hi, i am about to build a new pc before i go back to college as i will need to be using it a lot for my course.
i will be ordering it from ebuyer and the plan is to build it around a intel core 2 quad q6600, ebuyer quick find code 124869. i also have my eye on a 8800gts... but i doubt i will be gettin that for a couple months i will probably end up saving a bit more for that.
really im just looking on some advice on the best build i could do around this for a total cost of about £500-£600. i know which disc drives i will be using as i back up xbox 360 games. i also have a via pci card which il need to get in there for flashing my xbox 360. so its mainly the motherboard, ram and psu i need help on... as i said i am kinda on a budget but i would like some over clocking abilities as lets face it thats pretty much why core 2 duo is kickin amds ass atm.
actully, i think the quad core process does cost 500...
But yeah, you need a bigger budget. 500-600 wont buy you a quad core and a 8800, you also need ram, a mobo, hard drive(s), optical drives, a case and smaller things like a network card, sound card etc.
Network and sound cards are arguably optional extras since they both come on motherboards anyway, but Waymon's right, a Quad core and 8800GTS at scan.co.uk (often cheaper than ebuyer) cost £360 together. In order to keep up with those components, you'll need a PSU costing at least £60, £60 of RAM, a £70+ motherboard, along with an optical drive, hard drive and case, which would be another £70 at the very cheapest. Get a decent case and a hard disk of around 300GB which is what you'll want, and you're looking at around £700 before delivery.
The GMA950, one of the most powerful integrated graphics chipsets out there struggles to play Counterstrike source at 1280x800 on medium. My Graphics card hasn't been the fastest one out there for over a year, and yet it can play at 2560x1600 Max, anti-aliased with Anisotropic filtering and get over 100fps on most maps. That shows you what a difference there is between a decent graphics card and integrated.
