hi everyone,

 i've been away for quite a while now, spending more and more time playing games on my wii and 360 than my PC, but i feel the time has come for an upgrade, and im going to catch up with some i've missed over the past year or so.

 basically im going to overhaul pretty much everything. i am going to keep the asus case, (because it looks awesome, and cost me 50 quid!), keeping the nexus fans, the optical drives, maybe the hard drives, the power supply, and then just the mouse and speakers.

 i've just bought the saitek eclipse 2, because my old keyboard is annoying me, but i wont be upgrading until the end of may/beginning of june (i have exams in a few weeks, and i need a working PC!).

 i've had a look at some bits, but because i've been out of the loop for a while, im not sure whether they are the best thing i can get for my money. i'm loking to spend no more than £500 GBP really, but im sure if necessary i can spend a bit more (i might splash out on a new 19" widescreen monitor too).

this is what i've seen so far, and it looks good for the money, but i just want to hear what you guys think:

- Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

- Asus Maximus Formula Intel X38 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

- Crucial Ballistix 2GB (2x1GB) DDR2 PC2-8500C5 1066MHz Dual Channel Kit (BL2KIT12864AA1065) (two of these, so 4GB)

- BFG GeForce 8800 GT OC 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

i can get these for ~£500 GBP (the CPU, motherboard, and 2GB of ram can be had in a bundle for £330 GBP), and then i would sell my old stuff on ebay, or to a friend, hopefully get around £200-£250 GBP

so like i said, any thoughts would be appriciated!

cheers, sam

You're on the right track IMO!!!

The only thind I'd change is the CPU.  You should think about going with a Q9450 or Q9300.  They'll be a little more money, but will offer better performance and should overclock better too.

For the graphics card, go with this instead.  It's on sale right now for even cheaper than the one you're looking at, and is clocked higher.  10 year warrenty too. 

if you want to pay alittle extra ill go with a 8800 gts 512 and q9450 if overclocking 

the 8800 GTS 512 is only a little bit more than the 8800 GT OC 512 i'd been looking at ... whats the difference? is it worth the extra? .... also, im a bit concerned about the length of these 8800 boards .... do they fit in a normal full size ATX case?

 and one more thing ... i have 32bit vista home premium, is having 4 GB of ram going to be a problem?

EDIT: is this any good?

That link is to an 8800GTS 640mb.  Despite more memory, it is a slower card than both the GTS 512mb and the GT 512mb.  The GTS 512mb uses a newer core.

I would say go with the link I directed you to in my previous post, or go with the cheapest GTS 512mb - here.  I'd say it's worth the slight price difference. 

The 8800GTS 640mb you linked isn't much slower than the other cards.  It's maybe 10% slower than a GT, and for the price offered on that site it's a good bargain.  If you want to save the money, it's not a bad idea.  Just understand that you will be getting slightly less performance, and make sure you trust the company and their warrenty.

It's all up to your budget for what to buy, but of the three cards the highest priced provides the highest performance.

4GB of memory is fine with 32-bit.  You just won't have access to it all.  Depending on your video memory size you'll have access to around 3-3.5gb of it. 

right, i went ahead, and bought all the components today ... i was bored, and couldn't wait! i got the Q6600 bundle, with the asus maximus mobo, and 4GB of the crucial (? i cant remember! ) RAM and the PNY 8800 GTS 512

 it all came to a few pence over £500 GBP, and should be here tomorrow! im probably going to regret this, but i think i'll build it tomorrow! fingers crossed nothing goes wrong!

 thanks for the help guys, you've been very helpful as usual

sam

Cool.  Let us know how it goes.  And throw some benchmarks our way, if just to satisfy curiosity. 

right, i have a couple of questions for you guys, at least one of which is probably ridiculously stupid of me!

first things first, now that i have an intel processor, (for the first time ever) do i need to use the 8 pin power connector as well as the 24, or the 4 pin (like i used to) and the 24 pin power connector?

secondly .... i have no sound with my motherboard's 'supremeFX II' soundcard which came with it, any clues? i've tried all the obvious things

thirdly ... and you might think im mad when i say this, but everytime i click on the start button, and/or move the start menu scroll-bar up or down, i hear a clickng noise comming from inside the case. if i do this repeatedly, the pc reboots! ... what the hell is going on?!

any ideas guys? i'm kinda regretting putting this all together right now, its a bit of an inconvienient time!

cheers

 If there a socket for a power plug, plug it in...lol... Did you install the drivers for it?

I bet you connected some thing wrong on the mobo, if its clicking and rebooting. 

right, every possible plug is plugged in!

 i have taken out the 8800gts, and popped my x1950xt back in, and the clicking has stopped, and its no longer rebooting, etc ...

the problem is now, im not sure if its the graphics card, or the power supply. the PSU is only a few months old, and is 580W (link). is this likely to be the problem? an under rated hiper PSU, or is the 8800gts possibly bad?

would this PSU be more appropriate? link

any ideas/opinions?

cheers

EDIT: benchmarks with the x1950xt are now about 6600, so a decent improvement even without the new gfx card ... but oviously i want the 8800gts in there working!