Please help me spec a new system

[The Reverend]

Hi guys first post on the forums. Been reading here for a while and I admire hoe helpful people are on here

Been a few years since I built my last PC (4 years ago at uni), and I'm a bit out of touch with whats what these days although I have tried to do some research.

Anyway cut to the chase, I'm intending on buying a PC that will be future proof for a good 4-5 years hopefully (yeah right good luck I hear some of you say!!)

I'll be mainly using the PC for gaming, encoding, photo shop, and the intention of running multiple applications.

I also plan to dabble into over clocking, although I currently have no experience what-so-ever!

Thing is I would most like a motherboard which is going to last me a good few years and allow me the ability to upgrade it in time to come. Hopefully something that will run C2D for now and later down the line a Quad-Core.

I believe an Asus Striker Extreme will do this? So for the time being I'll be happy running just an E6300. I'm also not too fussed about getting a DX10 card for the moment as I just wont pay the amount they are asking for.

Everything else I need some assistance with e.g. what RAM and whatnot.

I guess my budget would be *around* £800. That won't be including any keyboards, monitor etc...

Any help and guidance would be fully appreciated.

Best regards,

-Sonna

(ps sorry to drag on!)

 

[stickroad]

Hows this?

CPU - Intel Core 2 DUO E6400 £149.21 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-127-IN

CPU Cooler + Heatink - Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 £16.44 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HS-017-AR

Motherboard - Asus P5B Deluxe (Socket 775) £123.36 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-150-AS

Memory - GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz £173.89 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MY-058-GL

Graphics Card - Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 £126.89 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-134-SP

Hard Drive - Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB £66.96 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=HD-078-SE

DVD/CD Drive - Sony AW-G170AB2 18x DVD±RW £19.96 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CD-054-SO

Case - Asus TA-212 Series Midi Tower £25.84 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-AS

Power Supply - Corsair HX 520W ATX2.2 Modular £70.49 inc VAT http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-005-CS

The case is personal preference, if you don't like the one i linked to just have a look around and then post it here and we will see if its ok for you, shouldent be any problems though

Total : £788.26

 

[snowdog]

Asus striker extreme is over-rated, the evga 680i will do the same job at a lower price, I'm making a spec now expect an edit within 15 minutes...
EDIT

Best i can do within budget and if you really want the nforce 680i chipset ( for upgradeability ) is this:

 

[Trusty]

This is what i'm suggesting, no system is gonna last you 4-5 years but what you can do is easily replace items. Eg Get a 680 mobo in 6 months if you wanna get a 8800 aswell. You just sell the mobo you have now. Anyway thats the way i look at it.


Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W Smart Power PSU
(£78.71)

HIS ATI Radeon X1950 Pro ICEQ 3 TURBO SILENT Heatpipe 256MB GDDR3
(£135.11)

Abit AW9D Intel 975X (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard
(£126.89)

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - OEM
(£209.14)

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 775)
(£16.44)

Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 250GB ST3250620AS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM
(£56.39)

GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC6400C4 800MHz Ultra Low Latency DDR2 Dual Channel Kit
(£173.89)

NEC AD5170 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM
(£19.96)

Sub Total :£694.92
Total:£828.22

The 6600 will serve you better for encoding thats why i used the money to pay for that by not including a 680 board!

 

[1337z0r]

Save your money buy a E6300 if your going to go quad core in time. Also best Budget card is X1950 series. No need for DX10 till around october time tbh. Not many games will use Dx10 till then .

 

[The Reverend]

Thank you very much for all your input. I shall sit down and study these suggestions closely. Though I'm almost certain that I shall go for the E6300 for the time being till Quad-Core gets cheaper. Also the ATI X1950 looks like it will suffice till DX10 becomes more widespread.

Cheers!,

-Sonna

 

[Trusty]

Only suggested the 6600 over the 6300 due to the 4mb cache. And if you do lots of video encoding you can certainly notice the difference between the 6300 and the 6600.