Forum Overview :: American McGee's Honda Civic :: Help me build my new computer

[quote name="Mischief Maker"]I got my full money's worth out of my 3 year warranty for this dell laptop, having to call in a tech guy to replace the motherboard twice. I know I'm living on borrowed time here, but I hate the post-apocalypse setting and the last game that really made me pumped for a system upgrade was Sword of the Stars 1 planetary invasion battles, so it's been easy to decide to put thousands of dollars elsewhere. So I learned my laptop lesson. Next computer is going to be a homebrew tower. Unfortunately my knowledge of hardware is hilariously (read: 5 years) out of date. Is Asus still the gold standard for motherboards? Are solid state hard drives worth it? What's the best non-CRT option for monitors that render motion with minimal blur? Anything else new and exciting I should be aware of? Any and all suggestions welcome.[/quote]