I got me some money burning a hole in my pocket, and I'm thinking about 
upgrading again, especially as the POV beta begins to mature.

Shortly after I won the IRTC (and subsequently never entered again [why?]) 
in 2003, I decided I needed a faster computer with which to 
render/game/whatever.  I bought an AMD Athlon 3200+.  This is still my 
computer, although I've upgraded the RAM (1.5GB) and HD.  7 years is getting 
pretty ancient, but it still works pretty well for anything that's not too 
demanding.

A month ago, I knew almost nothing about the state of affairs regarding the 
new crop of processors and such, but now I've familiarized myself quite a 
bit with what is out there.  Bang for the buck, this would probably be the 
best system I could build, especially if overclocked:

Intel Core i7-860 (2.8GHz, very overclockable)
A case and PSU (600W - 700W)
1156, P55 chipset mobo (haven't decided which brand/model)
Western Digital 1TB hard drive.
4GB RAM
Windows 7 Home
Nvidia G-Force GTS 250 video card
(I'll use my current DVD drive)

I'm also looking to buy the Prolimatech Megahalems (Rev. B) cpu-cooler 
($70).  I read a few reviews and benchmarks, and it sounds like that cooler 
does almost as good as liquid cooling.  And a wireless mouse and keyboard 
would be cool ($35).

Yep, it would be a pretty expensive build (about $1,100-$1,200 USD), but I'm 
also hoping that it would keep me happy for another few years.  I plan to 
overclock, and it sounds like the 860's normally OC to at least 3.6GHz with 
decent cooling.  Regardless, this should be a brazillion times faster than 
my old Athlon system.  And I could run all of the newer games, although I 
don't play computer games as much as I used to.

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