New PC Help

[Dreamor]

Howdy all, got a request for help (Kryt? )

I'm after a new PC but not overly clued up on the current market, I've done some research and see the E8400's are doing very well but I'm interested in trying a Q6600. I've seen a number of good reviews for the 4870's being comparable to 9800's, but cheaper. As I say, I see all these great reviews for some parts but am stuck for ideas on RAM and Mobo... so more help here would be great.

My budget is likely to be about £500. I've a Case sorted already (P182) and the drives are not a problem. The only thing I am worried about is possibly the PSU being a little under the bar. So CPU / GPU / RAM and Motherboard.

Usage is going to be purely a Gaming rig, the old components being pushed into a storage box / NAS.

Current Setup:
AMD Athlon 64 X2 4600+ socket 939 Dual Core 2.4Ghz
2 GIG Mushkin Redline
ASUS A8R32-MVP Deluxe
Antec NeoPower 500W Modular PSU
ATI Radeon X1950
Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi

So any help or advice would be greatly appreciated, I'm moving house right now so its going to be Tuesday before I will be able to check for replys.

Thanks in advance!

[Kryten]

It's a half-half divide for me currently. There's not much life left in the current Core2Duo setup physically with a new socket on the way very soon.
That means there won't be a whole lot to gain from stepping up to a P45 chipset, so it may well be worth saving some money and sticking with a trustable P35.
To echo previous recommendations, the Asus P5K-E series and Gigabyte P35-DS3 are still cracking performers, Abit fans quite like the IP35 too. All are good motherboards, lovely performing and very reliable.
If you do decide to step up to the P45 chipset (the newer one) then the Asus P5Q series or the Gigabyte P45-DS3R, both direct replacements for the first two are again quick and reliable.

Processors: it's just that quad core vs dual core thing again. Both are not going to dissapoint, the Q6600 is around £100 notes and the 8400 another tenner. I'm going to go back on my original thoughts now we're at this late stage and suggest that if you're pretty much just gaming the e8400 is the way to go. I've been saying the Quad core chips will make a lot of people nice and futureproof but despite how long we've had them around now there's still a shortage of programmers making full use of them.
But of course if you're swapping between multiple programs, using Photoshop, video editing or using Virtual Machines, the Q6600 will be the better buy.

Video card : you're not wrong, the ATI 4870 is the way to go as a single card. Cracking price, great performance, makes mince out of the Geforce 9800 series and the drivers, oddly, work rather well.

Power supply : You might just get away with that Antec 500w, it's going to be a tough call depending on how many drives you'll be running, but if all else fails have a look at the Corsair 620w units, manufactured by Seasonic and very cheap to boot.

[Helme]

I would personally go for an E8400 because it's higher clock and runs games better(and slightly cheaper), sure you can bring the Q6600 up to the E8400 but then you also forget that you can bring the E8400 up to 4GHz or so, which is not as easy on the Q6600.

Regarding mobo, yeah it might be a good idea to save some money on those - still I would personally get an Asus P5Q just because I've had alot of friends who had major problems with the P5K cards, that and the fact that for a more futureproof system it might be worth picking up an P5Q-Pro, for Crossfire support in the future.

Graphic cards, ATi is the way to go here without a doubt - either 2x4850 or 1x4870, you will have insane performance for what you pay regardless.

Regarding PSU, I think you'll be fine personally, E8400+mobo is around maybe 120-150W and the HD4870 did 250W or so during full load, drives dont add that much so you should be within the 80% or so normal border(I've seen this system run flawlessly on an Corsair 450W).

[Dreamor]

Just had chance to check the post, thanks for the help guys. I'll let you know what I end up going with, but most likely get a E8400 - I'm still not 100% sold on Quad Cores (and I've a seperate machine for CAD work)

Cheers for the PSU ideas as well, I'll stick with it. Its likely to only have 1 drive in it to start with anyway.