Updating the 'puter for hardcore ownage

[kandrathe]

I was rather ticked off to find out Fry's Electronics doesn't carry my RAM anymore, or CPU. Apparently my motherboard is antiquated in the world of computer electronics (ASUS A8N-SLi Deluxe), however when I bought it, it was top of the line, #1 in it's class, and so was the RAM. I build it myself I think 4-5 years ago but it was last year when I did decided to do an upgrade to 4-gigs of RAM and a dual-core processor after my video card crapped out. Imagine my surprise when I found out my computer and most of it's core components was a dinosaur after a little over 3-years; I guess the computer world will never stand-still. It's because of this that I now believe your better off purchasing a whole package deal with all the trimmings rather than waste excess money buying 'exactly' what you want in your computer for an exceedingly larger amount than you would of paid have you just stuck with the package deal.

Well, there is Moore's (or Engelbart's) Law at work here. When you roll your own, you at least have the option of re-rolling after a few years to keep some of the pieces. The core mobo, cpu and ram can usually be upgraded for less than 1/2 the cost. Basic components like HD's, DVD, Case, PSU, graphic's cards make up the other half and are not that different year to year. The key is to choose basic hardware trends correctly, like PCI Express vs AGP, and IDE vs SATA. As long as you have a good ATX case, and a good PSU, the rest is features. :)

Is this the RAM you need and the CPU that you want?