CPU: Yes you can match a 6600 with a 4400 with little problem, might be worth it if you're on a budget.

GPU: DEFO go for the 8800 GTS, its much faster than the 8600, and you wont have any problems playing todays games at max settings.

Mobo: I'd be tempted to say go with the BFG 680i, or maybe an evga one if you can fine one, both fairly similar I believe, just comes down to warranties.
The others I know little about but would say dont bother with the 975X chipset, go with the Nvidia 680 or the Intel 965 chipsets.

PSU: Either is fine, 600w is more than enough for any application atm.

Hi Taylor,

CPU:
I said it on the other thread we discussed your PC.
If you really dont hurry wait till end of June as on the 22nd Intel will announce new C2D processors and also reduce prices again.

E6550 should cost around 100GBP I guess when I compare the USD/GBP prices now and what should cost the new C2D processors.E6550 will have almost same performance as E6600.There is lack of 66Mhz in CPU clock but higher FSB over the E6600.

Also some latest batches of C2D processors are not so good overclokcers.I read that on my PC enthuasist forums and my mate confirmed that unfortunately with his E6320.He had bad luck and it didnt want to go higher then 2.4ghz :-(.

Graphic:
Get a 8800GTS dont even think about 8600GTS if you want to play with some nice details upcoming DX10 games.8600GTS is realy disaster of performance especially with 128bit memory interface.

Mobo:
Get this one and you saved for your processor 15-55GBP against your other choices above.
http://www.dabs.com/productvie ... ationKey=11143,4294953874

Good for overclocking,nice price and good features.I have very good experiences with this company over last few years.I mostly put ASUS or MSI motherboards in the systems.


600W PSU is enough but dont be fooled by SLI-Certified.Its just a sticker and doesnt proove anything.Company usually buy this "cerification" for some ammount of money from NVIDIA.

2GB DDR2 is more then enough.

I agree with Devil, except on the mobo front Devil seems to like MSI, whereas i'd go for this (Gigabyte DS3), it's a very good overclocker and i've seen E4400's hit 3.5 GHz on Air with it.

I'd really recommend going for a bigger monitor, too, it might be an ancillary upgrade but with a PC that spec you won't be needing more power for a while, but seeing as you can pick up a nice 22" Xerox for £187, it's a nice move if you want to take it furted.

The 8600GTS aren't as lame as they used to be (i'm seeing them perform faster than a 7900GTX with some tweaking), but still i wouldn't recommend them with the 8800GTS

Gigabyte DS3 unfortunately doesnt support 1333Mhz FSB while the one I mentioned above YES.
Anyway that Gigabyte motherboard has very good reputation.

There will be pretty a lot of good deals for Intel CPU at the ned of the July or already around 22nd July.I would make then the decision about the CPU and motherboard so there will be any problem with FSB incompability.

Jakg,
when I always someone recomend hardware I think more about price/performance ratio and stability.If we would start talking about overclocking then I would recomend something else

Questions are.Is this more just a gaming machine or regular "home office" on which you play sometimes games? You dont need to overclock any A64 X2 or C2D processors for your daily work.Its useless regarding performance,it consumes more power,stress more components...etc.You know it pretty well

...the DS3 doesn't support them CPU's? ooooh, news to me!

I was just thinking if he was gonna be overclocking chances are he'll think "wow, i just added .6 GHz and it was a piece of piss, lets try some more!" and the obsession starts, but if the DS3 didn't support it then i see your point.

Well, for the C2D build that i keep pricing up but never buy it seems like the P5K is the firm favourite!

Ok,
I did a mistake:doh:.Sorry I am laying from Thursday in my bed with some cold and high temps so sorry for a small confusion above with FSB1333 support.

Thats for DS3 motherboard. I would say quite a lottery if you buy in oline shop with that version you will end :-( :

Rev. 1.0: FSB 1066MHz, one system fan header, ALC883 (Vista Basic Logo)
Rev. 1.3: FSB 1333MHz, one system fan header, ALC883 - new revision
Rev. 2.0: FSB 1066MHz, three system fan headers, ALC888 (Vista Premium Logo)
Rev. 3.3: FSB 1333MHz, three system fan headers, ALC888 - new revision

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/ ... mp;catid=5&subcat=565 - 1333 MHz version, but £99.86

Of course, for that price you could pick up the 1333 MHz P35 chipsets which are better - the DS3R is £94, the DDR2/3 DSR3 is £97, and the Asus P5K is a few pennies more than the DS3

the P5K i linked to is great, the DS3R with DDR2/DDR3 is a worse overclocker, but the DDR3 might be handy in the future

The 8800 GTS will run like hell! 1280x1024 is a rather low resolution for such a card. You can even play the most games at 1650x1080 4AA/8AA 16AF.

