Help me with a new PC build, please.

[Hunders]

A friend of mine has asked me to build him a new PC as his A64 SD3700+ based system is getting on a bit now. He wants a nice new quad core based PC that will be mainly used for gaming.

I have made a little list of what I am thinking of getting but I need a little guidance on weather or not the parts that I have chosen are good and compatible with one another.

Here is what I am thinking:

Asus P5N-D nForce 750i SLi (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard --- £88.11

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 2.40GHz Guaranteed to run at 3.30GHZ (1466FSB) - Retail --- £187.99

Corsair 2GB DDR2 XMS2 DHX PC2-6400C4DHX TwinX (2x1GB) X2(Total 4GB) --- £82.22

Seasonic M12 Modular 700W Silent ATX2.0 Power Supply --- £103.39

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-Bit - OEM (66I-02059) --- £70.49

Postage --- £8.95

TOTAL = £542.72

He already has an Antec P180 tower, DVD drives and hard drives and, from what I hear, Nvidia are going to be releasing their new graphics cards next month so I have advised him to hold off for a while and carry on using his 8800GTS 320MB for the time being.

I have a few questions regarding a few of the above items, the first being about the processor. It says that this processor is guaranteed to overclock to 3.3GHz, is this going to be possible on an air cooler or does this only apply to the more extreme water/phase cooling solutions? Also, is the motherboard a capable overclocker and is the RAM any good?

If anyone wants to go over what I have chosen and suggest alternatives I should look into or anything else that you might suggest I would be grateful.

Cheers.

 

[Hunders]

Thanks for your input. He didn't state a total price that he is willing to pay but knowing him I would have a guess that it would be around the £600-£650 mark as this should get something quite suitable. Obviously if I can get him something that offers great performance for less then that would be better.

I will tell him about the dual vs quad core situation and could probably persuade him into settling for a dual if you are right in saying that a quad will offer no real benefits for gaming.

I didn't realise that I would need Vista 64bit in order the get the most out of 4GB so thanks for clearing that one up.

Cheers.

 

[Hunders]

Thanks.

Regarding the PSU; would the cables be long enough to reach everything in an Antec P180, especially the 4-pin wire that goes near the CPU. If you didn't know, the PSU area in a P180 is at the bottom in its own chamber so the cables need to run along the bottom then up through a hole into the mobo chamber so the cables need to be longer than for most other, normal, tower cases.

 

[Hunders]

That budget doesn't include the Graphics card

 

[Hunders]

swap your MR2 for a 8800GTS?

Oh you don't want an MR2. Its a hairdressers ditch finder don't ya know!