Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

[Cagerrin]

My laptop's graphics card has given me reason to believe that it's going(8600M GS, so it's not unexpected), so I figure it's high time to build myself a proper desktop. Not really going high-end, just something I can upgrade in the future without "buy a new one; e.g. the laptop method". So far this is what I've come up with:

Processor:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=48957&vpn=BX80616I3540
Motherboard:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=48967&vpn=BOXDH55TC
Power supply:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=55789&vpn=CMPSU-600CX
Graphics card:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16814129150
RAM:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820233144
or
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product...82E16820231311
Case:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=49224&vpn=RC-692-KKN3
(it's cheaper on newegg but I think I can price-match it down)

HDD, DVD drive I've got lying around, monitor/mouse/keyboard I'll pick up at future shop, probably 17" 1440x900, MX518 to replace my aging MX500, dunno what keyboard, I'd buy online but I want to be sure I like the feel of it.

Anyone with more build experience see problems with this setup?

[Rook]

If you're going for price/performance get a AMD AM3 quad.

[Cagerrin]

Ehhhh. Vastly prefer Intel to AMD, and the i3's enough of a leap up from my 2.16 Core 2 Duo as it is.

[Warsaw]

Why the fuck are you even considering buying an LGA 1156 CPU? That socket is now officially dead, because socket 1155 came out just several days ago. Horrible investment. Like I've been saying all along, the only Intel socket worth dumping money into is 1366. It still out-performs the new Sandy Bridge chips. Intel, innovation? Ha!

Now, unlike Intel sockets, AMD plans to keep AM3 around for a long time. Three years from now, you'll be able to install the newest AMD CPU with not more than a BIOS flash to your motherboard. You won't have to buy an entirely new system to get another CPU.

[Amit]

Why the fuck are you even considering buying an LGA 1156 CPU? That socket is now officially dead, because socket 1155 came out just several days ago. Horrible investment. Like I've been saying all along, the only Intel socket worth dumping money into is 1366. It still out-performs the new Sandy Bridge chips. Intel, innovation? Ha!

Now, unlike Intel sockets, AMD plans to keep AM3 around for a long time. Three years from now, you'll be able to install the newest AMD CPU with not more than a BIOS flash to your motherboard. You won't have to buy an entirely new system to get another CPU.

Have you even looked at the price difference between the cheapest 1155 and the CPU he picked out? He's clearly not looking for an i5. He'll have no trouble upgrading to an i5 or i7-860S if he wants to. Those provide really good performance too.

[Warsaw]

You missed the point. I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about longevity. Socket 1156 has always been an evolutionary dead end and doesn't provide any of the benefits that 1366 does apart from supporting Hyperthreading in its CPUs. Socket 1366, however, is going to be gone in a few months as Socket 2011 takes its place.

My point is that he won't be able to upgrade later for a reasonably (well, as reasonable as Intel gets) unless he uses Socket 1155, 2011, maybe 1366, or AM3. I don't know about you, but when I build a PC I make sure that I can upgrade it in the future for as little as possible.

[Amit]

You missed the point. I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about longevity. Socket 1156 has always been an evolutionary dead end and doesn't provide any of the benefits that 1366 does apart from supporting Hyperthreading in its CPUs. Socket 1366, however, is going to be gone in a few months as Socket 2011 takes its place.

My point is that he won't be able to upgrade later for a reasonably (well, as reasonable as Intel gets) unless he uses Socket 1155, 2011, maybe 1366, or AM3. I don't know about you, but when I build a PC I make sure that I can upgrade it in the future for as little as possible.

Do you really expect the 1156 i5s and i7 to be outperformed by over 35% in the next 4 years? He'll be fine with the 1156.

[ThePlague]

I'm now the proud owner of 300 US dollars (worked this weekend, finally), and feel the need to make my desktop a current gaming computer. I am thinking about buying a new motherboard, CPU, and some new gaming RAM. That would make my computer way better, except for my graphics card. With the parts i'm thinking of buying, it'll leave me with 62.19. That isn't enough to get a decent graphics card. What also troubles me is that I think it is dying, because this is the second new monitor i've gotten (HP S2031, first was an Acer) that is showing dead pixels on things such as games.

So the questions arise; should I buy a new graphics card, and have all of my other parts bog it down? Or should I buy the parts and have my graphics card bog them down?

[Cagerrin]

You missed the point. I'm not talking about performance. I'm talking about longevity. Socket 1156 has always been an evolutionary dead end and doesn't provide any of the benefits that 1366 does apart from supporting Hyperthreading in its CPUs. Socket 1366, however, is going to be gone in a few months as Socket 2011 takes its place.

My point is that he won't be able to upgrade later for a reasonably (well, as reasonable as Intel gets) unless he uses Socket 1155, 2011, maybe 1366, or AM3. I don't know about you, but when I build a PC I make sure that I can upgrade it in the future for as little as possible.

I don't see the need to upgrade past an i5 or whatever for a long time honestly, and by that point it's not likely that Socket 1155 or 2011 will still be a viable choice. As far as Intel vs. AMD, what I've been told every time I talk to people about this is that AMD is only viable if I'm just going to do gaming, which I'm not.

It's going to take me another three months at least to get the parts anyway, only making $100 or so a month off this shitty paper route.

[Warsaw]

Do you really expect the 1156 i5s and i7 to be outperformed by over 35% in the next 4 years? He'll be fine with the 1156.

You might be surprised. In one year? No. In Two years? No. In three years? Maybe. Four years? Probably.

Also, remember that gaming is one of the most intensive applications, too. Unless you intend to fold, decode/encode tons of ripped video, or otherwise do some serious simulation, you aren't going to see the benefits. Your feeble human reflexes can't tell the difference between one nanosecond and three. As far as using 3D modeling applications and 2D graphics software, that's GPU-accelerated anyways.

It doesn't matter if you don't intend to upgrade for a good long while. If you don't have to drop the extra $150 on a motherboard later, why do so?