Looking to the summer to build a new computer

[Crazed Rabbit]

Due to some fortuitous happenings, I will be building and acquiring my first new computer in several years this summer.

So I was wondering what's coming up, gaming hardware wise, in the next several months and maybe a general summary of the current state of gaming hardware (I'm not up to date at all). What's a current nice rig look like?

Any help is appreciated.

CR

[Lemur]

You don't ask small questions, do you, Rabbit? I know Ars Technica does a semi-regular build guide, with a God Box, a Medium Box and a Budget Box. Unfortunately, my Google-fu is weak tonight, and I can't find it. If you're willing to shell out a couple of bucks, Maximum PC does a build guide in every issue, and they keep it pretty up-to-date. I don't know what the mag costs these days, but subscriptions are dirt cheap. (Yes, it's on Lemur's bathroom reading list, along with The Economist. You need good literature on the can.)

What's coming up? Lessee, there's probably going to be a new connector between your screen and your vid card, but nobody's sure which one it will be. No point in waiting for that, since adapters will be cheap and plentiful. Intel's got a new dual-CPU thing called Skulltrail, but that's not really meant for gamers. More for your local 3D artist or molecular biologist. With quad-core on-die CPUs flooding the market, there's no reason a gamer would need a dual-cpu boxen (in effect, an eight-CPU rig).

SATA 2 will become more common, but that's neither here nor there, since current drives aren't even close to saturating the SATA pipe. Flash drives are going to be a big deal for notebooks, but it's gonna remain costly for a while, say a year or two.

AMD/ATI are still underdogs, especially with the introduction of Intel's new 45nm chips. On the videocard front it's a little more competitive, with the Nvidia holding the price/performance crown across the board, but not by the same margin as in the CPU race.

Oh, I found the Ars System Guide while I was Googling and Wiking for this note. Here it is.

There, that will give you the beginnings of something to chew on.

[Vladimir]

Remember that quad-cores are best kept cool with vegetable oil.

[Lemur]

Ars just published their new system guide, a great snapshot of what hardware goes with what budget. Enjoy.

[Lemur]

Here's the May system guide, in case you're still planning to build. What's the story with that, anyway, CR? Are you bringing a sweet little hotrod into the world?

[Csargo]

I will hopefully be getting a new computer this summer so this will be helpful.

[Crazed Rabbit]

Here's the May system guide, in case you're still planning to build. What's the story with that, anyway, CR? Are you bringing a sweet little hotrod into the world?

Yup, real soon too. Thanks for the link to the Ars Tech stuff, it's really helpful. I was wondering when the new guide would come out.

And then I can play M&B again! Huzzah! And...other new games...which is a concept I haven't thought about for a while.

CR

[Ironside]

Considering to buy a new computer and having some problems that seems to need a formating to fix accelerates the need a bit.
I was thinking about this set, medium budget, feel free to comment:

Cooler Master Elite 332 Miditower without PSU
Chieftec CFT-500A-12S 500W ATX/DualX EPS-12V 120mm Fan 20/24-pin (AMD&P4 OK)

DVD burner:
Samsung SH-S203D/BEBN DVD±RW Dual-Layer 20X BLACK Bulk SATA

Motherbord:
Gigabyte GA-EP35-DS3 iP35 4DDR2-DIMM 3PCI 4PCIe SATA Raid Audio GB-LAN Socket775 ATX

Processor:
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 3.0GHz 6MB FSB1333 Boxed

RAM:
4GB DDR2 Dual Channel 800MHz

HDD:
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200rpm 32MB SATA2+ same type 500GB.
Always ends up with lack of memory so I thought I'll get quite a bit this time.

Graphic card:
GeForce 8800GT 512MB DDR3 TV-out DUAL DVI

Whats the difference between Vista home Basic and Premium? The prices are almost identical atm.

Will cost about 950 euro.

And some questions.
Is it practical to have XP and Vista on the same comp? This should be if older games cannot be run in Vista, so how needed should it be?

[Husar]

Vista Home Premium is what you should get, simple as that.

If you want it more complicated, Home Basic has no Media Center, no included DVD codec and no aero Glass Interface, maybe even some other missing features, it's basically for computers that can't handle this stuff anyway AFAIK.

[JR-]

it always best to build to a budget; "what can I afford to spend", and then work from there.

Some speculative builds of what will be available in a month or so -

Case:
Silverstone Sugo 03

Motherbord:
1. Gigabyte G45 mATX (DSR2)
2. DFI 790GX mATX

Processor:
1. Intel Core 2 Quad 9450
2. AMD 9850

RAM:
4GB DDR2 Dual Channel 1066MHz

HDD:
Samsung Spinpoint F1 HD753LJ 750GB 7200rpm 32MB SATA2+ same type 500GB.

Graphic card:
GeForce 260 896MB
AMD 4870 1GB

Sound:
Asus Xonar DX