Advice/help needed on new system (rate)

[perilion]

Hey, iv had a good look around a few posts and reviews on this site and in certain magazines, and i came up with this build.

Case
Antec 1200

MOBO
MSI P45 Platinum

Graphics card
BFG GeForce 260GTX OCX (or OC2)

Power supply
Antec Signature Series 650W PSU

CPU
Intel Core 2 Duo E8600 3.33GHz (possibility for minor overclocking as a first time tryout, also Quads being worse for gaming (or so i read) i went with dual core)

Operating System
Windows Vista Home Premium 64-bit

RAM
2x2GB 800MHz DDR2 (not sure which brand or anything, so a sugestion could be good)

Hard Drive
500GB 7200rpm 32MB cache (again not 100% sure which ones to buy as there are so many)

A few pieces (mainly the RAM and HDD) i was unsure about due to the sugestions not found on english sites when i checked.

www.cclonline.com
www.ebuyer.com

are sites that i use so if they are on there and you recomend them, i would be greatful for the help

if there is anything i have missed or need changing you think feel free to critisise, iv never build a system so this is new to me (but i have knowledge and have upgraded/swapped parts many times).

I would like a system for gaming, new games not looking for the highest settings but decent quality at decent frame rates. Crysis on high(ish) at 1440x900.

Thanks in advance for reading/helping!

 

[ilovebarny]

Great system. Really like the cpu. couple suggestions, if you are going to get a GTX 260 you must get the GTX 260 core 216. thats the only one that can compete with ati's 4870. for ram OCZ, Corsair,Mushkin,G.skill, are some good brands. for a hard drive Seagate, and Western Digital are the two best bets.

 

[ilovebarny]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128358
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131299
those are some good mobos.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820227199
good ram.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148274
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822148335
couple of good hard drives.


and these are better graphics cards.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=40000048%201369844342&Description=GTX%20260&name=216%20processing%20cores

but with an intel board(which is crossfire-able you should probably get one of these: http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=1067940678&Description=4870&name=Radeon%20HD%204870
the 4870 performs just as good as the GTX 260 core 216.

 

[perilion]

Right, well first off thanks for the advice

iv had a look at some comparison tests and the difference between the 260GTX and the 4870 is almost none existant. so i was now thinking of going Cross fire with x2 4870 but, iv always been an nvidia man. i dont know many good ATi card makes, or a good crossfire mobo.

i looked at some and the:
P5Q deluxe

and the P5Q pro seems a small price for a better board but how much better is it? im unsure atm which would be best.

 

[ilovebarny]

the p5q deluxe has 3 PCI x16 slots(3-way crossfire-able) and the p5q pro only has two x16 slots. i would probably stick with the cheaper one, as they should perform the same. good brands for ati cards include: VisionTech, Sapphire, and some of the MSI's. you basically want a dual slot cooler with the 4870, as they run a little hot. this one has good reviews: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814129113



No Problem. Glad to help.

 

[perilion]

Due to that one you linked aving an HDMI port it cost a lot more. i went for a 1GB none OCed version had great reviews playing crysis at very high with AA etc. so having 2 of them should work out well. thanks for your help! im glad i posted on here.

Per