Need help with gaming pc build!

[Hatman]

Here's the thing. I'm on a budget of £800/$1600.

I'm trying to get the best gaming PC I possibly can, I've been looking into what gives a PC the best type of performance in a game.

So far I've been looking at:

OCZ 4GB Kit (2x2GB) DDR2 667MHz/PC2-5400 - 4gig in 2 ram slots is great, If I ever need more for vista or anything, which I may actually not, then I can add more. This kit can do all the over-clocking I want it to do as well.

Core 2 Quad Q6600 - Seems the most logical choice, even though I'm on a budget after the July price cuts it shouldn't be too much out of the way.

OCZ StealthXStream 600W PSU - More then enough power for what I'm buying and over clocking capability.

8800gts 320mb - w/e brand has the cheapest for sale. I wont be using it any any time with more than 1280x1024 resolution so I don't really need the 640meg version which costs roughly £50 more.

Motherboard - I CANT decide on this one. I've been looking at the XFX 680I LT edition because it seems to have everything even a SLI slot for an extra card if I ever need it. I honestly cant decide though.

Things like case and CPU cooling etc are quite cheap so I've decided on them already, Antec 900 case if anyone is interested.

But apart from that, none of that other stuff is for sure, it comes OVER my budget by about £100 if you include the July price cuts. Which is too much I honestly cant stretch over £800 that's pushing it right to the limit.


Any help would be GREATLY appreciated. I aren't worried too much about future proofing such as ddr3 etc, ddr2 seems easily capable for anything out or will be out in the future.

Thanks a lot guys.

 

[phassat]

Just an input for your memory choice... If you will only use Vista 32 bit, you won't need 4GB... unless you use Vista 64 bit which still have many incompatibility with many other software...

Vista 32bit will probably read your memory as 3GB something... so I don't think it's worthed and 2GB is the sweet spot without sacrifying much performance.

 

[Hatman]

I have vista 64bit installed on one of my computers and ill be using it on this one, must say I think the incompatibility is greatly used a reason why vista "sucks" and its nowhere near as bad as its made out to be.

Of over 50 programs only one hasn't worked.

So yeh, using vista 64 so 4gig ram is a must with that

And it also leaves the option to upgrade to 8gig of ram in the future. Now it may not need that, but whats the harm lol, im sure at some point new programs will benefit from it.

Vista might love it I havent seen any reports of people using 8gig on vista 64.

 

[phassat]

Does the 64-bit need more resource compared to 32-bit version?
What kind of programs you installed on vista-64? I want to use 64 bit but I don't have many luxury to make wrong choice if some programs won't work on Vista 64-bit... I mainly use Microsoft Office (sure this one will work), Adobe Photoshop, AVG, DivX, Skype, etc.... Will games work on vista-64 as well?

 

[Daredevil_8]

I haven't had any problems with 64-bit vs. 32-bit game compatibilities yet.

As for OP, I'd suggest 2gb ram now(maybe 3), upgrade later. 4gb is quite a bit, and unless you plan to do some serious visual editing or something of the sort, there's no reason for it. Will also probably save you a fair chunk of $.

I'd also look for a cheaper mobo that fits all your needs as best as possible (the P35 series is pretty attractive right now).

 

[Hatman]

Great motherboard is always necessary, although I am now looking at ones that support 2ddr2 slots and 4ddr3 slots.

Then I can still use 4gig of ram with that set-up, I personally find that 4gig of ram with vista 64 gives HUGE performance boost over 2gig.

Also I come to the conclusion that a SLI board isn't necessary.

 

[meatnub]

check the benchmarks for the g80's on vista 64. they underperform compared to xp. i poked around at anandtech i believe it was where i saw this.

 

[phassat]

Great motherboard is always necessary, although I am now looking at ones that support 2ddr2 slots and 4ddr3 slots.

Then I can still use 4gig of ram with that set-up, I personally find that 4gig of ram with vista 64 gives HUGE performance boost over 2gig.

Also I come to the conclusion that a SLI board isn't necessary.

If you don't want to SLI your GPU

 

[phassat]

check the benchmarks for the g80's on vista 64. they underperform compared to xp. i poked around at anandtech i believe it was where i saw this.

can you provide the link? Is it new or old news?

 

[Hatman]

I tink everything underperforms on vista64 at the moment. But the memory allowance will make up for it.