http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4011672
Back in 08' when I bought it, it was a beast. 1920x1200 res screen, dual core, nvidia 8800M, 400GB Raid 0, Vista Ultimate, wireless-N. She was beautiful, and she's served me well. But all things must pass, and I think the time has finally come.
So! Where to even freaking begin? I'm at square 1 here. I need the works:
CPU, heatsink, cpu cooler compound, MOBO, PSU, RAM, GFX, Case, SSD, HDD, Monitors, Mouse, Keyboard, Soundcard, Wireless card, case Fans. (I miss anything?)
Budget? Shooting for US $2000. There's potential upward headroom, but I don't want to get carried away by radical enthusiasm either. If I sneak in under $2500 I will be happy. Here's my rational: I jumped for the big expensive machine back in 08, I took good care of it and it has served me well, no regrets. I'm looking for a similar jump here. So a few big points for me:
1). Screens. I got 1920x1200 back in 08 on my laptop which was top of the line (most laptop screens back then were like 1360x768). Did not regret it. However, I don't need 4k either, but I'm willing to invest in some quality screen resolution. Do want dual-monitors. I don't necessarily need 55 inch screens or any shit like that, ballpark 27ish is fine, but I like the high resolution. Maybe even 3x monitors, though I'm not qualified yet to make that decision. Hit me. Yield your experience to me like a ripe fruit.
2). CPU. Going for top-of-the-line. The latest and greatest skylake. Honestly, part of me wants to wait for an -E chip so I can get the extra cores, but single threaded performance is probably still most important, and I saw something with a 2017 release for skylake-E, definitely not waiting that long. Definitely want hyperthreading, I write multithreaded code all the time and will love having 8 virtual cores to use.
3). RAM. I want fucktons of fast RAM. I routinely run into RAM caps in the code I write. If I had 64GB of DDR4 2133MHz RAM or whatever (part of me thinks the main clock is probably meaningless, RAS/CAS latency is where its at right?) I would use every byte of it. What the fuck am I doing needing that much RAM? Can't tell you sorry, I work in a closed minded industry.
4). Storage. Thinking .5-1 TB SSD + 2x HDD. Honestly storing movies and stuff, I don't do much of so this is probably way overkill. Someone talk me into something more reasonable please.
5). Cooling. Sticking with air cooling, I'm not hardcore enough to go overclock+water cooling. I may want to actually overclock at some point so I'd like a nice air setup. I'm willing to put out some dough for some quality fans in the case, but I'm looking for low noise also. My plan is to have it exhaust into a well-ventilated hallway, but noise will bother me. So I'd like a cool low-noise air setup for sure, OC optional for someday.
6). I'd like a wireless AC capable card. We're currently still on wireless G but we might upgrade our router soon and if we go with AC I don't want to be left behind.
7). Figure with all this I might as well get a quality sound card as well.
8). Case. Don't give a shit about how it looks, just functionality. Billion USB ports, good airflow, that sort of thing.
9). GFX. I don't do any gaming enough to warrant an SLI or anything, just want whatever the latest top-tier good card is. Something to let me play shit on high on a high res, but I don't need to power a triple monitor setup at 60fps with ubershading or some shit.
Time frame for this purchase is probably over the next month or so. Not gonna go crazy and buy all the parts this week, and I've been disconnected from the market for so long that I need one of you guys to slap me upside the head with how dumb my build will be and make it better (*cough cough Ex cough cough*).
So. Where do I start?
None.