What shall I get for myself as a birthday present?

SSD's can be a really noticeable improvement. I've had many upgrades that are hardly noticeable or just noticeable in certain areas...but the SSD is noticeable everywhere.

As far as monitors go, an IPS flat panel is a great choice. Although at 27", you are hitting $1,000+. I would see about going with a 24", and you are going to be closer to $500. Seems like people always build out fabulous computers, with super high-end video cards and then put whatever monitor they find for the cheapest on it. You look at the monitor with nearly every second that you interact with the computer. GET A GOOD MONITOR PEOPLE.

If you DO get that monitor you /may/ need a new video card for it anyway

Running that 27in at it's native resolution will require using two DVI ports at once.

fseal said:

If you DO get that monitor you /may/ need a new video card for it anyway

Running that 27in at it's native resolution will require using two DVI ports at once.

??? two ports? Why? He just needs a Dual link card.... and he's got that already if he goes for the 9800: NVIDIA GeForce 9800 GT: supercharge your graphics horsepower with this GPU at the perfect price and performance combination.

That's the same thing?

I just meant that he'll need a good card with dual DVI ports in case he didn't already. I see the 9800 has them already, but I wouldn't want to play any games at that resolution with a 9800 .

boohbah said:

personally if i were you i would treat myself to a couple of packets of walkers crisps and a bottle or two of bombardier. Oh and definitely a take away Indian curry.
then i would put my feet up and watch a new movie on a couple of new samsung p2370 23" lcd monitors

actually the price of them i would get 3

Couldn't find Walkers Crisps nor Bombardier, so I got these...

pparks1 said:

SSD's can be a really noticeable improvement. I've had many upgrades that are hardly noticeable or just noticeable in certain areas...but the SSD is noticeable everywhere.

As far as monitors go, an IPS flat panel is a great choice. Although at 27", you are hitting $1,000+. I would see about going with a 24", and you are going to be closer to $500. Seems like people always build out fabulous computers, with super high-end video cards and then put whatever monitor they find for the cheapest on it. You look at the monitor with nearly every second that you interact with the computer. GET A GOOD MONITOR PEOPLE.

Agree %100 about getting a good monitor. With that said, the Hannspree is an inexpensive low to mid quality monitor and I'd like a better one. The 27" monitor is as large as I'd go and I'd probably be happier with the setup if I got a better graphics card to go with it.

@fseal and MvdB

The 9800GT does have dual-dvi, but it would probably be stretching the capabilities of the card to ask it to drive such a high resolution monitor and have it be a pleasant experience.

Getting the monitor would almost necessitate the purchase of a new graphics card.

Happy Birthday there Lava King.

I don't think that the price of SSD drives are that high, of course I am the one that paid over $800USD for a 30MEGABYTE hard disk. and over $400 for 128K of ram. :)

Price is all relative and all those on the bleeding edge of technology have to pay the price.

Rich

richnrockville said:

Happy Birthday there Lava King.

I don't think that the price of SSD drives are that high, of course I am the one that paid over $800USD for a 30MEGABYTE hard disk. and over $400 for 128K of ram. :)

Price is all relative and all those on the bleeding edge of technology have to pay the price.

Rich

Thanks, Rich.

I don't live on the bleeding edge, but I have been rather close at times. I remember paying $320 US (more or less) for a 32MB hard drive for my Tandy 1000 TX some years ago and thinking that I got a great deal.

Kent

Thanks to all for the wishes and suggestions.

I just pulled the trigger (well, clicked the button) on buying the following two items:

Asus PA246Q 24" P-IPS monitor
EVGA GeForce GTX 560 Ti Superclocked 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express 2.0 Graphics Card

Now it's birthday party time!

Kent