My Mid-Range Computer Dream

I've talked a lot about technology that is entering our society. I haven't mentioned much about what I like to do. When I'm not reading news, I like to enjoy some high end gaming. The power of our computers are increasing fairly rapidly, consumers have been able to get quad cores for a while now! I'll be using the Canadian site NCIX since, apparently, Newegg doesn't allow shipments to Canada. If anyone knows any places with cheaper parts, feel free to share! Well, here is my Dream Mid-Range Computer system:

CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Quad Core Processor LGA775 Kentsfield 2.40GHZ 1066FSB 8MB Retail Box Price: $329.99

Motherboard: EVGA Nforce 680I SLI LGA775 Conroe ATX DDR2 2PCI-E16 2PCI SATA2 RAID Sound GBLAN 1394 Motherboard Price: $245.68

Videocard: EVGA E-GEFORCE 8800GTS 500MHZ 640MB 1.6GHZ GDDR3 Dual DVI-I HDTV Out HDCP DIRECTX10 Video Card
Price: $438.12

Memory: Corsair XMS2 TWIN2X2048-6400C4 2GB 2X1GB PC2-6400 DDR2-800 CL 4-4-4-12 240PIN Dual Channel Memory Price: $134.99

Hard Drive: Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB SATA2 8.5MS 7200RPM 16MB Cache Hard Drive 5YR MFR Warranty Price: $73.98

Case: Antec P180 ATX Advanced Mid Tower Aluminum Case 4X5.25 1X3.5 6X3.5INT No PS W/ USB & Audio Ports Price: $144.04

Soundcard: Creative Labs Sound Blaster X-FI Xtremegamer FATAL1TY Professional Series Sound Card 7.1 PCI Retail Price: $169.99

Optical Drive: Samsung SH-S203B Black SATA DVD+RW 20X8X16 DVD-RW 20X6X16 DL 18X/12X INT DVD Writer OEM W/ Vista SW Price: 37.99

Power Supply: PC Power & Cooling Silencer 750 Quad 750W ATX V2.2 EPS12V 24PIN SLI Active PFC Power Supply Black Price: $183.52

Operating System: Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium Edition 32BIT DVD OEM Price: 130.59

Reasons for choosing:

CPU: I chose the Core 2 Quad Q6600 because of the price. For a mid range computer, 300ish dollars isn't a bad deal. Then, there's the quad core part. A few month's ago, this beast was priced at around 600, then, Intel decided to halve it with the release of some of its newer processors. While many games aren't multi-threaded, expect to see most of the new ones using multiple cores. So, to me, it's a lasting investment that allows you to prepare for the future, while at the same time, telling your friends your cores pwn their cores hardcore.

Motherboard: Well, what can I say. First of all of course, it's an SLI board, with 2xPCI-e x16 slots, so there's room for the future if I ever decide to go SLI. And also, I hear it's a good overclocker. It has plenty of other slots for more components, and lifetime warranty.

Videocard: While this card isn't the best out, it's a direct X10 card, and it's the 640MB version. Again, it's got a lifetime warranty. You can easily drop a hundred bucks or more by downgrading to the 320MB version, which should be enough to play new games with, for a while yet at least. Or, as I would do, wait until around Christmas for the next gen Nvidia cards to come out. By then, compatibility issues with Vista will hopefully be figured out, and you'll get a much better card (albeit, you may have to wait longer for the mid-range cards to come out).

Memory: Here, I got 2GB's of ram. If you wanted to spend a little more, you could go with 4GB's to future proof your rig, but it's not needed right now, not to mention, it won't do any good on a 32bit system. So here, I basically just got a decent pairof 1 GB modules that will last until I need to upgrade to 4 gigs or to a new system, which ever comes first.

Hard Drive: One of the reasons I picked this is for the 5 year manufacturers warranty and the price. 250 gigs is decent right now for me, and I have some other drives sitting around. But you could easily put another hundred in and get a much bigger drive, or, put around 450 in and get a terabyte drive.

Case: I was looking for simplicity when choosing this case. This is an elegant looking case, with plenty of room inside for the massive directX10 cards. If you move your case a lot, this may not be the one for you, since it's quite heavy.

Soundcard: The Fatal1ty sound card is a premium card. I enjoy my sound, and want the best quality, whether I'm playing a game, listening to music, or watching a dvd. As well, it has something called X-ram which might give some extra performance in supporting games, but probably not a noticeable one, seeing as how this system is powerful enough on its own.

Optical Drive: I didn't really pick this drive over any other one, and I could just as easily have gone with any other. I went with this one for sata, and the 20x speed (if you can find any blank media capable of that speed).

Power Supply: One of the most important parts of the system. Always put up an extra buck to ensure you get a quality PSU. This one has rave reviews, and, is a PC power and Cooling model. This, to me, is THE brand for power supplies.

Operating System: This is a picky one. While it would be nice to get the retail version and be able to use it on future systems, I went with the OEM copy solely because of price. Who knows when Microsoft will throw their next OS at us? As well, I went with 32 bit because 64bit still has many compatibility issues with our current software, and it will be some time yet before 64bit becomes mainstream (probably because of people thinking the way I am).

There were some assumptions I made. I assumed the use of your older keyboard, mouse, and monitor. This wasn't meant to be a best of the best system, but instead, a system that does what you want, and presents (hopefully) the least problems. While some of the components are higher end, they can just as easily be substituted for cheaper ones, which is what I would do if I was buying one. The total price for the components is: $1888.89 (Canadian dollars), not including applicable taxes or shipping. It would be more beneficial to pick the parts up in a store. The price can be easily lowered many hundreds of dollars by waiting for some sales, and substituting parts for cheaper ones. Although I recommend waiting for sales, I don't recommend piecing your system together sale by sale, as you could end up with dOA parts and not know it.

So, there you have it. My dream Mid-Range rig. Feel free to send it to me!