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Whilst I'd overclock my toaster if I could, I would not use water cooling

Quite fancy an E8400, but they are difficult to find. E6750 or Q6600 also seem good VFM and overclokable.

8800GT 512MB seems good, bit faster than the new 9600GT. This would of course be overclocked as well.

Can't decide between a single 500GB SATA II, 2 x 250GB in RAID0, or one or two Raptors.

RAM is difficult to decide. Using a P5K I could use cheap/overclockable DDR2, but using XP there seems little point in going over 2GB, 64 bit versions I gather of XP or Vista are not good for games/drivers have to be signed by Microsoft etc. XP OEM would be fine, need to buy a new copy as I believe I can't migrate my existing OEM genuine version to a new motherboard.

It seems that the vast majority of new PCs are now 2GB but running on 32 bit OS... how will this pan out do you think?

I have Vista on my dual core laptop but with only 1GB, and it is obviously slower decompressing/copying files. It seems pointless eye candy.

Budget doesn't matter as much as getting good VFM, I know nothing is future proof.

Suggestions around the above?

 

I would still go with a Q6600 if I was buying again as it has a 266 FSB so to overclock it to 3Ghz you simply up the FSB to 333. No increase in core voltage required & your mobo & ram are happy running at that speed.
The new cpus start with an FSB of 333 so you have to push your mobo & ram a fair bit to get a decent increase.
I know it will go a fair bit faster but it seems pointless at the moment.

Pick one with a decent cooler though.
To be honest, the 8800GTS 512MB are only a few quid more now & have a far better cooling solution.

I initially got 2Gb but then got another 2Gb as it is so unbelievable cheap.
My copy of XP Pro OEM detects 3.25Gb and AFAIK stuff like Photoshop will make use of the extra RAM.

I have changed mobos several times, plus all the other bits and have never had a problem activating my OEM copy although I sometimes have had to do it through the automated phone line activation.
Try before you buy!

 

I sincerely doubt a 32-bit addressing operating system will use any more than 2.5Gb regardless of what its telling you !!

 

I've ordered:

2GB Crucial Ballistix (overclocks to 1.13 GHz) £49
E8400 Retail (last one from Ebuyer) £128
8800GT-512MB £130
Asus P5K £70
Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU £43
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro £17
Hiper 120mm case Fan £6

Total £443 inc deliv & VAT - seems like a bargain, didn't want to spend too much.

I'll use my old 7200RPM IDE HDD, if it seems slow I'll get a RAID0 setup. Will also use my old DVD writer. Will try my XP Home OEM.

My old 19" 1280x1024 CRT monitor should link through the supplied DVI-VGA converter. Otherwise the Iiyama ProLite B2403WS (1920x1200) could be a good 24" widescreen at £299.

I wonder how far it will overclock ?

 

nice specs John, but your 19" monitor will be holding you back in games.

Go on, you know you want the 24"

 

Spec is slipping upwards - the P5K doesn't do RAID with two internal drives, so I'm returning it to get the P5K-E. My old IDE hard drive has a transfer rate about half that of a 500GB Spinpoint, so I've ordered two of those for a RAID0 array - should do 180MB/s on the outer bits of the platter.

I think the 19" CRT will likely move aside soon as well

Whilst I would like 1920*1200 24" for desktop use, I don't think an 8800GT would be up to that resolution for the best games and I gather they look rubbish if you don't use native resolution on an LCD. I'm not going higher on the graphics, so what monitor would you get?

 

2GB Crucial Ballistix (overclocks to 1.13 GHz) £49
E8400 Retail (last one from Ebuyer) £128
8800GT-512MB £130
Asus P5K-E £94
Coolermaster Elite 330 Black Case With CM eXtreme Power 460W PSU £43
Arctic Freezer 7 Pro £17
Hiper 120mm case Fan £6
Spinpoint 500GBx2 £114

Total £581

I still think that is a good price for this spec.