$2500 to burn

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   I'm buying myself a computer this year. I can get away with $2500 without having to sleep on the couch for too long.  I need some configuration suggestions.

This system will be used for gaming, web surfing, and picture storage for the Mrs. I don't have a need to run system intensive programs in the background and I intend to run a single 20 inch monitor. I'll buy the monitor separately.

Other than 2 500gig hard drives in RAID 1 mode, I'm completely open to suggestions. I don't want to pay for features I'll never use and want enough power to play FPS games smoothly.  What would you do with my requirements?

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MMELVIS Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 06 Sep 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1	Quote Reply Topic: $2500 to burn Posted: 06 Sep 2008 at 10:29pm
	I'm buying myself a computer this year. I can get away with $2500 without having to sleep on the couch for too long. I need some configuration suggestions. This system will be used for gaming, web surfing, and picture storage for the Mrs. I don't have a need to run system intensive programs in the background and I intend to run a single 20 inch monitor. I'll buy the monitor separately. Other than 2 500gig hard drives in RAID 1 mode, I'm completely open to suggestions. I don't want to pay for features I'll never use and want enough power to play FPS games smoothly. What would you do with my requirements?

Tyler Lowe Members Profile Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 14 May 2008 Online Status: Offline Posts: 1849	Quote Reply Posted: 06 Sep 2008 at 11:02pm
	I'm going to recommend against the RAID 1 configuration. The performance gains for gaming are very small to nonexistent, and you're looking at a large increase to your chances of failure in exchange for this small performance gain. Just one opinion, take that for what it's worth. One thing I really like, is a dual boot. I share the computer with the "mrs." also, and having that dual boot option makes it more or less like having two computers in one box. She's free to do what she wants with desktop settings, shortcuts, startup programs... whatever, without affecting me in any way, and vice versa. Well, well worth the $100 in my circumstance. I don't know if that sounds like something appealing to you or not, but I thought I would make mention. OK. 20" screen, I assume it's a 1680*1050 resolution. With all of this in mind, see what you think of This Configuration Dual boot would run you about $125 more or so, and would be pushing that $2500 budget, so I left it at a single OS. I also did not select RAID, but this is easily changed if you're very firm on that point. Hope you find this helpful. Edited by Tyler Lowe - 06 Sep 2008 at 11:03pm