Value gaming system

[valiant2]

I'm looking to build a new gaming PC.....primarily with a view to playing Crysis. My focus is on value rather than raw power. So far I've come up with the following:

Motherboard:
The Abit IP35 seems to be getting good reviews. Is the 'pro' worth it or would the Dark Raider suffice? There's a £40 difference in price and the only real physical differences seem to involve firewire and e-sata ports (and a few extra bits and pieces). You can buy an e-sata external blanking plate for about £4 on Ebay and I don't need firewire.

Video Card:
Looks like it's a no-brainer here. The 8800GT 512MB offers the best bang for the buck at around the £145 mark.

Memory and processor:
I don't know what to do here. Can anyone recommend a processor and memory that serves and matches the above approach? i.e. best bang for buck?

[Webby]

depends how much you have to spend really...

If you have £160 to spend on the CPU then Q6600, if your looking for something a bit cheaper then E2180 with decent air cooling should push 3GHz relatively easily without overclocking the motherboard.

If you go the overclocking route then you will be needing a decent cooler Scythe Ninja or Mine are good as are the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme and Ultima 90. If a more budget cooler is your thing then most people would go for the Arctic cooling freezer 7 pro at ~£15 its hard to beat in performance/£ but the alternative more expensive solutions will get you better overall cooling performance.

Memory wise it will really depend on what CPU you get but basically if you go for a processor with a FSB of 266 or 200 (so 1066 or 800 quad data rate) then 800MHz memory should be more than ample. Then its a choice between 2GB and 4Gb which is just down to money but if its not an issue then 4GB makes sense. Finally manufacturer if your not going to be overclocking the memory (which with either of the above chips you will not be) then any big name manufacturer will be fine if you wantt o push it further then OCZ, Geil, G-skill all offer good well priced options that overclock well. OCUK seem to offer the best prices on memory at the moment if you can handle dealing with them.

[BUFF]

Motherboard:
The Abit IP35 seems to be getting good reviews. Is the 'pro' worth it or would the Dark Raider suffice? There's a £40 difference in price and the only real physical differences seem to involve firewire and e-sata ports (and a few extra bits and pieces). You can buy an e-sata external blanking plate for about £4 on Ebay and I don't need firewire.

there's more to it than that (& the IP35 has firewire) but they fall into the nice rather than necessary category. Ultimately the Pro is the better mobo but it's not as good value as the IP35 imo.
Still it's £96 on Today Only at SCAN which narrows the gap somewhat.

Have to say that the Dell XPS420 for £509 delivered posted in the bargains forum looks like a good deal to me.

[valiant2]

Memory wise it will really depend on what CPU you get but basically if you go for a processor with a FSB of 266 or 200 (so 1066 or 800 quad data rate) then 800MHz memory should be more than ample. Then its a choice between 2GB and 4Gb which is just down to money but if its not an issue then 4GB makes sense. Finally manufacturer if your not going to be overclocking the memory (which with either of the above chips you will not be) then any big name manufacturer will be fine if you wantt o push it further then OCZ, Geil, G-skill all offer good well priced options that overclock well. OCUK seem to offer the best prices on memory at the moment if you can handle dealing with them.

Thanks a lot