£800 gaming build

Hey, I was going to build earlier, but due to some circumstances I decided to wait. Now I've drawn up another specification for £800, inc. KB/Mouse/Monitor/OS. Emphasis on bang for buck gaming performance (Orange Box, Oblivion, Sav2, CS:S). I don't do any video encoding or heavy multitasking, and don't care much for Crysis.

PSU:
Corsair HX Series 520W Modular PSU - ATX12V v2.2 APFC £66.93

Note: It's more expensive than I'd prefer, any other cheaper recommendations?

Case:
Coolermaster CM-690 Dominator Black Midi Tower Case with Mesh Top Panel w/o PSU £46.99

Note: Is there enough space and is it easy to build in? How's cable management/cooling? I like the look more than the Antec 900, and it is cheaper.

Monitor:
20" LG L204WS-SF, Silver/Black, Widescreen, 5ms, VGA, 1680x1050, 2000:1, 300cd/m2 £119.84

Keyboard:
Saitek PZ 30AV Eclipse Wired Keyboard, BackLit Blue Keys, USB 1.1/2.0, Black £21.09

Mouse:
Wolf King MSWK-TR-BLU, Trooper Gaming Optical Mouse, 2200dpi, USB 1.1/2.0, 7 Buttons, Blue £15.26

Mobo:
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L, iP35 Express, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2 1066/667/800, SATA II, ATX £54.64

CPU:
Intel Pentium Dual-Core E2180, S775, 2.0GHz, 800MHzFSB, Allendale Core, 1MB Cache, Retail £56.38

Note: It's a stop gap for Nehalem, so I see little point in splashing out for lots, especially with price cuts in April. I can just overclock this, right?

CPU cooler:
Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £14.68

Note: How far do you think I can overclock E2180 with this? Should I spend more on the cooler? Since it is my first build I'd quite like a cooler with an easy installation.

Gfx:
512MB XFX 8800GT Alpha Dog, PCI-E (x16), 1800MHz GDDR3, GPU 625MHz, 2xDual Link DVI-I/S-Video, HDCP £172.23

RAM:
OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) 800MHz/PC2-6400 Memory Platinum Performance CL5 (5-4-4-18) £70.00

Hard Drive:
320 Gb Western Digital WD3200AAKS Caviar SE16, SATA300, 7200 rpm, 16MB Cache, 8.9 ms £47.29

DVD Writer:
Samsung SH-S203B 20X DVD±RW/RAM / DL Serial ATA Black Bare Drive - OEM £18.50

OS:
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium x64Bit OEM 1PK DVD £58.95

Total: £776.26 (inc VAT).

How is it? Any changes/advice/compatibility/criticisms are all greatly appreciated. I'm thinking of buying from SCAN and Ebuyer.

I would just spend £10 more on the graphics to get an 8800GTS. And with the AC7 Pro you should hit 2.8GHz on the E2180 pretty easily.

If you want a slightly cheaper PSU you could look at the Corsair VX450W one.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by daniel.phillips

I would just spend £10 more on the graphics to get an 8800GTS. And with the AC7 Pro you should hit 2.8GHz on the E2180 pretty easily.

If you want a slightly cheaper PSU you could look at the Corsair VX450W one.

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Yep, I replaced the 8800GT with a GTS since the price did seem pretty close. 2.8GHz sounds enough for my needs for a while. I also downgraded to VX450, since it is a fair bit cheaper. Thanks :)

Any reason that you've gone for that mouse? Could just be personal preference but a nice Logitech MX518 is cheap-ish and much nicer imo.

Otherwise a very nice system.

change mouse to mx518, g5, unless u prfer razor in which go for diamondback/deathaddder

I have just finished my first build with the CM-690 and theres plenty of room, the toolless parts are pretty good and it looks good. I was gonna go for the Antec but because it didn't have fan filters I didn't.

So lets say monitor keyboard, mouse and OS is ~ £200. That wolfking mouse looks a bit naff by the way. You can't switch to 400dpi which is perfect for sniping :p
leaving ~ £600.

E8400 + scythe ninja £155
Abit IP-35 - £65
4GB geil Black Dragon £70 (or what you picked)
ATi HD3850pro 512mb - £110 or 8800GT - £160 (look for a better deal than the xfx)
Antec Sonata 3 + 500W earth watts - £70
500GB WD AAKS or spinpoint - £60
DVD writer - £20

Thats £550 with the HD3850 and £600 for the 8800GT.

The 8400 clocks like a nutter but you could drop back to the E2180 which should clock to around 3.0GHz with a decent cooler.

If you ask me what the bangs for bucks PC is.. it is either the above or the above with a Q6600 (and the HD3850)

Yeah, I changed the mouse to a Razer (like the feel of them). I've bought the whole package now, so I await delivery. Thanks for the suggestions!

I'll probably post later since it is my first time build (I'm fairly well informed though, just practical stuff).

Staffsmike - I agree that's a good build, but since I don't encode/heavily multitask I didn't think buying an expensive CPU would be a good use of money. Intel price cuts in April, so I can always upgrade then if I need to. 8400/Q6600 is overkill for my needs.

Again, thanks alot for input.

All looks good to me :)

Get the cooler you want to put with your Nehalem later, no point having to get another. The Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro will do fine, but you might as well spend a tenner more and get a great cooler - A thermaltake or Scythe should do the trick.

The new 8800GTS is probably worth the few extra pennies, and yes an overclocked E2180 will tie you over for a few months. Have fun!