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I'm thinking of getting a new computer. Mine's about two and a half years old, and although there's nothing specifically wrong with it, there's a lot of room for improvement without breaking the bank too much. There're a lot of choices out there, so I'm just going to publically mull over some of my thoughts in the hope that someone will have a
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Processor: Definitely get an Intel quad-core. I have a Q9450 and highly recommend.
RAM: You probably won't see any difference between 4GB and 8GB. Are you running Vista 64-bit? If not, you can't even utilize above 3.5GB anyway. I run 4GB on XP and have no complaints.
HD: I have used 7200 for years and will probably continue to do so. Unless you're having read/write time issues (very likely not with just gaming and such) 7200RPM should be more than sufficient.
Video: nVidia all the way. I currently have a GTX280 and can play any game out there flawlessly on maximum graphics. There's probably newer ones out since I bought this six months ago or so, but if you want something that'll do anything out there turned up to the max, this card can do it. Also, you can't run SLI and dual monitors at the same time, so if you want to keep the dual monitor setup I don't advise doing that. SLI has, and likely for the forseeable future, is overkill.
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For the hard drive though, while there may not be a hugely noticable difference between a 7200 RPM drive and a 10,000 RPM drive, there is a difference if you have two 10k drives in a RAID0 configuration, which is what I do. Makes drive access much less of a bottleneck.
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Dell is good for a laptop; if a part breaks or needs an upgrade, they pretty much have a lock on the 'easiest to get done' repair and part-availability thing.
But for a gaming rig -- I'd suggest building it yourself, even if you've never done it before. It's very easy, and, frankly, you can get parts (and replacement parts) anywhere. Generally, you get more value for your money (and you can specify where your dollar goes -- a faster graphics card, for instance, rather than the larger hard disk the vendor is trying to move).
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Is it trivial--is it the case that all modern mobos will fit/screw onto all modern chassis? If not, how can you tell?
As for power supply, I suppose what I hypothetically need to do there is decide everything else first, and then scale the power supply purchase as necessary.
Then there's integration on other stuff too--what video card do I need to run the monitor fairly seamlessly (would probably depend on how high I want the resolution, I guess), as well as having space for a second easier-to-run monitor, and what number of PCIx16 slots I need for that...
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If you've got that kind of problem (depends on motherboard and PS), there's a 4-dollar splitter that will solve the problem. Annoying, but do-able.
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