Hi all, I'm having a third go at my first new comp in about 6 years. The thing I'm pretty much clueless about is the mobo, but I'd appreciate any advice about the other parts too. Wasn't sure whether to get

I basically want it mainly for gaming, to last as a reasonable comp for a couple of years perhaps - so i'm aiming for it to run anything (i.e Crysis on V. High) available now, and Fallout 3 .

Ideally I wanted to keep it under AU$1000 (US$950), but it's blown out a bit, it's not a hard limit.

Here's what I have (without prices).

CPU: E8400
MB: ??? (was thinking an Asus P5E-X38)
GFX: Radeon 4850
HDD: Seagate SATAII 320Gb
RAM: ??? (4Gb of DDR2 800, any recommendations?)
Case: Thermaltake Xaser III (already bought)
Mon: 22" WS 2ms, any recommendations? Was thinking of a Viewsonic VX2235WM.
Opt: Acer DVD-RW

Any help would be appreciated!

Argh - sorry, forgot the PSU and the forum won't let me edit:

PSU: Earthwatts 380W (would I need to go up to 430/500W?)

*bump!*

nothing will ever probably run crysis, i dont see the big deal about the game I played it and thought it was awful. Anyways..

8400 is good but if you need it for more than 2 yrs you may want to check out a quad like q9300 or 9450.

whatever your max resolution for your monitor you get will determine the gfx card you need, but the 4850 should be good and you can always get another to CF.

The HD you may change for a WD 640GB they're pretty good on performance and realtively cheap.

For PSU i wouldnt go cheap it keeps all your components alive, get atleast a 550w if you ever upgrade to dual 4850s or others.

^+1. Consider a Quad esp. if you plan to do video editing and things like that.

Get a bigger PSU like at least a Corsair 450VX or even better a PP&C 610. As for RAM, just get some good DDR2 800 from Corsair, OCZ, Patriot,etc.

For motherboard go with a P45(Gigabyte or ASUS), which is usually better than X38.

I recommend the EP45-DS3L( I realize you aren't US, but see the specs/pics there):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6813128345

Also if planing to OC, get a XIGMATEK S1283.

+1 @Shadow. You'll want a beefier PSU.

Thanks for the help guys, this is what the build is now shaping up as:

E8400
Radeon 4850
P45-DS3L
4Gb OCZ DDR2 800
WD 640Gb HDD
22" 2ms WS VX2235WM
Antec Earthwatts 650W PSU
Acer DVD-RW Drive

All for $2 less than my old plan

Just a quick question though...with that P45, will I be able to throw a Nehalem in at some point? I seem to remember hearing that the X38/48s were more futureproof :S.

Nehalem is alot bigger than current Intel CPUs, it won't fit in current sockets.

ahhh, I had hoped that wasn't the case >_<. well in that case, I suppose my next upgrade (probably late next year) would be a Nehalem and an appropriate motherboard , so the one I'm buying now wouldn't have to be upgrade-proof - just cheap, fast and with CF capability - would the P45-DS3L still be the best man for the job?

P45-DS3L doesn't have CrossFire as it only has one x16 PCIe. You will need the P45-DS3R if you want to CrossFire.

P45-DS3R: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product [...] uctID=2842

P45-DS3L: http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Product [...] uctID=2844