advice on new build please...

Well, it's been a while since I've been here... :)

It's about time to upgrade my ageing Athlon (built way back in 2001), but I'm a bit out of the loop so I'm looking for some seasoned opinions - how does the following sound? (I haven't done a whole lot of shopping around for prices yet but Scan seems to be pretty low, so all these prices are from there.)

C2D E6400 - £144.98
Abit AB9 Pro i965 - £93.40
2x1GB Corsair TwinX XMS2 DDR2PC2-6400(800) 4-4-4-12 EPP - £176.21
Palit 7600GT Sonic 256MB PCI-E - £78.71
160GB Seagate ST3160811AS Barracuda 7200.9 SATA300 8MB - £38.80
480W Tagan TG480-U01 Ultraquiet PSU - £ 58.74

total £590.84.

I already have a case, DVD writer and monitor (which is VGA only, hence I picked the Palit as it was one of the few I could find with a VGA output).

Memory is what I'm most unsure of: how much difference is 800MHz going to make, as opposed to 533 or 667 MHz? (EDIT: I probably *will* be doing some overclocking :)) 2GB of 533 Value Select is £138.05, 667 TwinX is £154.56 and the 800 is £176.21 as above (all at 4-4-4-12). I'm not averse to paying the extra £20-40 but only if it's actually going to make a difference.

Also the PSU was just a guess. I have no idea what kind of power rating I need - would 350-400 be enough, or do I need something more like the 480 on the list?

Any comments much appreciated :) I don't want to go above £600 if I can help it though...

unless you want to upgrade to a 8800 at some point :P, a good 400W will do just about fine. If i were you i'd the best 400W PSU you can.

hmmm im not sure about the different RAM though, someone else will have to sort that out for you :)

Apart from that it looks fine :)

though...i would buy a E6300 and overclock :)

memory modules

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=126737

power supply

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=228615

motherboard

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=405133

cpu

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=430631

Most cards come with a DVI-vga adapter, so you can buy whichever one tickles your fancy. Depending on what you want to do with it, the 7600GT is a great card for the money.

I would go E6300, Asus P5B deluxe wifi (rock solid, plenty of features), the 2x1gb kit of corsair (if you have no intention of overclocking, you can save money by getting lower speed ram as it will run at 4200 default, but still get 2x1gb), PSU, I would certainly go for Seasonic, Enermax (theres a nice liberty modular one for about £50), Im not a fan of tagan, fsp or hiper myself.

I would also go for a bigger drive with the money saved on the other stuff.

And not to overclock a C2D is actually illegal in most EU countries now.

Well I could easily fill up that 160 gig Hard drive you've listed, have you considered paying a bit more for at least a 250gig. Music, digital camera pics, videos etc can take up a lot of space

Hmm. I hadn't realised the C2Ds overclocked quite so well - I've read enough now to convince me that it would be idiotic not to :). I'd want to stick to the stock cooling (at least at first), so would the E6300 still be a better choice than the E6400?

So given that I *am* going to be overclocking, how much of an overclock is going to make the 667/800 memory worth it over the 533? I don't know a whole lot about it (obviously :)) but I'm guessing that 1066 FSB means quadpumped 266, which is doubled for the memory to 533... so... (am I also right in thinking that the multipliers are locked?)... I'd need to hit 333 FSB to make the 667 memory worthwhile? Then x7 for the 6300 makes ~2.3GHz, or x8 for the 6400 makes ~2.6GHz. If my maths is right, are they feasible overclocks on stock cooling? Equally it looks like 800 memory would need 2.8/3.2GHz respectively, which seems quite unlikely... So I'm thinking that 667 might be worth it, but possibly not 800?

I have plenty of hard disk space elsewhere on my network so I'm not fussed about capacity of the new disk - I just want a SATA one :)

And as for the graphics card... NWN2 is next on my list and my old GF2 just won't cut it :)

Thanks for all the comments so far :)