A little guidance

[cerialkillar]

Hey

I have a little problem with buying a new computer. In 6 months im beginning in school again and will study for the next 4-5 years, and me and my wife are having a kid in april, so this is my last chance for buying a new computer for the next couple of years.
I want your guys opinionen on what to do, im not a hardcore gamer but i do love to play games, and i often play online fps games ( CS:S, Day of Defeat, call of duty) and RTS games.

The budget is not realy a problem right now and i will overclock if i get watercooling on the mobo and cpu.
my plans is to buy this setup:

I7 920
Gigabyte x58 Extreme
OCZ 3x2gb pc 12800 Intel
BFG GTX 295 (mabye 2 of them)
Thermaltake toughpower 1200w modular
use my old 2x74gb raptors for windows
3xWD 640GB Caviar Black for storage and games
some random DVDRW drive
Antec 1200 case
mabye watercooling if theres any money left

Now the problem is, how long will this last me? Idont need to play on max settings, but dont what to play on low settings either. should i wait for the next gen GFX cards so i can get DX11? when will they be out? Or will this cover my needs? It would suck if half the games were DX11 only in 1year or so. What aoubt a blueray drive is there any need for that, games are getting bigger and bigger who knows when they will start using blueray disk instead of DVDs. The GTX295(s) may be overkill for me right now but remember that i cant opgrade ´the next 4-5years.

Thx for your help!

[DK2]

It really should last you as you have planned, maybe a few minor upgrades along the way.
Looks like a high end kick ass system anyways.

Mine I have no plans to upgrade anything for 2, 3 or more years, I believe I'll be fine.
Things I might do though are, upgrade from Vista to Windows 7.

[cerialkillar]

This is the first time im buying the best things out there, i just need to be sure so im not stuck whit a useless computer in 2years :)

[rjbarker]

This is the first time im buying the best things out there, i just need to be sure so im not stuck whit a useless computer in 2years :)

Computers are anything but "future-proof".....you should be fine for a number of years with that set-up....

[cadaveca]

I'd caution against re-using harddrives if you plan to use the pc for a while. I'd swap your choice to 3x 640GB WD Caviar Black Dual-Proc.

[ImmaPC]

I think the 2 GTX295's will suit you just fine. If you really want to go mental then buy the i7 965 XE, it's the only upgrade I can see lasting you longer.

You should be fine for DX11, because it's coming out Q4 2009 at best, which is very, very unlikely. Plus, it took almost a year after DX10's release for good DX10 games to be released for it, and most of those DX10 games released were able to run on DX9. Just as well, I heard that DX11 will work with DX10 cards anyway, they're trying to make it better than DX10 was. So if you get your 2 GTX295's, and DX11 comes out, it will:

a) Not work with DX10 cards, but at least it's a year before your card turns obselete, or at least buy DX11 games that can run in DX10 as well
b) Work with the GTX295 and you're good to go for the next few years.

As for your DVD drive. Don't worry about DVD drives. Just get a good, black, SATA 22x Dual Layer/DVD burner and you'll be fine. If games really need to be more than one DVD, than for the next few years I can see them just using more than one, dual layer, overburnt DVD's. I can't see them standardizing blu-ray until they can sell them at $50 for a 100-pack, which is waaay far off.

From what I hear, the Antec 1200 is a suitable, but not that great case. I haven't owned one, but from what I've asked, it's loud, hard to work with, etc. If you want a full tower case (which is good), then get an:

HAF 932

ATCS 840

Silverstone TJ09

Silverstone TJ10

Of course, you could get anything that's full tower and Lian-Li, but that migh cost you a bit.

[cadaveca]

90% of this years dvd-releases are already dual-layer...


GTA4 is 2 dvd's...

that said, we'll have 4-6 DVDs before Blu-ray. Remember that they will relase titles on whatever format is most common...CDs are still pretty common...dvds only last 18months...probably 3-5 years left of dvd-relases.

[ImmaPC]

Where did you get that figure, I thought it was all multiple DVD's (or that's what I've been using)

[cadaveca]

Many titles don't use more than single-layer. Pretty much any kid's game like Wall-E or kung-FU Panda, Lego titles(Lego Starwars is a single CD), etc...and those account for alot of sales.

[ImmaPC]

Aye, then he might as well get dual-layer once they use 4-6 dual-layer DVD's, instead of 4-6 single layer DVD's. Like you and I said, it's going to be awhile before blu-ray rolls along and becomes a standard for PC gaming, so think of it as an eventual upgrade should it happen in the next 2-3 years (which it probably won't)