My 'build a new PC from cabbages, a bulldozer and some lengths of drainpipe' fund has reached £700.

I'm going to keep saving until after Xmas, so by then I should have about £1k (that's a lot of cabbages).

Right now I don't have a clue what I want other than 'better'. But I have a few requirements (will probably start a new thread when it comes to it so as to not clutter up Innocents). It's interesting to read the threads like this that pop up every now and again - the techspeak makes no sense to me whatsoever any more, but the more I read the better it gets

Anyone got any experience on crossfired gfx cards? Im considering to buy a 9800gtx, but I could also buy a 2nd 8800GT and crossfire them. Opinions?

doesnt sli and crossfire all depend on the actual game?

you can have 4 sli cards but if the game doesnt support multi gfx cards, then there aint much point

as for gfx, i'd recommend a ati 4850, i can run far cry 2 at 1680 x 1050 res, and everything turned up to full, and i mean everything, and the fps is fluid.

TF2 only has beta multi-threaded support mainly ported from the console versions, it is buggy and will crash on occasion. It definately does not allow various tasks to be allocated in the way you mention.

Your money at this point in time is best spent on a high clock speed dual core cpu for now (rather than an equivantly priced lower clock speed quad core). No computer is ever going to last 3-4 years for gaming without an upgrade or two.

If you wait for the next best thing you will be paying through the nose. If you cannot wait then you may be best served buying good spec DDR3 memory based on the P45 platform (i wouldn't buy an expensive mobo unless you plan to go balls out tweaking) couple this with an e8400 and enjoy it with the current and imminent crop of games.

When time moves on and you need an upgrade you can sell the mobo and cpu and get an i7 based replacement.

It is also of note that by the time games are truely multi-threaded, 4 cores at current core2 clock speeds will not be good enough.

thanks guys. already certain im not gonna get a quad core. also wondering how much load Really do the games put on the cpu compared with the gfx card.

i figure im not really waiting for the latest thing but i've set a budget so im getting stuff to meet the budget.

yes i doubt very much that i will do much tweaking. and as for the 3-4 years before getting a new one. thatsn ot 3-4 yrs expecting full working machine

...argh work lift here. will contiunue

Tried to pm this but it keeps failing inno mate....

Sorry mate been really busy rebuilding pcs at home this last week or so and havent been online at all!

Looking through your list...

Hard disk - me personal preference are the samsung F1 drives 750gb or 1TB. You get 32mb cache and theyre really quiet and cool. Price is v reasonable too. You may not need the storage space, but theyre fast and for the minimal extra spends why not have it just in case?

DVD drive is a dvd drive - i have no preference .

Memory - again personal choice. You get the cooler which i personally use, so thumbs up there. Others to consider are this or this. Having said that I use 2gb and find it ample. Even running tf2 with ie open and media player running etc i still have over 400mb free. If you do go with 2gb instead of 4gb order the kingston hyperx PC9200 from overclockers - its about £40 or so (or I have a kit here pre-tested which you can make me an offer for).

Power supply - i use theCorsair TX650. I find it awesome and very quiet. If you want even more overkill the TX750 is on ebuyer, or again more overkill the ocz elitexstream 800watt. The TX650 will do just fine tho.

Case - will the GTX260 fit? Its even bigger than the radeon 48xx series...

Motherboard - big thumbs up .

CPU - Want an E8500 for £100 + postage? If so let me know I have 3 to sell here from upgrades . If not the E8400 will do you just fine.

CPU heatsink - thought about this at all? Gonna use the intel retail cooler? how are you for space around the cpu in that case? this comes highly recommended - its massive but will fit and you could run it without a fan given you have the 2 case fans surrounding the cpu. Cheaper alternatives would be this, this, this or this in order or my personal preference.

Graphics - a 9800GT suits me fine, but tf2 is my limit. Depending what monitor you have I dont think theres much point in the GTX260. Id be more tempted to get a 4850 for £100 and save your money. Thatll run every game out with eye candy at 1680 x 1050 res. My 9800GT copes fine at 1920 x 1200 max details with 8 x MSAA and 16 X AA in TF2. the 4850 is a shade faster.

Point of note on GTX260 - there are 2 versions available - one version has 192 cores, the other 216 cores. Price is the same but the one with 216 cores is up to 10% faster. Make sure you buy the newer 216 core version if you do get one.

If you look at this page you wills ee the 2 EVGA cards listed 2nd and 3rd from top. One is the old one and labelled as EVGA GTX260 896MB GDDR3 and the newer (and more expnesive one!) is marked as EVGA GTX260 Core 216 896MB GDDR3. It would appear that the BFG card you have picked is the old 192 core version FYI...


Final comments - forget quad core for "future proofing" as todays quad core processors will be peanuts compared to what we are using in a year or two. Stick with a dual core and make the most of your money now.

Hope this helps you - looks like you've got a cracking build there .

Wow Pilsy, what are you doing for a living?

Working 40 hours a week desktop tech support and running my own business selling/repairing/upgrading pcs and parts a few hours a week on top of that.

The trick with pcs is to either always buy the latest and greatest and sell on your old stuff quickly, thus minimising your losses with each upgrade, or to simply shoot for mid range from the off and run it till it pops.

That is unless your pc is going beyond a mere tool for net access etc. Cant put price limits on a hobby . Just glad mine's computers and not invading middle eastern countries. That can get REALLY expensive...

Sounds like a good job.

A lot of work mate. The full time job is particularly mundane and unrewarding. Interesting for a few months. After a year it was starting to get a bit all the same. After 4 years...well, i bet you can guess .

The repairs/upgrades thing is more fun, but only supplementary income. That funds my hobby basically, normally puts a bit to one side for xmas too but this year has been a bit shit tbh.