planning on getting a new comp.

Oh, I thought you were getting the pro... Guess not. As for the Vista thing, I guess you can go past 2GB, although I would say that is more than enough ram. I have 3GB, never go passed 1.7 when I play my games, but then again I run XP.

 

and for the sound card, im not really caring which one i get or if its excelent or not. and im happy with the one i have now, which is really old, and im wondering if i can just take the sound card out of my old computer and put it into my new one im going to build. i believe its a PCI, so that should work on the motherboard im going to get. would this work?

and is vista premium a solid OS? is it better than XP?would it be a good idea to upgrade to vista now or wait till its standardized as the main OS?

 

Waymon: Do you play stalker? turn the detail up in that and tell me you don't go past 2GB... lol
Any PCI sound card will be better than integrated.
As for Vista, I still prefer XP, as do most people, but it's up to you.

 

ok so so far, i have..

-Nzxt Apollo Gaming Tower Case
-Intel Core 2 Duo Processor E6750 (maybe the 3.0ghz)
-Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3 (on newegg, theres DS3L and DS3R, which do i get?)
-Asus Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB 128-bit
-Samsung 20x dvd r/w cd r/w drive
-CHAINTECH AV-710 7.1 Channels 24-bit sound card
-Corsair 450VX psu
-not sure which OS yet.
-Heatsink fan (unknown)

is there anything else im missing?? i feel like theres more..also, i dont know which heatsink fan i should get. any good ones??

and what are those things called that are like internal usb ports? ill need some usb ports also.

 

Internal USB ports? Not sure what you mean. If you mean USB headers, they're on the motherboard. I'd recommend the DS3R over the DS3L, it's the better board. As for the heatsink, the Freezer 7 Pro is a good low cost cooler.
All you're missing is a hard disk.

 

yea im not sure what its called so i probably said it in a confusing way. i meant like those usb slots on the computer. like this
http://cgi.ebay.com/7-Port-SATA-USB...ryZ74941QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem ..(on that link, what does SATA and IDE mean?)
and the hard drive i got that down. ok i put a check on the heatsink fan. are there any accessories or extras that might go with a desktop that you might recommend?

 

Well all there's left to consider is peripherals (Mouse, keyboard, monitor, speakers etc) and cosmetics (extra fans, LEDs and so on). As for the USB card, you'll already have plenty of those, but you're welcome to buy that if you think you'll run out.
S-ATA and IDE are the two methods by which you can attach hard drives.

 

Yep, and SATA is faster and smaller(cable). Make sure that your DVD-drive comes with SATA-connection.

 

alright. and sammorris, how would i put LED and extra fans in? which ones would i use?

 

They're optional, but you attach them to any spare fan slots your PC's got (if you have any!) As for LEDs, put them wherever they look best, they're purely cosmetic.

 

are there any like stores that sell computer parts like these? or do i have to get them all off newegg or something? also, does anybody know where i can get the cases besides newegg, they dont have mine and shipping off ebay is expensive.

oh, and maybe i might consider upgrading the video card. whats the next best thing after the Asus Radeon HD 2600XT 256MB 128-bit

building a computer was a lot cheaper than i though. =P

 

try
http://www.tigerdirect.com
http://www.zipzoomfly.com
http://www.ncix.com
As for the custom lights, you can perhaps find them in a local store, perhaps at newegg, but ebay is where you'll find most of the stuff.

 

vista and xp both support only upto 3 GB however you configure them. incidentally as far as i know you're free to install any amount as long as your motherboard supports it but vista/xp will recognize a max of 3Gb.with 64 bit vista you can get upto 8gb but it's not worth it as not all your favourite s/w will come in 64bit versions. ATI's new series has got a long way to so for the moment better of with nvidia 8800gtx or gts if not a hardcore gamer.i've been using vista for about a month and it's just been hype.XP's more stable but newer programs are coming out which for some reason crash on XP....it's upto you...

 

I agree with the comment about Vista, but I disagree with the comment about the HD2900 series. look at some recent benchmarks, the 2900 is actually a really good card. In a fair few games the 512MB version beats the 8800GTS (and they're similarly priced) and in a couple of games I believe the 1GB version even beats the 8800GTX (and it's cheaper).

 

since i dont plan on gaming alot, the radeon 2600XT is sufficient enough right? the reviews on newegg gave it a bad score, but mainly because they either got a bad one and only 4 people reviewed it. if i get it from newegg and its faulty or crashes the system, i can still return it from newegg right?

 

Yes you can. Take negative reviews on newegg with a pinch of salt. Most of them are idiots and they only post there if they have negative things to report.

 

thanks guys, looks like i got my computer all planned out. hope i can get it soon. the only problem is finding a case thats not online, so i dont have to pay for shipping or something.

oh, another questions. does anybody know a good tv tuner for a computer? ive been meaning to get one but i dont know which would be good or not good. any recommendations?

 

I would stay away from vista like the plague.

 

i guess ill stay with XP for now. does anybody know about the tv tuner thing?