sucky beyond belief. If you want proof I can find literally buttloads of articles proving that even on a technical level, let alone an ethical one, Vista sucks ass. I will go so far as to recommend you NEVER get Vista, especially as Microsoft are already saying they'll have a replacement for it by 2009/2010.
Huh? Vista isn't that bad. Most of those negative articles are just FUD. It just needs a little work, and drivers. Heck, I've seen it working perfectly on a number of computers since it came out. I'll probably upgrade around August.

I'll prolly upgrade:

1) When I have enough funds.
2) When something DirectX 10 comes out that's worth looking into.
3) SP1.

I figure that by SP1, all the major flaws will at least have been looked into. Otherwise, XP SP2 should suffice.

I'm on Vista now (I got it free due to Microsoft's MSDNAA). Honestly? I kind of like it. I still dual boot with XP since it is new and not everything works, but I could put down pretty much all of that down to drivers not being updated.

I wouldn't have got it by now if I had to pay for it, but in my experience so far most of the stories about unusable-bugginess are greatly exaggerated.

I'm a gamer, of course I use winblows. I need an OS compatible with games, without 3 weeks of tweaking to get them to even run.

I don't work off stories. Of the four computers we've loaded Vista; One wouldn't load because it didn't like the RAM. One wouldn't load because it didn't like the NIC. And two ran fine. 50% success ratio? I don't like the odds. And the SP is going to be 400 MEGS? Makes me wonder whats wrong with it.

Thanks to Boss V and Cyke for getting me to go compare specs, Intel IS ahead right now, weird.

~Tobe

[edited away]

What did you edit away? Bleh

Most of it is ordered. Changes were the WD hard drive, a mobo 75 bucks cheaper with the only difference being no wifi, which I may not use anyway. And I went with the paperweight since I tried my cousin's razer and its... REALLY light, too light.

~Tobe

Didn't I tell you when you made this thread to go with Core 2? You told me I didn't know what I was talking about. Cyc and Velotix say the same thing, and you agree with them...

Then again, you probably know more about ocmputers than I do anyway, so I do see why. 😛

You didn't give reasons. I needed something to say WHY, maybe give a few links.

~Tobe

WAIT FOR QUAD CORE, I SAY!!!

I'm not building a server. From what I understand in the realm of home/gaming PC's a quad core price versus performance boost is about the same as SLI. :p

~Tobe

Why didn't you consider a pc from BlueHippo?!

They have HP xw9300 Workstationwith:

2.6GHz AMD Opteron Processor
2GB RAM
250GB Hard Drive
DVDRW (+R DL)
10/100/1000 Ethernet
Windows Windows XP Professional

at $94.99 a week, which a total cost of $5,038.48

lawl, they have a place called "Aaron's" over here thats not much different. 300 dollar Dell piece of trash for 1700 bucks.

~Tobe