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Originally Posted by kiwi_2005
Just a tip, whenever building a computer ALWAYS wear a static strap!, even just slight movement with your feet on the carpet can create enough static to blow a motherboard. Electrical Static Discharge (ESD)
An ESD shock of 30 volts can destroy a computer circuit.
An ESD shock you can feel, such as on a doorknob, has around 3,000 volts.
An ESD shock you can see carries about 20,000 volts
Just 30 volts can ruin your day.
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12 volts can ruin the day with modern 90nm fabrication. It used to be 20 volts with 180nm fab.
As for grounding yourself, I always take off my shoes and socks and rest my foot up against the computer case. If you leave the PSU plugged in, turn off the ATX switch on the back (if it's got a switch -- if not, unplug the power button from the mainboard), the case stays grounded. Simple and easy ESD prevention.
As for dual-core, it's not "overpowered" right now. Most games (like SH3) use serial threading. So if you get a dual core, you're only going to be running the game off one core, so you need to get a high-end dual core to be able to keep up with games. If you get a 2ghz dual core, each core is only running at 2ghz, and you'll be playing the game with a 2ghz processor. If you go the dual-core route,
as a gamer, don't consider anything under 2.6ghz. And at that cost, you're better off getting a single processor.
There are a handful of games which are multithreaded, in which case, you can easily get by with a 1.8ghz dual core. Half-Life 2 and the Counter Strike: Source people are the ones that will truely benefit from dual-core and SLI/Crossfire systems (and a Dell 24" monitor). The Source engine can use both processors to fully load both video cards.
AI is getting so advanced, it takes more processing power than the graphics. If anything needs to be multithreaded, it needs to be the AI engines.