Advice on my build?

I am currently looking at putting together a new gaming rig. Looking at sort of the low to mid section of the top of the line. This is what I have got so far

Intel Q6600 2.4Ghz CPU (possibility of some slight over clocking too)
Abit IP-35E Motherboard
Crucial DDRII-667mhz 2Gb RAM (maybe push this out to 3-4Gb)
POV 8800GTS 320Mb GFX
500Gb Western Digital Sata2 Hard Drive
2x Optiarc 7173A DVD-RW
Antec 900 Gaming Case
Antec Smartpower 2 500W PSU
Cibox 22" TFT with DVI (will be using my existing 17" TFT alongside)
Windows Vista (most likely Premium, and 64 bit)

With extra bits and pieces such as keyboard, mouse, wifi etc its around the £1000 mark.

Any thoughts over which pieces might want changing? Is 64 bit Vista worth buying now? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated.

Not really, looks like a solid setup. The ram you've got will take the cpu to 3.0gig at stock speed. Not too sure how the ABit board performs, should be good, and unfamiliar with Antec PSUs, but all else looks great.

Personally speaking that setup is putting you in the higher end of mid range

It does depend what you're going to do with it but that's a pritty solid setup.
I would consider an aftermarket cooler to replace the stock intel one, an arctic frrezer 7 pro is not the best cooler going, but it's cheap, more quite than the intel stock cooler and can cope well with small overclocks.

i would up to the ip35 pro if possible is one hell of a board gilgamesh reviewed it in the abit section give it a read has alot more features than the ip35 but costs a little more about £120 i think

all else is pretty good i would consider a better brand for the gfx card if it was me not a huge fan of pov and there are plenty around the £180 mark
i would consider a bfg if you are planning on keeping it for a while as they do overclocked versions and have the long warranty as well


also with the antec 900 gaming case be prepared for a very low quality interior i watched a video review when i was considering it and cooling is good but reviewer said the interior build is not very good at all

Been haveing a read up, and there's a lot of faults being reported with that model of Antec PSU

You'd probably be better off looking for an Antec earthwatts EA500 if you want to stay with Antec, heard nothing but good news about the earthpower serier so far.

Thanks for the ideas guys. Anyone had any experience with the 64 bit Vista Premium? I am looking at keeping the system for a while so trying to get tech that will stay ahead of the average, is it worth investing in the 64 bit OS now?

I've just built a quad core machine for vista 64 bit. My hatred for vista aside its actually behaving itself quite well. Runs very quickly and smooth and the only driver problems ive had are with the wireless card which has been resloved with a £11 jobby from scan I had in another PC.

My specs are almost identical to yours.

q6600
Abit IP-35 (not E)
4gb of RAM
8800GTS 640mb

its super speedy :D ...shame its not mine lol

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Originally Posted by danroyle

also with the antec 900 gaming case be prepared for a very low quality interior i watched a video review when i was considering it and cooling is good but reviewer said the interior build is not very good at all

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How d'you mean low quality? There is no removable mobo tray like you get with some cases and no 'cable hiding' system, but other than that....?

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Originally Posted by GSte

How d'you mean low quality? There is no removable mobo tray like you get with some cases and no 'cable hiding' system, but other than that....?

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Well hiding the cables isnt a major concern for me, ill just keep them out of the way of the airflow, I just went for it purely for the 3 fans, plus the option of adding two more.