New Comp hardware you need but didn't know you did

[Paul]

That's right- my new(ish) computer isn't quite fast enough anymore. I blame the 20 or so copies of svchost.exe windows insists on running- but whatever.
So i've been contemplating an upgrade to happen soon...
New HD:
WD Raptor 150gb @ 10k rpm ATA
Average Latency: 2.99ms
Average Seek Time: 4.6ms
Tomshardware benchmarked and it's even faster than two 7,200rpm drives in a raid array (which i have and thought it was pretty fast...) All that for only $275.
New Monitor:
ViewSonic VX922 - 2ms 19" LCD. Oh yeah. 1280x1024 native and only about $350 at newegg. My pretty good crt is dying.. occasionally flickering yellow.. time to upgrade. (also 19" of crt = 18" viewable, so lcd of same 'size' will net me one inch more)
Video card:
Geforce 6800GT:
Yeah i know it's not a 7800-- but if you're not running FSAA or anything fancy, can keep up with the faster cards while being way cheaper. It looks to be the value successor to the 6600GT. $219.

Will I actually ever get any of this? Maybe the monitor. And if i'm going to order... might have to pick up some more ram. and to save on shipping later... probably the hard drive too.

Anyone have any ideas on the subject...?

[molson]

sometimes you can get two 10k raptor sata drives at 74 gigs, for about $250, then you can use raid 0 and have even more speed than the 150 Gb version, and for less money(maybe) that's exciting. Yeah I've been thinking about an LCD as well, it would just be nice, and they're getting cheap enough, (sometimes $200 for an 8 or 12ms 19" not bad, although, I may pay the extra $50-$75 for a viewsonic, oh, and my stupid ram is on back order, I effing hate backorders. On the video card area, I'm pretty sure I won't upgrade for another 6 months or so, at least, since I've got the ol SLI even though it still chugs on some stuff, a little disappointing really, we'll see if more ram helps that, but I would certainly suggest not going less than a 6800GT, anything less will be disappointing I'm sure. The 7900GT may hold some promise, If I were to upgrade before the end of the year, that might be the one I'd go with, $330 or so for the GT, but..... although, I still want to build another media computer with Raid 5 on 4 320 Gb SATA drives, Oh man, I'm a huge nerd, and now I have monies, but seriously, battlefield 2, paul, you need it

[Paul]

I'll look into BF2- i played some online and was pretty impressed. stupid squad didn't work well together and we got owned a lot.

The only thing that holds me back from another raid array for the system drive is that as i put more crap on it- it seems like it's slowing down... akin to a regular drive that needs to be defragged- but there is no equivalent for raid (as far as i know). WoW load times have been increasing in recent months- and i suspect hard drive- it'll sit there and access for a long time after load bar is complete.

Also- spring for the viewsonic if you want to game on your lcd- i've read some reviews and other stuff just doesn't compare as far as response goes.

[molson]

so, my RAID 5 Array is pretty sweet, but remember our plans Junior year to get a bunch of those terrible huge old 18 Gig SCSI drives, well someone did it, (with 50 gig drives, but still).
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