Time for an upgrade...

[Grizzly]

My current PC is something like 4 or 5 years old, so I've been thinking it's about time for an upgrade. Hardware isn't exactly my strong suit, so I was wondering if anyone would be willing to volunteer some advice on components. Motherboard, RAM, video card, power supply; specs, price, brands...

Any help would be appreciated. 

[OPIE]

Losing track of all the new technology that came out during that like 3 year void in my life. I stopped building my own machines. I honestly think it's worth buying a good name brand PC for about $650 then spending about $150-$200 on a good card. You can walk into Best Buy and walk out with two boxes that will have everything you need and will run all the newest games at max settings without going over a Grand in price.

[Xero]

Not knowing what you wanted to spend, here's a quick build for you to take a gander at. Something that should get you by for another few years. Will need to add a GPU and case.
 - USB 3.0
 - PCIe x16 (1 x16 slot - didn't think you would be tossing in a second GPU)

i7-860
Gigabyte P55 (USB 3)
GSkill 1600 DDR
Corsair 750 Modular PS

If you need a hard drive.... WD Caviar Black1TB

[Optical]

I'm contemplating upgrading, even though my machine isn't THAT old.

[Optical]

I'm contemplating upgrading, even though my machine isn't THAT old, even though looking at the newest benchmarks the i7's demolish my CPU.

[Optical]

Here is my quick wish list on NewEgg.  At first I was thinking 6GB (3x2GB), but then I thought that I might as well just max out 3 of the 6 DIMMs and go for 12GB. 

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/PublicWishDetail.aspx?WishListNumber=12367851

How are the g.skill Ripjaw chips?  I was between them and the Corsair gaming ones.  I was also contemplating 2 640GB Caviar Blues and putting them in a RAID0.  A guy at work says its dumb because RAID0 raises the failure rate x4.  Not sure if I believe him though...

[Asus]

6GB is fine. 8GB would be nice. (if using a 64bit OS)
If the system you have is a dual channel mobo then stick with 2 sticks (2x2GB or 2x4GB). If you are going with a tri-channel systme then go with 3 sticks. (3 channels do not really make a difference but the mobos are more $$.)

If you want HDD speed then pay money for an Intel SSD. RAID0 does increase the chance of failure because you are adding more hardware and they are connected. If you had a vehicle with 6 tires you would have more chance of a tire blow out then with 4 or 2 since more parts of the car are touching the road. Or if you buy more lotto tickets you have more of a chance to win something. It's probability.

It would be best to go with a small OS/programs drive (possibly SSD) and a large storage drive.

[Optical]

I decided to just max out my current motherboard and bought 4GB of DDR2 RAM.  With Sandy Bridge coming in less than 6 months, I thought it was stupid to get the i7, since it will be easily surpassed by the new Sandy Bridge CPUs.

[Blimigerite]

I had to Google Sandy Bridge. Man I'm behind in PC hardware.  Octa-core  That sounds impressive.  It'll cool to see the performance graphs.

[Asus]

They are already up there with core counts. AMD has 12 core server chips. Intel has 8 core server chips. AMD has a 6 core desktop part now. Intel will have an 8 core desktop part (Q2 2011).
But it doesn't do anything for desktop usage.

Sandy Bridge should have a decent performance increase although it is mostly about power efficiency. Onboard GPU getting moved to on die instead. Even lower idle power etc.
Both the new Intel and new AMD coming out will be basically a current architecture improved both with on-die GPU included as a new thing. I know for AMD it will be the next one after this where the CPU is a redesigned architecture. Intel probably too.