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Please Help :)

Haha :D Your probably right mate, im going to head to bed now. I can not describe how much i appreciate the commments and advice given in this past hour or so, thank you very much.
 
Hehe, blooming university students - can trust any of em :D

That XFX card is a great choice, and the warranty is rather nice. However, if you are able to wait I would suggest looking for the ASUS version as it uses "Voltage Tweak Technology". It sounds a bit silly, but it allows you to easily overclock your graphics card and keep it within the 3 year ASUS warranty, rather nice deal IMHO.

As for factory overclocked cards, all the cards I see available on OCUK seem to be running at the same speed - so there isn't an option for factory overclocked cards yet. The 5850 is fast enough already, but if a factory overclocked version turns up, I would wait for a review and see if the extra performance is worth the (inevitable) higher asking price.
 
Oh before i go if i do buy this motherboard now as someone mentioned.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-341-AS&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1155

Do i need to replace any ram or anything? Also will this fit onto it.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-008-TI

Nite Nite

Your 4GB of DDR2 will work fine with that board, however the configuration and speed will play a part in how far you can overclock the CPU. What is your current ram brand and model?

The titan fenrir will definitely fit in that motherboard, but depending on the case you put the system in - you may have troubles. If it is going in the 1200 you mentioned before then you will absolutely no problems.

If you plan to put the Corsair H50 liquid cooler in the system later on, I suggest you just buy it now. It is actually very easy to install (have a look here) and cools much better and is much quieter than the titan fenrir cooler.
 
Hehe, blooming university students - can trust any of em :D

That XFX card is a great choice, and the warranty is rather nice. However, if you are able to wait I would suggest looking for the ASUS version as it uses "Voltage Tweak Technology". It sounds a bit silly, but it allows you to easily overclock your graphics card and keep it within the 3 year ASUS warranty, rather nice deal IMHO.

As for factory overclocked cards, all the cards I see available on OCUK seem to be running at the same speed - so there isn't an option for factory overclocked cards yet. The 5850 is fast enough already, but if a factory overclocked version turns up, I would wait for a review and see if the extra performance is worth the (inevitable) higher asking price.

By the way, ALL current 5850s are able to use the voltage tweak features. Not necessarily Asus's own "Voltage Tweak" software, but they all contain the necessary chip.

Rivatuner should be updated to allow voltage adjustment on all 5870s and 5850s, so to buy the Asus one for that sole purpose isn't that great value.

Although, you do mention the extra Asus warranty, and if the Asus 5870 is anything to go by, the extra 2 years is definitely worth the extra £10.
 
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I believe that at your resolution the 5870 is approx 15-20% faster than the 5850, but is 50% more expensive.

When you consider that the 5850 would give you brilliant performance in all current games, the 5870 is a bit tough to justify IMHO. Also, consider how big the 5870 is, it is 10.5 Inches long, which is actually too big for many cases to handle. The 5850 is a much more manageable 9.5 inches.

@kylew: Aye, I realise all 5850s can do exactly the same thing as the ASUS one, but by being covered by the warranty while using their software is something unique to ASUS, as far as I know - hence my recommendation. I'm sure the chance of frying it is very low, but it is nice to have the peace of mind that ASUS will back you up should something go wrong. And as you say, an extra year on the warranty compared to the competitors is worth the premium.
 
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