mweeks945

I recently built my first pc and learned a lot of good lessons while doing it. With that much to spend you should be able to build a beast that will last a while. I knew basically nothing before i built mine, here are a few things that you should consider. How much RAM (and also how much you might want to expand to) will determine what size sticks to buy (4GB vs. 8GB etc...). Wireless or wired connection (some motherboards have wireless built in, or you can buy a card which will take up a slot on the board). Sound. If you want to use 'simulated' surround sound headphones, you will probably need to get a dedicated sound card that supports dolby digital live/dts connect.

With enough duct tape anything is possible...

Another brand to look at is AKG. They sell for a competitive price from time to time on amazon. I have the mk 271 and they sound great. They also have large ear cups and even come with different ones (one soft felt-like material and the other a smooth vinyl/leather) so you can pick which one you prefer. Also comes with 2 different cables, one straight and one coiled so you can pick that as well. They have a very balanced sound and are supposedly used in a lot of music studios because they don't 'color' the sound, they just reproduce it as it should be.

I always see the 5450 from newegg for 10 dollars (after 20 dollar rebate) so certainly don't spend 75 dollars on that. I even got the 6450 for 10 dollars after rebate recently. If you don't need it right away i'd suggest watching the various deals sites around. There seem to be a few good video card deals a week.

Just wondering if you ever got a resolution on this. I recently got a gx70 and was looking to try this out but have never done anything with BAR-edit or anything like that. I've only gotten one game loaded on there and played (Aliens: Colonial Marines) and the frame rates would drop constantly to almost unplayable levels. I'm not sure if this is the computer's fault or the game since it is supposed to be a pretty terribly put together game.

Here are a few more that may or may not have been mentioned. I went through the thread but didn't read every post. These are some of the lesser known(but still pretty well known for the most part) games i've played. Old games, with great mods to bring some aspects of them up to date (graphics/etc...) System Shock 2 (maybe the best story of any game, the spiritual ancestor of Bioshock) Deus Ex Spec Ops: The Line (seems like your average war game for a bit but the story takes you somewhere else) The Darkness 2 (decent shooter with a decent story, nothing great but if you're desperate...) Condemned: Criminal Origins (one of the scariest games ever) Protoype (like a sandbox super hero game, decent enough story but frustrating gameplay) Beyond Good and Evil (good story, decent gameplay. lots of people love this one) LA Noire (great story) Alan Wake (good story, visuals, kinda creepy) Darksiders (if you like zelda games, you might like this) S.t.a.l.k.e.r. (saw this mentioned earlier. it also has several expansions that are good, with Call of Pripyat being the best.

I noticed you mentioned Metro: Last Light, but not the original Metro 2033. You've probably played it (since you played Last Light) but if not it has an excellent setting and story. The book is good too!