Building a new PC (HELP WANTED)

[Agent.M]

Well its that time again, Im going to be buying a new computer this week and was wondering if you all could give me some good advice. I have always bought name brands before... alienware being my current rig but decided that I would venture off the beaten path and try building my own. I guess as of right now my biggest question would be what cpu should I go for?? Im battling between the Q6600 and the E8400 right now. This will be primarily a gaming rig for games like crysis, WAR, DoW II, FarCry2, etc. Ive heard mixed reviews on which I should go for. On one hand I hear go with the dual cause of the higher clock speed since no games really take advantage of the extra cores. On the other hand I hear go with the quad core and plan for the future even tho I wont get as good of performance with the lower clock speed? Also I'm probably gonna get a GTX 280 or maybe a 260 depending on what GPU/CPU combo would work best? Anyone have any extra advice for me??

 

[JFry]

I think the dual-core vs quad-core debate boils down to personal choice based on the reasons you stated. Personally I would go for the dual-core.
Make sure you get a power supply from a reliable manufacturer. I would list Antec, Enermax, FSP Group, Thermaltake as good.
When you order your cpu, if it is listed as retail it should come with a heatsink/fan, if it is listed as OEM it will be only the cpu. Heatsink/fans are $10-$20 just for a decent one so its worth keeping in mind. If you do order a seperate heatsink/fan you will need thermal grease as well.
Other parts like hard drives and optical drives are fine to get OEM since you'll get cables with your motherboard. If you are concerned with saving money, salvaging old drives from other computers is often a good idea.
Don't forget to inspect whatever case you buy and determine how many case fans you'll need.
Good Luck!

 

[DEATHMASTER]

budget?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

Corsair power supply, Q6600 & don't skimp on cooling I would say!

You can build a great system at good cost at the moment which will run those games nicely, what is your budget?

 

[Agent.M]

My budget is just under or over 2k for my entire system. I was also looking at the q9550, cause Im willing to spend that extra bit on a nice processor and graphics card.