Considering a total system upgrade..

[zeroheretic]

My current system
Vista 64
Q9400 2.66
4GB DDR2 800MHz
750GB
GTX 280 1GB

Considering a whole new box with
Windows7 64
i7 960 3.2GHz
12GB DDR3 Triple Ch. 1333MHz
2TB RAID 0 (2x 1TB SATA-II, 7,200 RPM, 32MB Cache)
ATI Radeon 5970 (1)

Any flags raise for ya here? Anything you would or wouldn't do??
Other than that, my question is a simple one - if you had the money, would you bother? Or would you wait a little while longer? I'm concerned about the new DX11 Nvidia cards coming out in several months, like maybe I should wait for them, but other than that I THINK this would be a considerable increase in performance. It's an Alienware box though, and it will hit me just under $3k. I would also really like that Radeon to be liquid cooled but I suck at these things DIY-wise and there's no option for it that I can see on Dell's site.

Any input appreciated, thanks.

 

[memory]

What is this system going to be used for? You current system is still pretty decent. Is your current sytem prebuilt or custom?

If you do decide to upgrade, I would recommend not buying from Alienware, they are way overpriced. You can build your own system for much less.

Unless you are doing some major photo or video editing, 12gb is overkill. Depending on what you do, 6gb would be plenty.

 

[zeroheretic]

Lots of multitasking, lots of gaming. Crysis, Borderlands, etc. Current system is an XPS.

I know you are right about building the system myself. The problem is that I am not very good at it, nor do I have any friends lol. And I don't enjoy it. The extra amount of money is worth it to me, honestly. I know how lame that sounds to guys who can put things together with ease, and have fun while doing it.

Hmm, thanks for that - I'm going to lower that RAM amount. Still undecided about the whole idea.

 

[memory]

Building your own pc is not that hard. Check out the guide in this section. I was in the same boat a few years ago, didn't think I would be able to. But once I did it myself, I was glad. It is much easier than you think. Certain parts go in certain places. Probably the hardest thing(for me anyways) is the wire management.

There are plenty of guides out there with photos and videos as well. Here is one from this forum:
http://www.computerforum.com/104641-how-build-computer-step-step-photos.html

Here is another one:
http://www.pcmech.com/byopc/

12gb is overkill, 6gb would be plenty for what you do. As for the video card, you may want to consider waiting for the Nvidia DX11 cards since it should lower the prices on the current DX11 cards.

You could probably build a system like what you have in mind for around $1500 to 2000. You could probably get a better PSU and motherboard than the alienware build.

Also, on the CPU, you could just get the i7 920 and overclock it. That will save alot of money.

 

[zeroheretic]

Thanks so much for your help - you've given me a lot to consider, and even just by lowering the ram to 6gb and the cpu to the 920 you just potentially saved me about $800. Much much appreciated.

 

[memory]

No problem. Let us know if you decide to build it yourself and we will get a list put together for you.