Advise wanted on new build for gaming

[jallsey]

I already have an Antec P180 case, 2 hard drives SATA Raid 0, CD/DVD RW, mouse and keyboard, modem, router, speakers, etc sorted.

Other than that everything else is going, I have a budget of approx £500 to build a gaming system.

System I had in mind I was looking to purchase from Dabs as interest free credit as below;

£126.14 Q6600 CPU (quad core, more games to take advantage of multi-core in future?)
£110.92 Asustek S775 Intel X38 DDR3 ATX Motherboard (PCI-E 2.0x16x2 & DDR3)
£72.36 OCZ 2GB Kit PC3-10666 1333Mhz DDR3 (want to future proof system as much as pos)
£48.52 OCZ StealthXStream 600W Active PFC PSU (don't know much about PSUs)

& £180 APPX ATI 4870 GPU (when Dabs have one in stock, will probably wait for an OC edition)

My thought process is to build a system that is going to last me a few years, with room for tweaks i.e. 2nd 4870 and another 2GB of DDR3 when the price comes down.

Anyone got any comments or better suggestions, any help would be much appreciated

[alexander]

I have a Q6600 + 4GB of Crucial Ballistix PC8500 if you would be interested in buying them and save a bit?

[Webby]

Looks pretty god to me I personally would not go for DDR3 for the price of 2GB at 1333MHz you could get 4GB at 1066MHz DDR2 and for a Q6600 you would not push DDR2 800 even with overclocking.

As for future proofing you cant sorry it just isn't possible, Intel will most likely change CPU socket with the next new CPU which will mean that you will be unlikely to have an upgrade path with that board... DDR3 is just not cheap enough yet to consider buying it give it 6 months and maybe that will change.

[rufeo]

when are you looking to buy?

agree with the ddr3 comment, the high price doesn't justify the minimal gains you'd see. in fact 4gb of ddr2 would be better imo, esp if you're running vista.

i don't know too much about psus either but cosair and enermax are meant to be very good brands of psus. what i do know is buy the best psu you can afford since it powers everything in your computer!

also you might want to hold off buying a 4870. i was going to order one myself this week, but tonight i was pointed out by another member on the forum that there's been a lot of failures already with them. they haven't even been out for a week, and the number that are failing does seem to be more than ust ppl oc'ing or flashing the bios. it seems the saving grace of the 4870, the gddr5 that is used is the main culprit for these cards dying out.

[vipernet]

If you want to really want to future proof then you'd be better off with a 45nm quad rather than a 65nm one.

Do you intend on overclocking much? What about an Asus P5Q Pro or Deluxe and a Q9450? Personally I'd stick with 4gb of ddr2 @ pc8000+ rather than go ddr3 just yet.

[Blitzen]

If you want to really want to future proof then you'd be better off with a 45nm quad rather than a 65nm one.

Do you intend on overclocking much? What about an Asus P5Q Pro or Deluxe and a Q9450? Personally I'd stick with 4gb of ddr2 @ pc8000+ rather than go ddr3 just yet.

It doesnt matter which Quad you buy. Neither will 'future-proof' a rig.
The way the Q6600 runs vs the Q9450, they will both become obselete at the same time.

TBH...even though the Q9450 is 'supposed' to run cooler (i have serious doubts about that), the locked multi limits the overclocking on it anyway so anything over PC6400 DDR2 is not required. If the memory bought is decent then it OC over 800mhz anyway.

[staffsMike]

I think you get a few more instruction sets on the Q9***'s but not much else really. I would take the Q6600 for now, as Blitzen says they will be obselete at the same time anyway and the Q6600 are the better, safer overclockers.

[jallsey]

Thanks for the offer Alexander but as I said in my post I haven't got the cash lying around at the moment, so was going to go for the interest free offer at Dabs (also to be honest a bit wary of buying a processor 2nd hand).

I take on board what you guys are saying about the DDR3, will I not see any difference at all?
Half the reason I was so keen is that I remember 12 months ago when DDR2 first went crazy cheap, I was stuck with a motherboard that only took DDR and so could not take advantage. On one hand I am running Vista 64bit and do like a bit of Crysis so 4GB would then be the sensible option, on the other hand if I go for 2GB of DDR3 now I can always buy another 2GB in a few months time.

Any opinions on the motherboard I selected, only found one review for it (reasonable review), anyone else got one? - reason I chose it was 2xPCI-E 2.0x16 and DDR3 at a reasonable price

Also on the PSU? needs to have the necessary 2 PCI-E connections for a 4870 (4 would be ideal, with enough juice for a 2nd 4870 in 12m time) but then again I don't want to be spending too much on a PSU could always replace it as and when I go multi-GPU