Originally Posted by
0iD
Right, i've built many many rigs over the years, but mainly for work & they have been CAD oriented. Last rig I built for me & still use day-to-day for gaming etc you can read from my system specs... and i have to say, most of the time it holds up well.
However, as with all things, it's time to move on & get with the whole PCI-e thang, get a new gaming rig to play Stalker, Crysis & Quake Wars etc. So here goes...
Processor
Breaking with a long personal tradition here & going back to Intel. Does the E6700 have much over the E6600 apart from about £100. Overclockability/performance, woth the extra cash? Plus, a good cooler, air jobby, can i re-use my XP120 perhaps, ooo, or a reserator, always wanted one...Personally, I dont think the E6700 is worth the extra money. The E6600 is a great middle of the range chip, overclocks well. Cooling wise, the xp120 will be fine if it has 775 brackets.
Motherboard
What's a good solid performing option. Will be overclocking, but not to any great extreme. Intel? Foxconn? Asus? SLI/Crossfire unimportant as i'll never be able to afford to do it.
P5B deluxe wifi - rock solid, and if you do decide to overclock later, this board is worth every penny.
RAM
Always alwasy been a huge Corsair fan, been able to get some silly speed out of even their low-end stuff. But what else is good bang-for-buck value? So mid price/good performance & will be using 4gigs of it.
Ram prices are dropping at the moment, so just get the fastest that you can afford, especially if you do plan to overclock at a later date - something like pc2-6400 and above and corsair is fine, although not the cheapest at the moment.
Graphics Card
What's the fastest single card I can get these days?
Currently the fastest is the 8800GTX, but ATI has a new one coming out, so who knows?
Sound
In this day & age is a seperate sound card like the X-fi worth it, or does the mobo give a good enough 5.1 experience?
In my opinion, a seperate soundcard is a must, especially if you are using half decent speakers, or running through an AV amp. If its just for gaming with some surround pc speakers, a cheap x-fi should do it for you. If you are running through an amp or other decent speakers, have a look at the Auzentech cards.
That's about it. I have a good case in my old Coolermaster Black Widow, good airflow & looks good. I have optical & hard drives a plenty too. Will probably dip my toe in the Vista puddle too to see what it's all about, using the current upgrade to full copy work around.