IMO Crossfire and SLi are crap, ONLY worth it if you run EXTREME resolutions (like 30" Monitor big), get the cards REALLY cheap or if you have THE best cards on the market, otherwise a single card solution is cheaper, quieter, less power-hungry, faster, and won't give you mood swings were sometimes it gives you 90% extra speed, sometimes LOOSES you speed for having a second card and then other times just randomly doesn't work. The single card solution is even better atm, as the 7950GT's are dropping like rocks in price, and yet buy 2 and you'll be about 15% slower than an 8800GTS320, which costs £50 less, and won't have DX10 compatibility.

The P5K is not "into ATi", it just uses an Intel chipset, which aren't loyal to either brand and make both SLi and Crossfire boards - nVidia's 680i Mobo's are good, but expensive (£126 is a lot) compared to the competition and you don't get any advantages but SLi. Running an nVidia card on an ATi, Intel or nVidia chipset gives no disadvantages, but the 680i chipset is good with support for SLi RAM (SLi RAM is a gimmick imo, but one of it's "680i Only" features is that if you have said SLi RAM with EPP (Which all SLi RAM has) it will automagically overclock your RAM for you), and some PCI-e "boost" thing that gives your graphics card (but only nVidia graphics cards! :P) more bandwidth. Of course, this gives no extra performance because they weren't running out of bandwidth before, but it sounds 1337

Matching brands (like BFG) gives no performance increase, as all 8800GTS' are the same reference boards manufactured by the company on license from nVidia - only Gainward and eVGA "hand pick" better cards for certain reasons, so the performance will be the same).

IMO a BFG card, an Asus mobo and a BFG PSU is better because Asus are a good company, although the 8800 situation happens on the 680i boards - all the manufacturers do is make it to a design and ad their sticker.

NikLaw means it's a bit of a waste of your computing power to channel it all through your monitor

P4's on the P5K? If the P4 is Socket 775, then it will work.

I am certain 8800 GTS will handle mid-max details only up to 1280*1024 on Crysis so this card is really not so overkill for close future and your current 19" monitor.

Dont know what make so cool on 680SLi motherboards but the 650SLi are much cheaper and have still very good overclocking optential and uspporting 1333Mhz FSB.Only what they luck is EPP feature and 2x 16xPCIE-E bus. SLI/Crosfire is uselles unless you playt at least like 1920*1080 resolution,also SLI/Crosfire doesnt work on all games.Its waste of money in my eyes unless are are very,very rich and doesnt care about money.

DDR3 memory/DDR3 motherboard are out of the question because the DDR3 memory are so expensive.

I would buy some Gigabyte DS3 which support 1333Mhz FSB or some motherboard with 650SLI chipset.

for 125GBP you should be able to buy E6750 which will be the 2nd fastest 2-core CPU on the market.Thats not so good ? I would say its great unless you count it Quad core :-)

I'm not keen on Intel mobo's, an dthe DS3 i linked to a slightly better OC'er, but doesn't have 1333 MHz FSB support - if like me you are a 1337 OC'er (ie not just "yeah, i'll take this E4300 entry model to X6800 speeds" but "oooo, if i go and shove lots of tube in my water cooling system and cool the CPU using dodo eggs i might get a 100% overclock!!!! zomg!")then grab the DS3 (because the 1333 MHz chips probably won't OC as much), but if you just want something that can overclock a fair bit and have support for the newer CPU's get the MSI mobo.

DDR3 is fast, but the timings are crap, as was DDR2 when it first started - atm theres a BIG slump in the market for DDR2 RAM (RAM manufacturers made LOTS of 2x1 GB modules for Vista, but they are having trouble selling 'em because Vista hasn't really taken off - and because they got caught "price fixing" and have now had to drop their prices).

The E6600 has been going £180>£160>£150>£140>£150>£145>£150, the E4300 was £110 when it came out and their now £80, so i'd imagine it will drop more

The "OC2" version will run at a higher clockspeed and be faster, but the great thing is that apart from the clock speed there is NO other difference, so just grab ATi Tool and you can clock it up to (and past) the OC2 speed.

What memory are you looking at? if i were you i'd get 2 GB kit like this (G.Skill 2 GB PC6400) as they are cheap (£64), a good brand and although you may never overclock them much (although you could get a lot more outta them) the fact they are nice RAM will only help with the re-sale value later on - 2GB of Overclocking RAM for DDR1 still sells for £60-odd, the price doesn't seem to drop on it at all for example

having four is no disadvatantage at stock, but when OC'ing may hold you pack - plus the ram i linked to is faster, but yours will work.

IMO i'd get the MSI if i were you