Spec help please? Around £800

[TheCenturion]

Right, I've got about £800 to spend, and so far this is what I have come up with:

Intel Core i7 920 D0 Stepping (SLBEJ) 2.66Ghz (Nehalem) (Socket LGA1366) - OEM + Battlefield 2 Bundle
Asus P6T Intel X58 (Socket 1366) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard
OcUK Value GeForce GTX 260 "Core 216 55nm" 896MB GDDR3 Dual DVI (PCI-Express) + Mirror's Edge
Antec 900-2 Nine Hundred Two Ultimate Gaming Case - Black (No PSU)
OCZ ModXStream Pro 700w Silent SLI Ready ATX2 Modular Power Supply
OCZ Gold 6GB (3x2GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C8 (1600MHz) Tri-Channel
Western Digital Caviar Black 500GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM

Total: £890.93 + free shipping

It will need to be fast, will be doing lots of multitasking.
As for gaming, at the moment, nothing too serious but will probably increase my gaming collection over the next year or two. Currently:

Football manager
Sims + most expansions
Mirror's edge (free with the 260 )
CoD 4
Age of Empires
Orange Box

I've put the D0 i7 in there because I would like to reach 4ghz, though I'll need a better cooler


Thanks!

 

[RJC]

How does this look, but need to take off shipping, case is personal choice:

AMD Phenom II X4 Quad Core 955 Black Edition 3.2GHz (Socket AM3) - Retail + BattleForge Bundle £212.99
(£185.21) £212.99
(£185.21)

XFX ATI Radeon HD 4870 1024MB GDDR5 TV-Out/Dual DVI/HDMI (PCI-Express) - Retail £144.98
(£126.07) £144.98
(£126.07)

Asus M4A78-E AMD 790GX (Socket AM3) PCI-Express DDR3 Motherboard £109.24
(£94.99) £109.24
(£94.99)

Corsair TX 650W ATX SLi Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-650TXUK) £85.99
(£74.77) £85.99
(£74.77)

Lian-Li PC-7B PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £68.99
(£59.99) £68.99
(£59.99)

Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD753LJ) £65.54
(£56.99) £65.54
(£56.99)

OCZ Platinum 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C7 1333MHz Dual Channel (OCZ3P13334GK) £51.74
(£44.99) £51.74
(£44.99)

Thermalright Ultra-120 Extreme CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/AM2+/AM3) £34.99
(£30.43) £34.99
(£30.43)

LG GH22NS40 22x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM £18.99
(£16.51) £18.99
(£16.51)

Xilence XPF120R Red Wing 120mm Quiet Fan £6.89
(£5.99) £6.89
(£5.99) Sub Total : £695.94 Shipping cost assumes delivery to UK Mainland with:
DPD Next Day Parcel
(This can be changed during checkout) Shipping : £12.50 VAT is being charged at 15% VAT : £106.27 Total : £814.71

 

[TheCenturion]

will that cpu be as fast as the i7?

 

[RJC]

Some of the reviews show it slightly slower than a I7, but personal choice would be the I7, but it's that little extra
http://www.overclockersclub.com/reviews/phenom2_955/17.htm
http://www.techspot.com/review/162-amd-phenom2-x4-955/

 

[Doctor_Zhivago]

AMD's fastest chip is slower than intel i7's slowest chip.

 

[Cristian]

RJC has got a pretty balanced config up there, the only thing that remains is the matter of preference over the cpu & mainboard. both of them will be more than ok, I think at this level is more or less personal preference as the difference is quite small anyway.

 

[Doctor_Zhivago]

The i7 will rip apart the amd in lots of multitasking as the OP wants. 4 better cores + 4 virtual ones = better multitasking than 4 amd cores. Then again you do get the cyber love orgy for going AMD and you can wear the green hat...

 

[Audigex]

An example would be to say that the Phenom II X4 955 Black Edition is approximately equal in perfomance to the Core2 Quad Q9550, which is about the same price. The Phenom should in theory clock higher (unlocked multiplier helps), but it's as yet fairly unproven.

It isn't as fast as the i7, but the i7s are a not-inconsiderable amount more expensive.

I would say to go for the i7 if you can afford it, they are the fastest chips on the market but you pay a premium for the privilege. If you want to keep costs down, the X4 955 and Q9550 are pretty equal in performance, but the AM2+/AM3 boards are cheaper than the LGA775 equivalent, so you'd get the X4 955 for cheaper.