what computer should i get?

[BENZOOKA]

I know. But it's not something you necessarily need. Sound card is higher on my list, but that isn't necessary either, since the integrated ones on motherboards are nowadays more or less adequate, depending on personal needs. Still, it's a world of difference between the two. As it is between a high quality gaming-latency RAM and cheap generic RAM...

I forgot the OP said he has a big budget, whatever that means in practice. Sure he can get an SSD if the budget allows, but it shouldn't take away from the focus on the rest of the parts, especially when it seems like he needs to get all the peripherals as well.

Honestly, it's way better than better ram or a sound card in the difference it makes to everyday usage. Sound cards, creative ones anyway, usually more trouble than they are worth thanks to terrible drivers that make getting them to work way more work than it should be, uber ram is so marginal in anything but the most extreme tests of the computer (rendering large images for instance) that it tends to be very border line unless it is simply not working at all.

Really good headphones/speakers can make a big difference however, These [http://www.amazon.co.uk/Grado-SR80i-Headphones-2009-Model/dp/B000G3LCQC/ref=sr_1_1?s=electronics&ie=UTF8&qid=1300566437&sr=1-1] give good sound compare to headphones 3 times the price.

This is kind of pointless, comparing hard disks with RAM and sound cards. Like I said, it's personal preference. And surely your biased, but aren't we all. I'm not getting a SSD before the prices go down more. I've used systems that have SSD and surely they are swift, but my PC, with the way it's sorted, I have no issues and don't feel the difference is enough for a 7200rpm to retire from holding the OS, even though this is a LGA775 socket with Dual Core and DDR2. Defragging, no pointless background software, especially on start-up, and everything else routinely set up so I'm certainly not paying 200 ? for an SSD just yet, just to get slightly quicker, when I'm not even waiting anywhere now.

I've never had any issues with Creative's drivers, and the difference between the integrated ones is very noticeable. And naturally good headphones are more than half of the audio experience. I prefer Sennheiser's. I currently have PC 330 to use with the computer and they're excellent for me.

 

[Snowalker]

i have a pretty big budget, and there is a pretty good store nearby you can custom-build in. im not sure what parts to get though, accept for a 4-GB ram.

Well, you need to decide, AMD vs Intel on processors... and Nvidia or ATI on graphics.
Personally, I prefer AMD and Nvidia. Why 4gig? yeah thats standard, why not jump for 8 gigs?

 

[Snowalker]

well i cant get into details about my budget, since i live in israel, which means shekels, not dollars. a dollar is worth about 4 shekels. any way i want the computer to be less focused on graphics and more on the gameplay itself, i want it to be fast and not as laggy is my shitty PC is being right now. i want to play stuff like mass effect 2 without lags.

I think you may need to do more research before buying, this lagg you speak of could be two things, internet lagg, or low frames... if its low frames as I suspect, you do in fact need a better graphics card.

 

[BENZOOKA]

Well, you need to decide, AMD vs Intel on processors... and Nvidia or ATI on graphics.
Personally, I prefer AMD and Nvidia.

One might think the best combinations would go AMD & ATi, and Intel & nVidia, as AMD owns ATi.

 

[Snowalker]

Well, you need to decide, AMD vs Intel on processors... and Nvidia or ATI on graphics.
Personally, I prefer AMD and Nvidia.

One might think the best combinations would go AMD & ATi, and Intel & nVidia, as AMD owns ATi.

One might think that, yes. I, however, don't.