Newbie, Building a Gaming Rig on a Budget

[stevenova]

Hi Guys How are you...

Been trough this site and saw that there are alot of experts on here, is it possible to help me out?

I have been going around checking on which CPU, Main Board, Memory and VGA Card are most compatible. The problem I have is that everyone is telling me different versions.
Can please someone tell me if this is good? (Just to tell you but I'm buying the parts from Scanmalta.com)

CPU: Intel Core2QUAD 6600 GO 2.40Ghz 1066Mhz FSB - S775 CPU
MB: Asus P5KC, iP35, S 775, PCI-E (x16), DDR2/DDR3 1066/1333/667/800, SATA II, ATX
Mem: 2Gb (2X1Gb) Corsair TwinX XMS2 Dominator PC8500 DDR2 Memory
VGA: 512MB Gigabyte PCI-Express GF 8800GTS TV/DVI VGA Card

I am still also concerned regarding the VGA if I get
512MB Gigabyte PCI-Express GF 8800GTS TV/DVI VGA Card
512MB Gainward GF 9600GT 700MHz PCI-E 2.0DVI-I/HDMI VGA
or is there something better? (excluding 9800GX2)

anyways I'm kinda confused.
Can someone give me some pointers please

Thanks in advance
Steve

 

[Kraynor]

I have that exact CPU and motherboard so I can confirm they're compatible. Also, that RAM is compatible too, but I'd suggest buying PC2-6400 since it's cheaper, and you don't really benefit from going over a 1:1 CPU:FSB ratio (Q6600 runs at 300 MHz, so really you're looking for ram at 600 MHz, PC2-4800, but 6400 is the most common and as such the cheapest... plus a little overhead makes it easier to get tight timings)

I really like Gainward's cards, especially their Gold Sample ones. I'd say go with either a gold sample 9600 GT (cheaper than the 8800 GTS even though it's essentially the same card), or wait for a gold sample of the 9800GTX.

Of course there are other manufacturers with overclocked cards too, Gainward is just the one I have the most experience with. One thing is true though - there are factory overclocked versions of the 9600GT so don't stick with the reference model when $10-20 more will get you a faster card with a better cooling system

 

[chookman]

You would be better off with a all DDR2 or all DDR3 board rather than a combo. Combo boards generally arent as stable, and limits your amount of RAM more. I would suggest the P5K-e (i have one) and its awesome.

As for the Video card, there is a big difference in a 8800GTS and a 9600GT... have you considered the 8800GT or the 9800GTX depending on your budget?

 

[dragonsprayer]

skip the c - use the p5k wifi or deluxe
or if ddr3 use the p5k3

c mobo has more issues

 

[stevenova]

hey guys thanks a lot for the advise.

 

[Demonic Goldfish]

I always thought 8800GTS 512 outperformed the GT?

Either way, you asked if there is anything better than the GTS: the 8800GTX and the 9800GTX are both more powerful, but, looking at benchmarks, the 8800GTX doesn't seem to outperform the GTS enough to warrant the extra £60+. Can't say I know enough about the 9800GTX to recommend it or warn you off it... Otherwise, your setup looks fine.

 

[doubletake33]

you said you're building on a budget. what is the budget max by the way? the asus P5K-E mobo is a great board and i have it as well and will cost around $140. also go with ddr2 800 mem as they are dirt cheap and if you use vista 64bit you can max at 8gigs of the stuff.

also, pending on the size/rez of your moniter and your expectations of gaming performance determins what GPU you will get!

 

[geofelt]

At the level of the E8400 or Q6600, the vga card is much more important for gaming than the cpu.
At that level, overclocking is good for bragging, but it will not net you as much increase
in FPS as a better vga card will. Today, very few games can make use of more than two cores.
Flight simulator X is an exception. It is not a trivial matter to code multi threaded programs,
and game vendors will not sell too many games that require quads to run.
I don't see this changing in the next couple of years, and then nehalem will be upon us.

Net: E8400 instead of the Q6600 for the increased clock speed.

I agree with chookman, combo boards are not a good deal, on a budget, ddr3 isn't either. A good P35 board will be cheaper, and perform just as well.

The 8800GTS-512-G92 is a good value gaming card. It has a superb cooler that ejects the hot vga air out the back of the case instead of recirculating it. If the new 9800GTX does not cost much more, it is a bit better.

You will not get any real increase in FPS with 8500 memory. For the same price you can get 4gb of DDR2-800 ram which would help your performance more.