first time building a new machine, hooray!

If you want a good psu, check the corsair line. Manufactured by Seasonic. Also the Seasonics themselves are very good, especially the + series (check my signature) . I'm using it without problems for the past 6 months. For a better approach, check those links:

http://tinyurl.com/2doers
http://tinyurl.com/ypvp5l

although the links seem dead, they were functioning just hours ago, so be patient... It's worth your trouble.

200 euros for 2 gigs of 6400 memory? If you check any US site you will find it at half the price, other specs being equal. Hell, even in Greece you can find it cheaper. If you really need fast memory and want to overclock, check any US or European site that ships to UK. You might be surprised!

I know that new egg does not ship to international customers, but check this link out for comparison.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E168...

Don't forget to try Enermax Galaxy. It's a good PSU too.

Ballistix is a top overclocker, but unless you overclock the ram, it'll be a waste of money & ram. If you're not overclocking the ram, get something 800mhz.

thanks to all for the advice, its a great help!
I have decided to go with this setup:

e6600 intel core duo
nvidia 8800 gtx 768
evga 680i motherboard
150gig western digital raptor hard drive
antec 900 case
creative x-fi sound

As you can see I'm still not sure which ram would be best for this setup, I've decided to go with the crucial ballisix but they have more than 1 type so that leaves me confused, I will be overclocking the ram once I have learned how to do it. And lastly is the power supply dilema, will 650w be enough for this setup or will I need more? (i know that SLI needs alot of power but im not using this psu for SLI, i will most likely get a new psu when i eventually decide to go SLI) sorry for the dumb questions again but its getting close to 'build day' and I have important info missing, thanks again.

Oh and 1 more thing, my friend is warning me that the 64 bit vista idea is not good for compatibility reasons, he says alot of apps wont work on 64 bit version. I mostly use PC for gaming so im more worried about games compatibility than anything else, I'm wondering if this is really a big problem or something that will get sorted out pretty soon, yeah this is a software question but really it will help me decide about getting 2gig ram + 32 bit vista or 4 gig of ram + 64 bit vista. I'd rather not have to buy 2 versions of vista for dual boot  

If you want to be sure that the psu will support sli:

http://www.slizone.com/object/slizone_build_psu.html

As for Vista, I'd get the Ultimate which comes with both 32- & 64-bit on 2 DVDs.

Buying vista for gaming? Until now games perform worse in Vista than in XP. If you have in mind DX10 gaming, shouldn't you wait and see what the results will be with the first DX10 games and if some title will be supported in Vista 64? It is just my opinion anyway, but why should a non technically oriented person do all the troubleshooting for M$? For more than 15 years early microsoft adopters only pay premiums and get buggy products in return.
No flame intended, just warning.

thanks for your comment BigBlack, my reason for choosing vista is that eventually I will have to buy it anyway, and the price on it will not really drop (XP is still almost the same price as vista form what I've seen) I need to buy an OS so why buy XP now if eventually newer games (ok maybe not for a while) will not even support it. One other reason is that for the amount of ram I am planning dont I need vista to be able to use it all?

Don't get me wrong I'm not a M$ fanboy, infact I dont like any OS, I view them as things I -have- to use not things i want to use, all OS these days have 75% stuff built in that I dont need/want, until someone releases an OS that is based around gaming I dont change my mind either (well I guess thats what gaming consoles are for) but honestly, if some uses thier PC only for gaming why not have at least a mode within the OS that shuts off ALL non gaming related drivers or whatever, sorry to ramble but its my vision as a gamer, some kind of dual booting system that removes all the crap I dont need running in the background, I just wanna play games  

I hope I have not derailed my own thread  

Get the 6400 (800Mhz) with the lowest latency (numbers like 4-4-4-12) that fits your budget.


As it is your config now, i would say that a good 500W PSU with 40 - 42 A on the 12V rails would be more than enough. 650W and 50-55 A for SLI and futureproof. But check everything with the online PSU calculator:
http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculatorlite.js...
From my experience Seasonics are excellent, Fortron and Tagan as well, some models of Enermax (Liberty). Corsair 520 and 620 are made by Seasonic and got excellent reviews. A trustworthy site with plenty of reviews is the following:
http://www.silentpcreview.com/section10.html

Keep in mind that SLI is rather overrated. If you decide to do it in say, six months from now, i bet you will discover that a 8900GTX (for example) will be able to beat your SLI rig for a price close to what you will have to pay for a second 8800  

If I go SLI it wont be for a long time, no way in 6 months, more like when the 8800 gtx drops in price by half (2+ years?) then I guess it will be a sensible thing to do, cheap 2nd gtx or another huge amount of cash on the latest overpriced graphics card? I'm guessing the performance would be roughly the same but alot cheaper for the 'cheap' 8800 sli setup.

But as you have probably already guessed, I dont really have a clue what I'm talking about (I mean c'mon, my last pc was a pre build Dell ffs) its why I'm here, to try and soak up some knowledge from people here and try to be a little less of a hardware newbie  

Ok, you are right, but 4 Gigs is a marginal amount of ram. Even Xp 32bit is able to use 3.5 gigs if you install 4. Now, if you were planning to use 6, or 8 Gigs then 64 bit would be the answer. But then you would lose games compatibility. I would say that if you are a gamer and build now, and HAVE to buy an OS (wink wink, nudge nudge, say no more), go for Vista 32. Otherwise you may have to wait a long time before playing the games you want.



Well as for non gaming drivers and hidden processes you will find out that Vista is the champion. It's like having a paranoid little man in your Pc, applying DRM schemes without asking, spawning processes to watch other processes and so on. There are plenty excellent articles about Vista's sins, just google "vista drm" and enjoy  

One thing is certain: you should definitely buy a console and stop worrying about everything else. You would be playing at this very moment man!

I hope everything goes well. Just don't get carried away with spending. You already are heavy on processor and mobo. Unless you really can afford it.   Cheers mate!

the thing about sli is that is wont work like that. the graphics in two years will be like an 8800gtx to 6600gs in sli the 8800 will still out preform the two 6600s

A basic law of the I.T. industry is Moore's law. It states that we advance by doubling processing power every 18 months (roughly) and that happens with lower prices. It has proved to be correct for the past twenty+ years. Unless we all drown in rising seas, it will continue to happen in the mid-term as all roadmaps and recent advances indicate. In two years, 2 SLI'd 8800GTXs will be like a single 8800GTS of today, or worse. Of course if you keep playing with todays games you will be fine  



You are on the right track. When you start building and installing software you will have an even larger field opened up before you. Keep searching...

Exactly!