Hey guys - after about 7 weeks of research I've bitten the bullet and ordered my new system - I think I've got a great performance vs price mix - let me know if you agree!

Gigagyte DS3
E4300
BFG 8800GTS 320 OC
WD Caviar 500GB 16mg Cache
Geil Ultra Low Latency 2 x 1gb Matched pair
Artic Cooling Freezer 7
Antec 900 gaming case (oooohh, the fans, the blue lights!)
Audigy SE 7.1
using current DVD writer

set me back about £600 - which isnt too bad considering the kind of performance I should get. Planning on O/Cing the chip to around 2.8 - would be really interested in your opinions guys!

Thanks
Sam

Looks good, but you might want to think about getting a psu.

lol - you're damn right about that - I've got a corsair HX520 on order!

Ah ok. Awesome unit.

Good build. IMO just spend another $50 to get a new DVD burner. It's just me but I like to keep all my new build's parts "new".

So you waited 7 weeks to buy parts and then buy them before the R600 is supposedly to be released? (Mind you, if it is released, 8800GTS prices may drop...)

Otherwise, I envy your build.....

Nice build but you did not stick it to the man by waiting until the r600 was released,the card you selected will go down in price after the r600 is launched
until nvidia counters with something more expense.

Stick it to the man by waiting to upgrade till the last possible minute.

Nice build man, 2.8Ghz should be just a matter of changing the FSB. 3Ghz should be your goal.

cheers for the kind words friends!

About the R600 - I know its due out soon, but I just couldn't wait any longer! My current PC is fairly old, and there are some top new games out that need to be played at good settings! I've always been a bit of an Nvidia fanboy anyway, to be honest!

If they drop the price of the 8800GTS in a few weeks, then so be it. It's not going to realistically drop more than £30 or so for a while, and I can live with losing that

My friend is building a pretty much identical spec machine, only he's using the E6300 - will be interesting to see what kind of performance diffenrece that will make when we both O/C - what do you guys think?

Yours will be better because you got help from experts 8)