Personally, I would look into AMD. They are once again in the lead in price to performance. Will agree on the best brands of video cards. XFX and BFG are the best. They have a lifetime warranty. Very helpful. Also, if you can stretch it, get a power supply that did not come with the case. I've had nothing but trouble with them. Corsair, PC Power & Cooling, Antech are all good brands in my experience. Also, check the wattage calculator at NewEgg. That sounds a little low.

The box is mainly for games and a tad of Photoshop modding. I just cannot sit and use the PS3.... consoles are unnatural!

It not totally hardcore gamer rig - that I understand but it's something that should run the current and the future titles for a time to come. I am still unsure if I really want it as I am not gaming (Video) much at this time but then I don't know if that's due to having a machine that is a tad clapped out or not... have I grown apart from the industry due to this?

As for the Power supply - it a separate unit -Antec TruePower.

The card is what the chap was recommending but then said that the Main Powers that Be in are releasing new top end cards next week... so does that mean that the lower end get bumped down? Also I was thinking of moving into the engts260 dk htdi 1gd3 Asus. It's funny here in Australia we get a slightly different range of manufactures than you guys get - it's harder to grab the brands that "are known".


I guess that my only hesitation is that there hasn't been a wave of games that I think - "Frack me! I have to have now!". That and the fact that my dad is ponying up for it - his idea. I think he feels that he owes me it due to the fact I took the last year off to look after mum. I don't feel badly about taking it - nah I am a gamer that like a sweet system but I just keep coming back to the fact that the industry hasn't blown my lid for a long time.

It could be a pre-gamers regret, you know that feeling that you have just bought that game/system/range and you think after "...did I really need to buy two cases of MonPoc?".


Anyways thank you for the help on this.... will wake up and give it some thought. Not pulling the trigger on it for another 24hrs or so. Oh what is an i5 & i7.... are they quad core? I mean I know they are the new architecture but how many cores etc?
Kane : what would you replace the i5/i7 with if you went AMD - I am assuming your talking CPU and not GPU here.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

This is the that was spec'ed. Should be alright?

*EDIT* this is the - I am a tad of a sucker for housing plus I understand it has to have airflow.


Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

(Hope its not too late to be helpful...)

I've been sold on the price-performance of AMD video cards for a while. But a lot depends on the local pricing as currency movements can push the NVidia cards ahead. Either way you have to have good airflow in your case for the higher end cards (Radeon HD 4870 or teh NVidea GTX 260) as they run hot and not all this heat gets pumped out the back vent. Make sure you have enough room/airflow at the back of the card so it doesn't overheat anything else.

The actual video card you want will depend more than anything on the resolution you game at. A 9800 GT will run most games at 1680x1050 with average settings; a Radeon 4650 512MB will run 1680x1050 at high settings and handle 1920x1200 at low settings. For good 1920x1200 gaming you want a 1GB Radeon 4870 or a NVidia GTX 260 or better.

I'd agree with getting a different brand video card. (In no particular order) HIS, Gigabyte, MSI and ASUS seem to be available in this part of the world and all do reasonable video cards.

The Antec Three Hundred case looks very good. I'm using an Antec P-182, and while the Three Hundred is a simpler case it looks to have even better airflow (as well as ANTEC's nice trick of putting the PSU at the bottom of the case).

The layout of the Three Hundred means there isn't a lot of noise damping for the CPU and GPU (the GPU in particular can get pretty loud when gaming). If this is likely to be a problem then it is worth getting aftermarket coolers for both the CPU and the video card - a good cooler/fan combo will make a significant difference in terms of cooling and noise.

One thing to watch with the Antec case: Antec had a bad run with some 120mm fans not always spinning up on the lowest speed setting. Better to avoid this setting with the case fans unless you are confident with it.

The Antec TP-550 is a good PSU that's been around for a couple of years - a good price performer and quiet too. 550W should be ample, assuming you stick to a singe video card config. If you are thinking of a later video upgrade by doubling the card then you will likely need more power than that. Revisit this once you've worked out what you wnat in terms of video card.

The funny thing Zen is that my current box is the Antec P182 but the idea is that my dad is taking this unit. Now I am thinking of skinning it and getting Dad a "cheaper" case.

I am looking at the GTX260 and am glad it's an "ok" level .

So getting two extra fans for the side of the case (even on my P182) might help it out? From what I can tell the fans are only worth about $7AUD so it's not a huge out lay for a quiter killing zone.

Looking at placing the order on Monday now. I think I will go the i5 simply as the MB will take the i7 series as well..... well I was informed that.


Thanks everyone for the input and if anything between now and when I post next (just to let you all know that it's done) comes to light please don't be shy. I am now kind of excited about getting it. I have been looking at Dragon Age and think I might enjoy a goodly romp around the fields and dales.



Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

I have a pair of Sennheiser HD202 headphones () that I use at work... when I don't feel like subjecting the rest of the office to my musical choices. (Or when what I'm listening to might be deemed "not socially acceptable for an office environment.")

I've had them for about three years and I think they're great.

Zen - I was so set on getting the updated version of your headphone, they really looked on the money.

But

Back in June my mum and I got dad a pair/set of . These where great as he would normally ramp up the sound (standard stereo trying to cope with HD styled sounds.... losses everywhere). Now this worked until they just started to cut out at random. So I took them back about two months later and swapped them for the same.

Again

They cut out. So today I took them back once more and the manager (cute as a button - and a lass to boot) remembered me so offered money back/exchange/store credit or send them off. One of the things she did offer was to upgrade them to the top of their wireless line that they carried the with us only paying the difference at Cost price (here in Australia it was $18US). Nice but I wanted to replace my mic headset plus with mum gone there was no real need for dad to be shuttered with the cans.

So

I found this little number: . Again she off the difference of Cost vs what we paid for the original Cans which came out at $32US.


Sweet!


Now that is upgrading.


Of course seeing as the first set of 'phones were really dad's he has just found my Christmas present for all of $32US.

Winner, winner. Chicken Dinner.




Now just to get my bloody Razer CopperHead to work correctly with Win7. It doesn't like the shut downs/restarts in a very hit or miss kind of way. The Win7 update was meant to be released today but it's been pushed back 'till Friday.




Lord Abaddon of Wormwood

When it comes to headphones, I have to reccomend these MONSTER BEATS: by Dr. Dre:

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Monster+-+B ... Id=8913606

I'm a BOSE man myself; everything in the house is BOSE from top to bottom, but when it comes to headphones, Sennheiser and Bose haven't got anything up on these headphones. It's absolutely the most amazing thing I've ever heard, and this is coming from an audiophile whose father has been doing radio production (commercials, movie one-liners etc) for over 20 years. I get to listen to the most expensive sound equipment in the world, and these are, by far, the best out there. Give em a shot. Any best buy probably has a demo of them. Frankly, I was amazed that these were put into commercial production, as they've been in studio's for years.