[cheesepuff]

lol. im 14, built my 1st when i was 12. i got my own ebay busyness so thats how i get my money. age 12-14 FTW!!!

[alex]

Can I disagree with all of you? That build isn't balanced and throws money down the loo in places.

Sorry, but, you know.

The psu is vastly too powerful, and it's in a standard sized ATX case meaning the heatsinks are crammed in there, also meaning it'll run very hot (only got a 120mm fan) as the airflow will be blocked by the aforementioned heatsinks from exiting the case.

The graphics card is wasted unless you're gaming at 1920x1200.

The cpu whilst not crap, doesn't bench as highly as an E6750 nevermind an E6850. (AMD targeted the cpu at the E6750 by the way that should tell you all something). The larger cache in the Intel's will help with other applications aside from gaming.

I'm not convinced the Xram on the soundcard is worth the money. I don't know of any movies or games coded for 7.1.

The ram can be found a lot cheaper.

The Harddrive doesn't have fast read times, it has fast seek times (due to the 10k spindle speed). It's, now, not the best gamers hdd.

That optical drive is terrible, and also vastly overpriced.

That hsf is....and I've never done this on this forum....absolutely shite.

No, it's not a good build (no reflection on you Craig) you can do much better.

What resolution are you going to be gaming at?

[cheesepuff]

Originally Posted by alex

Can I disagree with all of you? That build isn't balanced and throws money down the loo in places.

Sorry, but, you know.

The psu is vastly too powerful, and it's in a standard sized ATX case meaning the heatsinks are crammed in there, also meaning it'll run very hot (only got a 120mm fan) as the airflow will be blocked by the aforementioned heatsinks from exiting the case.

The graphics card is wasted unless you're gaming at 1920x1200.

The cpu whilst not crap, doesn't bench as highly as an E6750 nevermind an E6850. (AMD targeted the cpu at the E6750 by the way that should tell you all something). The larger cache in the Intel's will help with other applications aside from gaming.

I'm not convinced the Xram on the soundcard is worth the money. I don't know of any movies or games coded for 7.1.

The ram can be found a lot cheaper.

The Harddrive doesn't have fast read times, it has fast seek times (due to the 10k spindle speed). It's, now, not the best gamers hdd.

That optical drive is terrible, and also vastly overpriced.

That hsf is....and I've never done this on this forum....absolutely shite.

No, it's not a good build (no reflection on you Craig) you can do much better.

What resolution are you going to be gaming at?

^^^totally agree with you there. but the X RAM is only used in a few games, but they are very popular such as BF2. and there are plenty of games that i play which use 7.1. AMD is not as good as Core 2 Duos when overclocked, but everything alex said is ha huge hit on the head. good show alex.

[Insomnia]

Hmm, I didn't really think about that. The 8800 Ultra is essentially just an 8800GTX that has been overclocked, and at the price they stick on it I don't think it's a good buy. You would be better getting the 8800GTX (like 80 pounds cheaper?) and then just overclocking manually.

Or you could just wait for Nvidia to release the 8900, 8950GX2 and 9800, which would definitely make the prices of the 8800 fall. The 9800 is due out later this month, so...

[cheesepuff]

or get an 8800GT. same performance for a GTX only $200 less!

[alex]

That build comes close to £1100 (not including the mouse, keyboard, case or hdd as the hdd link is another pic of the case).

You could get a seriously good build for that kind of money.

Not taking the case, keyboard or mouse into account as they're more personal preference than anything and quoting a build aimed around gaming on a 20-22" screen (1680x1050), I'd recommend this:

Cpu

Mobo

Ram

This gpu (I'm with Cheesepuff on this. This card model is a serious contender for 'steal of the year'). Although I reckon it will struggle at a higher resolution, not because of the amount of ram, although that might have a bearing in DX10 titles, but rather in the memory bandwidth; 256bit, at that speed, isn't enough at a 1920x1200 resolution.

Again, I'm not convinced re the xram on the soundcard, but that's just my opinion. I can see the attraction in other attributes of the card though, so we'll leave that in.

awesome hdd

Optical

psu porn

hsf

All told these components come to £540. Add in the cost of the soundcard and you've got £660. And this is including the hard drive which I didn't take into account in the cost of your original build. All told approximately a saving of £440 (A lot more if you take into account the hdd). Not saying you need to save money but why throw money away? That would just be silly.

If you're gaming at a higher resolution (as 24" 1920x1200 screens are now becoming cheaper and therefore more attainable) the only thing I would change is the gpu. I'd then be looking at a 640mb 8800GTS or 8800GTX. Stay away from the ultra. It's a big waste of money considering the cost over a 8800GTX for the performance boost you get.