Upgrade Help pls

[CR0M]

I need some advice. It's PC upgrading time again and I need some recommendations on hardware to buy. After reading through Raziaar's thread I picked up some valuable pointers, but still need some help.

My budget and possible hardware:

Mobo: ?220-260
Got my eye on an Nforce 790i, maybe the Asus Striker 2 Extreme. Any info on how the onboard sound performs would be helpful. Also, not sure if it is really worth spending out for an SLi board like this right now if I get the single x2 GPU card below.

CPU: ?200-250
Going Intel this time. A core 2 duo E8500 3.16 is my fave at the moment, as I think a quad may be out of my budget. Any heatsink / fan recommendations? Can't afford water...

GPU: ?300-350
A 9800 GX2 or HD3870? not sure, or 2x 8800's in SLi? I have read the new Nvidia cards perform better than the ATi ones but run stupidly HOT and can't be overclocked very well cos of this. Any advantages of SLi'd single GPU's over a dual GPU sandwich board apart from the heat issue..?

RAM: ?150-200
2GB Crucial 1333 DDR3

PSU: ?100
750W. Is this enough if I upgrade to dual 9800 GX2's (or HD3870's) later on or will I need a 1000W? Recommendation on make 'n model useful, I'm a PSU moron.

HDD: ?50
Not sure about yet, recommend me one...


Going to stuff it all into my veteran Cooler Master ATC-210C-VX2 case so don't need one of them, and will be running Win XP.


Any comments or recommendations greatly received,

Thx


edit - budget in Pounds Sterling, not question marks :hmph:

 

[Asus]

Mobo: ?220-260
Got my eye on an Nforce 790i, maybe the Asus Striker 2 Extreme. Any info on how the onboard sound performs would be helpful. Also, not sure if it is really worth spending out for an SLi board like this right now if I get the single x2 GPU card below.

I'm not completely familar between the chipsets but from what I've read the Intel chipsets are more stable (especially if you go to Vista) UNLESS you are going SLI. Nvidia only does SLI and Intel/ATI boards do Crossfire. Personally, I never saw the benefit of dual cards. Lot of money to spend on 2 cards which don't work together in all games. Might as well wait 6 months and buy a SINGLE card that has basically the same performance and uses less power and not as noisy...etc.

CPU: ?200-250
Going Intel this time. A core 2 duo E8500 3.16 is my fave at the moment, as I think a quad may be out of my budget. Any heatsink / fan recommendations? Can't afford water...

E8500 (3.16GHz) is a lot more money than a E8400 (3GHz) but only .16 GHz faster...don't bother.
E8500 is more expensive than both the old Q6600 quad core and the new cooler/faster Q9300 quad.

RAM: ?150-200
2GB Crucial 1333 DDR3

Why DDR3? A lot more money and hardly any performance gain.

HDD: ?50
Not sure about yet, recommend me one...

WD's 750GB drive is one of the fastest drives, it's quiet and also has a lot of storage. If on a budget, the WD 500GB drive is similar but doesn't quite have the performance or space. See link.

 

[Druckles]

If you can afford a 9800, I don't know why you're suggesting the 3870 as well. I haven't looked much into the 9800, but apparently it runs much better than the 8800, and the HD3870 is about equivalent to an 8800GTS.

The HD3870 is rather nice with power consumption and heat, though. Just to note.

750W will be plenty.

Do not spend ?200 on RAM. My friend stupidly (I emphasise this word) bought 8GB of RAM. I don't know how much it cost him, but he then had to purchase 64-bit Vista. Little point in DDR3.

 

[CR0M]

Thx guys, nice to know I can save some cash on the memory and CPU - will go towards a new HD TV

Or water cooling. Or an MOT.

 

[CR0M]

My mind is now set on the Corsair HX1000W PSU (ah what the hell) which is real hard to find in stock in the UK. Anyone seen a Brit site where I can get one?

 

[Hectic Glenn]

My favourite site - http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-012-CS

 

[CR0M]

Thanx for that, it says the PSU release date is 27/5, which is probably why I can't find it anywhere :O Will pre-order.