£850 Gaming Build

[MikeScrivens]

Motherboard: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-280-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1782

RAM: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-041-PA&groupid=701&catid=8&subcat=1517

Cooler: http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-072-AK

Total approx £195, cooler seems to be out of stock though at the mo :\

I'd throw in some thermal compound too for about a fiver, something like arctic silver 5 or MX-3/4 unless you have some already.

Thermal compound???

 

[Clarkson]

The stuff you apply to the CPU before you fit the heatsink/fan. Don't forget to do that

Some coolers come with a pre-applied pad but its often not as good as the leading thermal pastes.

 

[MikeScrivens]

Ah right, I've never applied it.

How about this cooler? It comes with some compound, too.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-001-CS&groupid=701&catid=57&subcat=1395

 

[MikeScrivens]

How's this lads?

 

[stulid]

thats spot on.

 

[TomElZ]

What are the main benefits of having a Sound Card over Onboard?

Are there really any?

 

[Jony27]

well it depends on how good your speakers/headsets are

 

[MikeScrivens]

I'd really like to know the answer to this.

If I have a 5.1 speaker system, will an onboard sound card translate that properly?

 

[stulid]

this is the sound chip of that Asus board- http://www.via.com.tw/en/products/audio/codecs/vt1818s/index.jsp

 

[MikeScrivens]

It looks like it supports some form of surround sound so I can't really go wrong here.

If it's cack after a month, I'll get a new one when in November!

Thank you all so much for your help. I definitely wouldn't have gone for a quad core or an SSD without your compelling reasoning . I'm now confident in what I'm buying, thanks to you lot!