Need a little help on upgrading...

I'm upgrading my computer. I'm getting overwhelmed by the shear magnitude of decisions I need to make to purchase what I'll consider a fairly good system.


I've got an E8400 right now with a 8800 GTS running 4 GB of 1066 ram CLK 5 on a Gigabyte P35 motherboard. I've got no complaints about my system. It can handle everything that I throw at it.

Nevertheless, I own my company and we're updating computers....so I get to get a new computer.

Money isn't the ultimate factor, but I'm not going to throw thousands at this. I just want a really good computer for the money, like everyone else.

CPU - E8600 v. Q9650
Since I mainly want the horsepower for gaming, I'm very torn on whether to go to the E8600 or the Q9650. I'm having a hard time with this decision. I know the quad will be great for multithread apps, but honestly, I don't have any multi thread apps. I use Excel 07 at work. I noticed it would benefit from two more cores, but the games I play won't. So it's left me wondering a big what's the point. I can certainly be talked into it, but right now I'm thinking it's just a waste of money to buy the quad core even though I think it would be cool to have a quad core. So my thinking is that I should opt for the lower price E8600. But then...the other side of my brain says.....

Motherboard - MSI P45

If picking out a CPU was a problem, picking out a motherboard turned out to be an absolute nightmare. I really like my gigabyte board, but after reading some reviews here at Tom's, I'm leaning heavily towards the MSI P45 Diamond LGA 775 Intel P45 ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail. I'm really not that big of an MSI fan, never have been. I used to be an ASUS fan until about 3 ASUS motherboards died and I tried to return two of them...talk about customer service hell, but I digress....

I don't want to pay $ 400 for an ASUS board either. I think they are overpriced, one of the reasons I settled on the MSI as the choice. I could be talked out of it thought. Hopefully you guys will give me some input. The MSI board sells for $ 235 after rebate and apparently comes with some nifty oc features. I wish I could have gotten a Gigabyte board, but the reviews from Tom don't look to great there.

I've heard that I should go X48, but I can't seem to find an X48 board that supports DD3 1600, they all seem to support DDR2 1200...which leads to my next question....


RAM -- DDR3 1600 Corsair

Corsair really hooked me up while back when I had some bad ram, so I'm willing to pay the price premium for their product. My biggest question is this: can i get away with the CAS 9 latency ram or should I pay the double price permium for the CAS 7??? If I got the CAS 9, I could afford to get 8 gigs which would be nice. Any other brand mem recommendations out there that are sold by newegg?


HD -- WTF?

Clueless. I guess 10000 RPM would be good. SATA2.. After that, I have no idea which is the best anymore. 10 years ago WD sucked. 15 years ago Seagate sucked. Now maybe they both suck, I don't know.

VIDEO CARD -- Currently leaning to EVGA 896-P3-1264-A3 GeForce GTX 260 SSC Edition 896MB 448-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - Retail.

I could be talked out of this. This is another area where I may not be picking the best product for the price. I don't want to blow $ 600 bucks on a video card because what's the point. On the other hand, I want something damn good. I'm not going to run this in SLI mode.. I ain't buying two of them. But ya never know, I could change my mind. Anyway, I guess I'm looking for confirmation here from others.

Is this a good video card?


Finally...

PHYSICS ACCELERATION -

Is this worthwhile? Should I get it? If so, which card? Brand? It appears new egg only sells one card. Is this worth it? Should I go for it?


Thanks greatly for your input.

I figure if I get the E8600 I'm looking at:

$ 400 RAM for CLK9 8 GB
$ 260 CPU E8600
$ 240 MSI Motherboard
$ 150 For harddrive? hardrives?
$ 80 Soundcard?
$ 300 for video card.
$ 80 for power supply
-------
Obviously add $ 300 bucks for the Q9650 if I go that route.
Add another $ 300 if I'm convinced I gotta go "SLI"...



I also would like to overclock.


I'm really interested in other's thoughts. Please share.

With warm thanks,

GP