I haven't kept up to date with what the latest is in hardware. It's time for a new desktop though. I'll be gaming with the machine, among other less intensive things. I need at least the following (Dragon Age Origins requirements)
CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo 2.4Ghz Processor or equivalent
RAM: 4GB (Windows Vista/Windows 7)
Video: ATI 3850 512 MB or greater
NVIDIA 8800GTS 512 MB or greater
I'm thinking I want to get a Core i7 processor. The biggest areas I'm not sure of are the motherboard and graphics card. What's a good MB that works with the Core i7?
For video cards, I want something good, but not so high end that I'll break the bank. I'd rather get something a little lesser now and have to get something again in a couple of years than spend a lot on a card now. I've had good luck with ATI cards, so would like to stick with one of them. I'm guessing the 5700/5800 is too pricey (haven't dug into prices too deep yet). It looks like a 4650 is only about $70 and gives me more than what the game needs and I assume will be good for games for the next few years. Haven't followed it enough to know what I'm missing out on with the better cards though.
I'm going to do a little research, but there's always some people that can help here. As far as research goes, not sure what sites are good currently. I remember checking out
Tom's hardware (link directly to a mobo article) in the past.
