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[Ratnick723]

It's been awhile since I built my last computer...below is what I was looking to get...I have a budget of about 1500.

(2x) EVGA GeForce 8600 512MB GTS Video Card -

(2x) Corsair Dual Channel TWINX 2048MB PC6400 DDR2 800MHz E.P.P. Memory

(2x) Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB Hard Drive - 7200, 8MB, Serial ATA-300, OEM (3 lbs)

Raidmax Smilodon Mid-Tower ATX Case with Front USB, Audio Ports, Clear Side and 500-Watt Power Supply (32.9 lbs)

MBM-P5NE-Q6600 :: Asus P5N-E SLI Motherboard CPU Bundle - Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Processor 2.40GHz OEM (3.3 lbs)

Please let me know what you think or suggestions
thanks -

[Jamie Nixx]

Ok heres what you should do.

Scrap the Quad and get the E6750 or the E6850.

Drop the two 8600's as they are absolute tosh and get one 8800GT.

Get a motherboard with a P35 chipset.

Get a Corsair HX52Ow PSU.

[Jamie Nixx]

Heres a computer i priced for another member.

Intel Core 2 duo E6750
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115029

Asus P5K-E motherboard
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131196

Corsair XMS2 2GB
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820145034

EVGA Superclocked 8800GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130303

Corsair HX520 PSU
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139001

Antec 900
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...pk=antec%2b900

Western Digital 250GB SATA Harddrive
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16822136161

Samsung DVD/RW W/ Litescribe
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151141

Grand total $1096.93


You would be very wise to go for this build, not only is it very future proof, its a solid gaming computer, in fact it would easily be one of the best around.

Notice it only comes to just under £1100, the rest of your budget could be used to upgrade the CPU to a E6850 and get a really nice monitor with it as well as Vista OS ect.

[Ratnick723]

Thanks Jamie,

I took your advice and priced it out...I didn't love the case and upgraded to the 3.0 6850. Is there a reason I shouldn't go with the quad core? Also, do you have this MB? I was reading some so/so reviews...thanks again.

2 CORSAIR XMS2 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Desktop Memory

2 Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 3.5" SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

1 RAIDMAX SAGITTA ATX-921WB Black Computer Case With Side Panel

1 Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 3.0GHz LGA 775 Processor

1 ASUS P5K-E ATX Intel Motherboard

1 CORSAIR CMPSU-520HX 520W Power Supply

1 Microsoft Windows Vista 32-Bit Home Premium for System Builders Single

1 EVGA 8800 GT Superclocked

Comes out to be about $1300+ US

[Jamie Nixx]

I have used it, its awesome trust me.

You may find this hard to believe but because games do not utilise the four cores the Q6600 actually bottlenecks the 8800GT because its such a powerful card, so if you want to multitask its excellent if you want to game and not do as much multitasking go for the dual core.

Q6600= 1066Mhz FSB @2.4Ghz
E6850= 1333Mhz FSB @3.0GHz

The Antec 900 is one of the best gaming and cooling cases around, you need adequate cooling for a machine as hefty as this one, the picture on newegg makes it look like absolute crap, find some independant reviews and go by them, its an awesome looking case and the cooling is second to none.

Apart from that all looks good.

[Ratnick723]

Again thanks,
I really appreciate you taking the time and answering my posts. I see you are on a number of posts and I will definitely listen to what you have to say.

I will examine all of this hardware in depth tomorrow, and if you don't mind ask you some more questions?

Thanks again,

[Jamie Nixx]

Ask away dude.

Peace :D

[Ratnick723]

Hey Jamie,
Is it true that if I purchase the 32bit Vista OS it will not detect 4GB of Ram? Instead of buying 4GB should I just buy 3GB then? I dont want to spend the extra $ for the 64bit OS. Thanks

[Jamie Nixx]

Yeah it is true, its the same for XP as well.

3GB will not really make any difference to games, in fact it will slow the computer down in some cases.

I would just stick with 2GB.

[Ratnick723]

I see in other forums you do not like the Artic Cooling Freezer CPU fan...and recommend the Golden Orb II. If I am to do a little bit of overclocking and don't want to spend over $50 should I still use this?

Thanks -

[Jamie Nixx]

Other way around, the Freezer pro is excellent, the Golden Orb is not so good.

[RickyTick]

I have the Antec 900 and its great. It looks cool, its very quiet, its lightweight yet big, and is a great cooling case. I've seen it on sale the last couple of days on newegg and zipzoomfly for like $69 or so.

[Ratnick723]

What is the difference between these two EVGA 8800gt 512 Overclocked cards:

EVGA 512-P3-N802-A1 Version
and the
EVGA 512-P3-N802-A3 version?

[Jamie Nixx]

The A1 is not overclocked.

[Ratnick723]

that is not what it says on the listing:

<http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=14-130-303>

[Jamie Nixx]

Hmm thats strange.

The difference between the two is the fact you get Crysis with one, and Quake wars with the other so if you go for the one for $299.99 you are getting Crysis for basically under $10 which is a steal.

[Ratnick723]

Yeah that is what I thought...I can live w/o Crysis for the time being...it was very tough to get this card.
Thanks -

[Jamie Nixx]

I have been waiting 3 weeks for mine, encounting.

[Ratnick723]

I just ordered my full system tonight, so I will try and build it next week sometime. Wish me luck...I went with everything on the list above.

[Jamie Nixx]

Good luck, if you get stuck, we are on hand to help.

[Ratnick723]

Hey Jamie,
I have a 150GB HD from my old computer which is running XP Pro. In the new computer I bought 2 250GB WD SATA HDD to set up in Raid 0. If I wanted to can I just add the old HDD to the new computer on the IDE Channel, or do I have to reformat it for Vista etc..?