Hi guys, I have my pre build list here, planning to buy of Friday. The price is racking up, however, - currently at £1,480 (£1510 with delivery) - all purchased from overclockers.co.uk (i'm in England).
I was just wondering if anyone thinks this is a bit over the top or could suggest any cost cutting tips? here is the build:


Corsair TX 750W ATX2.2 SLI Compliant PSU - £76
Logitech Cordless Desktop MX 3200 Laser (967688-0120) - £57
Sapphire ATI Radeon HD 4870 512MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail - £199
Intel Core 2 Quad Q9550 LGA775 'Yorkfield' 2.83GHz 12MB-cache (1333FSB) Processor - Retail - £217
2 X Samsung SM-2253LW Aqua 21.6" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Glossy Black - £340
Gigabyte GA-X48-DS4 Intel X48 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard - £146
Akasa AK-TK-01 Cable Tidy Kit - £5
Western Digital Caviar Blue 640GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (WD6400AAKS) - £52
Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) - £70
Creative Inspire T6100 5.1 Speakers - OEM (51MF4085AA002) - £36
Antec Twelve Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case - £105
2 X G.Skill 4GB DDR2 PK PC2-8500C5 (2x2GB) CAS5 Dual Channel Kit (F2-8500CL5D-4GBPK) - £152 (8 gig total)
Asus DRW-2014L1T 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe ReWriter (Black/Silver) - Retail - £22


I need teh dual monitors, and want the 8 gig of RAM to keep the thing smooth. Also the CPU is cheap and i heard good for overclocking. The main thing I was thinking was teh MOBO and RAM. I don't know if i'll crossfire - may well do in the future, but i don't play crisis - only TF2 and some flight sim and RTS games....Spore...etc.
So can you guys see anything? My budget is f£1500 so please play around.

Many thanks in advance for the useful info - cheers lads

Well Skimping on the Mobo and Ram....you might be sorry. Pay attention to all the extras you have.

Do you need the cable tidy kit.....could you do it cheaper with zip ties?

Can you get a wired Keyboard and Mouse?

5.1 Speakers are nice.....but necessary?

You could start with 4 gigs of ram.....and if you arnt happy...then buy the other 4 gigs. I run 4 gigs with Vista 64...and it is smooth as Ice.

If you Crossfire...is that PSU crossfire certified?

Cheers,

-PM

I agree with ParticleMan on everything. Try those cuts before anything else.

The 750W Corsair is perfect, keep it.

Save 40 GBP (or more, if overclockers doesn't give free delivery for the case) with this CM690 case:
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/131551

Only if absolutely necessary: save some money with Asus P5Q Pro. It will still allow Crossfire, just falling down to 8x+8x instead of 16x+16x. It won't hurt much on a 21.6" monitor. It does hurt on 24" monitors or larger (i.e. at 1920x1200 or more).

build looks great. agree with comments above. also agree with that AEVM's last comment on the mobo change should only be if absolutely necessary. x48 is a great mobo especially if later you pull the trigger on crossfire.

my .02 on 5.1. I wouldn't get 5.1 unless you are willing to spend some good money on good speakers. most of the cheap 5.1 systems just don't sound that good and don't give hardly any wattage to the satellites. which means you have to keep the volume pretty low for good sound. in fact the one you chose has about 8 watts per satellite and 26 for the sub. Maybe you get a cheaper 2.1 for now if you want to cut costs and then when you have a litte more $ upgrade to a better 5.1?

cordless bundle on mouse and keyboard. pretty sure those just use AAs. will eat through them pretty good. could save a little by going corded for now. then when you can afford cordless go with the g7 mouse from logitech. it is awesome and comes with 2 lithium batteries and separate charger so one is charging while the other is in use. also has great response, i would put it up against corded mouse for gaming.

DDR2 1066 RAM is probably unnecessary even if you're going to do some OCing. Unless you're going crazy on the OC, DDR2 800 is perfectly fine.

And if you're trying to save money, getting a £100 case isn't exactly frugal. If you really like the Antec 1200, look into the Antec 900 (it'll probably be about half the price).

I agree with Wanker97...the Antec 900 should be all you need. I recently purchased the 900 and it great.

Yeah, Antec 900 is a very good case. I like the switches that turn the fans down when not gaming - very smart idea IMO. I just don't like the blue lights, but if you do it's perfect.

Get good quality DDR2-800 and oc it yourself to 1066 if needed. I like Mushkin, because most of it will run at stock on 1.8v.
You could probably drop back to a 4850 for now, then add a second one later if you actually need it. Since you aren't playing Crysis, you probably won't notice the difference, but your wallet will.
I'm the wrong guy to ask about speakers, but I'd think that 2.1 and/or some decent headphones would cost less and sound as good or better.

If you must buy now ParticleMan has some good suggestions. I would suggest putting off this purchase until early winter. Intel is release a new CPU core i7 that requires a very different motherboard. Point is your motherboard and ram will soon be outdated and none upgradeable.

pick the Q9450 instead of the Q9550 the Q9450 is about £200+ where as the Q9550 is £300+

Only problem I see with the 9450 is the multiplier. As the OP stated interest in overclocking I would recommend the 9550 with the higher multiplier 8.5 vs 8.0. That means at 400mhz ddr2 = 3.4ghz instead of 3.2ghz with 9450. Makes a difference if you're looking for max overclock.

I would suggest waiting, especially with the new socket type from intel.

But if you keep waiting..nothing will happen lol!!!

The cheapest Nehalem is supposed to cost about $284 in the USA, but UK prices seem to be higher in general. It will also require DDR3, which is still rather expensive. Nothing wrong with waiting, if you don't need the PC right now, but it would stink if you wait and then realize you can't afford the new parts when they're out. On the bright side, if you wait you usually get larger hard disks for the same money.

LOL - you seem to have picked every thing high end and then ask where you can save. The answer is everywhere - except the graphics card for performance - the only question is your personal preferences. And you have not stated your uses - which make any kind of reasonable response difficult.
The case will have the least impact on performance - but if you prefer it OK.
I doubt the 8 gigs of memory is required even with 2 monitors for smooth performance - but you say you want it OK.
A slower CPU will more than handle your graphics card and probably a second later.
As others have said you can get cheaper speakers and mobo. And I expect you should be able to find a less expense DVD too.

I am using 2 monitors and my system sees 3.25 GB of RAM when I'm in XP. Yeah, 4 GB should be enough. He can always add more if needed.