Need a computer for "school"

[Stigmata]

Using the term loosely, of course.

Long story short, my current computer is going on four years old, and that's only the newest parts. I'm going to need a computer for college, and I want to get a really nice one that will not only allow me to use all the programs I'll need to, but also push games to their limit (as opposed to games pushing my computer to the brink of exploshens).

As far as I can tell, the general consensus on this board goes as such:

• AMD's architecture is far better than Intel's, and I should go for a dual-core CPU so I can multi-thread programs, or load a single CPU-intensive process onto the second core.
  [*]ATI has the bleeding-edge crown by a hair, Nvidia is the king of the mid-to-high performance range, and all the mid and below cards are about equal.
  [*]I should go for a PCI-E card, as it's much faster and more efficient than AGP.
  [*]Combo optical drives read/write slower than dedicated drives, but it's less expensive overall to buy a combo drive.
  [*]Really high-quality sound cards aren't all that important to have.
  

Most importantly, I want this computer setup to last me a long time. I have no clue when it comes to RAID and/or SATA (assuming those are related to hard drives), or RAM types, so I really don't know what to do as far as those go.

So, what sort of setup should I be aiming for? I have a very flexible price-range, so high-end stuff is possible, but I have a feeling I'll go for a mid-range video card to start out.

 

[bosox188]

Since this computer will be for school meaning you don't need it immediately, I highly suggest waiting for Intel's new Conroe processor to be released in July. It is being hyped up as a huge release and supposedly a 2.66ghz Conroe (the highest one I think its 2.93ghz) can beat an AMD Athlon FX-62. So it would be worth it to wait and see if it lives up to the hype.

 

[Asus]

For optical drives I would get at least 1 DVD burner. All DVD burners also burn/read CDs. But you don't want to burn the motor out on that 1 DVD burner doing everything. So I would recommend getting a 2nd drive as well (DVD-RW, DVD-ROM or CD-RW). If you read dvds a lot (play or copy) then get a 2nd DVD-ROM or DVD-RW. If you burn CDs a lot get a CD-RW drive. Then you can do disc to disc copies as well.

Nvidia's 7600GT would be a very good midrange GFX card. Better than last years highend 6800GT. If you can aford it then the 7900GT has a lot more performance for about $100 more.

If you are buying in August then double check performance and prices because AMD will be lowering prices and Intel will have a new CPU out. The original benchmarks done by Intel showed a 2.66ghz beating a OCed FX60 but other benchmarks done by independent sites recently have shown it takes a 2.9GHz EE chip to beat a FX62 (2.8GHz). More competition and lower prices for the consumer. Would be worth a wait.

As far as what is out now. AMD has a new Socket out. It does not perform faster really. Same CPUs available as S939 except for the 2 new high end CPUs. But it is there if you want to jump in with DDR2 memory and allow for future improvements. Next year they will come out with their 65nm chips that should run faster/cooler and those are Socket AM2. The CPU prices are the same. The only price differences is going to be what board and Memory you pick.

$360 AMD X2 4200+
$99 Asus Socket AM2 nForce 570 Ultra
$217 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR2 800 OCZ
(total $676)

OR

$358 AMD X2 4200+
$94 Asus Socket 939 nForce 4
$191 2GB (2x 1GB) DDR 400 OCZ
(total $643)