[steve45]

ok a long shot here but i'm looking for a bit of buying advice.
instead of typing it all out again, i'll just copy and paste my post from another forum.

i decided its time to retire the current machine to purely internet duties, if i try to upgrade it any further it would just be a great big waste of money, so i need a new system primarily for sim racing and other gaming.
unfortunatly i'm on quite a low budget, and this is the first time i've tryed to build a computer from the ground up, so its basicly a case of getting together something that i can upgrade in the near future.
now i have an idea of most of the stuff i'm going to buy but i'm a little stuck on what to do with the graphics card, i've seen quite a few of what seems to me like good deals, but to be honest i dont really know what i should be looking for.

anyway down to business
i'm trying to keep the full build below £500, i have around £100 for the card, could stretch another £10 if i needed to, has to be PCIexpress.
i'm geussing i should be looking for something along the line of 6600's etc
powercolour X800GT £105.69
XFX GeForce 6600GT £106.69
Gigabyte GeForce 6600GT £107.01

any opinions on these cards?

i also noticed the x1300 with 512mb ram for just under £100 but i dont really know anything of the new x1000 series of cards, but i'm a bit wary of a card from a new series at that price.

if anyone knows of any other cards or deals around this price range please let me know.

heres an idea of the rest of the build but none of it is set in stone yet.
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 3700+ Socket 939 1MB Inc Fan
M/B - ASRock S939 Athlon ULi m1695 ATX A L
RAM - Corsair Memory VS1GBKIT400C3 PC3200 2x512MB CAS3
HD - seagate Barracuda 7200.7 NCQ 80GB SATA150 7200rpm 8MB
the rest are just low budget bits and bobs like DVD/CD writer, cheap case with 400W PSU etc, i'll just be using the on board sound for the meantime.

can anyone see anything missing, for example will i need to buy any cables or connectors? any parts that have slipped my mind? will the thermal stuff for the processor be included with the processor pack or will i have to buy some?
more importantly can anyone see conflicts arising from my choices?

anyway all help will be greatly appreciated

 

[binary visions]

The cooling stuff and cables will be included IF you bought the retail packages of the CPU and the motherboard. If they're OEM, you won't get anything but a brown box and the part.

An nForce4 motherboard might be a better choice, the drivers are usually rock solid.

It all looks good but don't go too cheap on the power supply. If you're spending less than $40 on a 400W PS, you're running the risk of cooking all of your new hardware.

I've got a 6600GT card that I've been very pleased with. XFX and Gigabyte both make excellent products - flip a coin unless one package or the other comes with a particular game you'd like.

 

[steve45]

An nForce4 motherboard might be a better choice, the drivers are usually rock solid.

It all looks good but don't go too cheap on the power supply. If you're spending less than $40 on a 400W PS, you're running the risk of cooking all of your new hardware.

thanks for the heads up on the PSU, will look into a case without a PSU and buy a better PSU seperate. dont want take chances.

think i've found a MOBO with nForce4 that looks ok.
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=3VLD&CategorySelectedId=11143&NavigationKey=11143,40239,4294959021&v=2
only around £10 extra.

 

[binary visions]

Yep, that's a good motherboard.

Antec power supplies tend to be reliable and reasonably priced. I got a Thermaltake TR2 that I took a little bit of a chance on (it was pretty inexpensive) but I have a friend who had one for a year or so and it's been fine - it's been good for me, no complaints.

 

[Pau11y]

Hey, I have the SLI version of this board. You'll like the sound! I have mine hooked into a 5.1 receiver and it will do great playing DVDs w/ the nVidia PureVideo soft decoder. You'll just need a vid card that can deal w/ things and the 6600 will do just fine. There are a lot of features for OCing

Edit: as for PSUs I really like Enermax. I think they're a bit on the expensive side tho, but I haven't had one fail yet and I have an old one from the PIII 1ghz days still kicking strong. Just read your post more carefully. There's no reason to upgrade the onboard sound, seriously, unless you're thinking of doing some ripping from analog to digital where you might want something like a Gina or a Darla. For straight output, the onboard will suit just fine.

 

[steve45]

thanks very much guys
you have been very helpful.

have ordered pretty much everything except case and PSU.

think i'll go for a Coolermaster Centurion 532 case, still not sure on the PSU yet, just looking for a good deal on one, will order both in the morning.
also changed my mind on the ram, just changed the 1gb(2x 512mb) PC3200 corsair value ram to 1gb(2x512mb) PC3200 geil value ram with pretty alu heatspreaders: and lower latency rating, for exactly the same price.

 

[blue]

I have the Giga 6600 GT 128mb. Solid card, SLi option, and relatively cheap. I think I'm just going to SLi mine when they come down in price enough. It's currently OC'd and runs at about the level of a 6800 GT.