another new PC thread!

[Kurt Cobain]

I know you guys love these <3, I'm looking to upgrade, I built this PC 1.5-2 years ago and have saved quite a bit to upgrade with, current specs are Win XP Pro SP3, C2D E6600 at stock clocks (I'm kinda new to building, timid about overclocking, especially with no backup PC at the time), 2 GB Corsair XM2 Pro, PNY 8800GTX, 1TBx2 for storage, 150GB Raptor for HD/apps and Asus StrikerExtreme motherboard, with Logitech Z-5500 speakers.

I basically want something that will be able to max out anything current and a bit into the future, money is a non-issue, I'm not current on hardware now so I turn to you, really don't want to go to Vista if possible. I prefer Nvidia and Intel, this will be my new main rig after its built. I also am looking for an extremely large monitor to replace my backup display and maybe take the place of my current main display (32" Sharp Aquos), but again I'm not current on present hardware.

Brands and such for displays, I don't know, I seem to recall certain Samsung model monitors being good whereas others weren't, and so on. I really want something that will be comparative to my TV in size, as my TV dwarfs my monitor next to it (22" Westinghouse). The vibrancy of colors and clarity of resolution is important too, the ones I was looking at were 2560x1600 native, beyond 1920x1080 I'm not sure about how resolutions work. For example, is 2560x1600 better than 1080p, or 2560x1600=1080p <_<? Also, the new monitor vs my TV for watching HD content, as my TV is 1080p but the monitor resolution will be that of the above.

The same with keyboard/mouse, I've been using the same ones forever and have grown quite accustomed but between moving around, dust and wear and tear they're near the end of the line. i.e. Laser vs Optical, if theres a difference? I currently use a Logitech G15 and some laser mouse I picked up at the same time. Also need the new build to have a DVD/CD writer which I think is the norm now. I'm partial to Lian Li cases but open to change, cooling is important, especially since the ambient temperature is never very low. I plan on watching a lot of HD content, so if any changes need to be made in accordance with that, so be it. Sorry my post is devoid of content structure of any kind, I just kind of wrote the shit down as I thought of it and broke it up into paragraphs so as not to be a wall of text.

[Epical]

Honestly, your rig isn't obsolete (or bad for that matter) by any means. Upgrade to 3GB+ of RAM, OC your E6600 (it's great for OC, but if you don't want to, grab an E8500 or a high end quad -- keep in mind the i7s are just around the corner, so keep an eye out for those if you want bleeding edge) to 3.0GHz+, and grab a 4870X2 (I know you said nVidia, so GTX 280?). Keep your Raptors or upgrade to the new VRs, mobo is still fine, as well as storage. Keep your G15 and grab a G5 mouse (G7 if you want wireless). Speakers are still badass, so keep those for sure.

[Isiolia]

If you've got money to burn, wait for the i7 stuff right around the corner. Most likely, you can put more RAM and a faster CPU in your existing motherboard and all, which will be a lot less than building something new. You can build something better today, but not -that- much better to make it worth doing.
Is there something that your current rig isn't doing that makes you feel you need to upgrade it?

With the monitor, you get into a number of other issues than resolution. Panels that do very well for gaming tend to be TN panels, which in turn are generally not very good for color accuracy or viewing angles. Is there something wrong with your current setup, or something you're looking to improve on?

Higher and higher resolution is nice, but 1080p is pretty high res already, and going higher just means even more computing power needed to keep max settings at native res. For TV, nothing is broadcast over 1080p, so really you'd just be scaling stuff.

I mean, I know building can be fun and all...but it honestly doesn't seem like your rig is worth upgrading yet.

[Shuemue]

What's the motivation? Do you need two machines?