Woop! New rig for my gf!

[Phoenix]

So, new project going here. I got a pleasent surprise in the mail today. It was a package from Tech Data, containing a new Asus P5N-T Deluxe mobo. Now the story here is, I bough this card when I built my new rig, then sent it back cause the optical out wasn't functioning, and I got a new mobo back. Now, I suddenly get another new mobo, free of charge!

So, this means that I will have to build another rig, so that my girlfriend will stop complaining about not being able to play CoD4 on the LANs at work cause she's on a crappy Toshiba laptop.

So here's the deal, I've got the mobo, a FSP Epsilon 600w PSU, 320GB SATA2 HDD (courtesy of my not-so-technical father who gave it to me when it went bonkers, and bought a new one instead), the stock cooler for my CPU, and I'll probably give her an old case I've got lying around. I'm also contemplating on giving her the Cruicial BallistiX DDR2 8500 2GB-sticks I've got in my rig, and buying something better for myself.

Now, the rest I may need some advice on, but here goes:

CPU: Core2Duo E8400 (cause it's cheap and good, maybe I will keep this for myself and give her the Q6600)

GFX: Now, this have to be cheap, since I'm rather strapped on funds, but it's gotta be at least 8800GT. Any advice?

RAM: I was wondering if I should go for OCZ on my rig, and give her the Cruicial-sticks, but I'm not that up-to-speed on what's better in this department, so help me out here.

Now, give me all the good advice you can, so she will stop whining.

 

[Mr. Smith]

e8400 is sweet. 88gt is sweet. ocz are sweet.

On the ram, which sticks? Pretty much all ocz are good.

I'm probably getting rid of my q6600 for a heavily oc'd e8500...

 

[Phoenix]

Yeah, but the pricedifference from E8400 to E8500 is about £70, and that's pretty much for my budget. Now, I was wondering if I should go for the PC9600 Kingston HyperX-sticks on my rig, and give her the BallistiX...But I'm not quite sure yet. I'll have to read some reviews, and listen to what you people have to say first.

 

[Mr. Smith]

I had the pc9600's for a while, very nice sticks, I got them cheap (2gb for £100). I only got rid of them to get 4gb...

The e8400 should do 4ghz no sweat. Any other q's hit me up

P.S I go to Oslo next week... Can I hi-jack the thread? Where should I go? What should I do? Where are all the hot girls? How much is it for a drink? What is the dress code on an evening? lol

 

[Phoenix]

Sorry Smitty for not answering your questions, I didn't read that post until now. But since I live about 2500km from Olso, I have no idea. How was your stay anyway?

Anyway, on to business. Got my free Asus P5N-T Deluxe-card today, and I think I've decided on the setup for this rig.

CPU: Another good'ol Q6600 (If it's not G0 I will return it, and demand a G0), as I'm very pleased with the one I've got already, and I dunno if there's a point in going dual-core, even if it's 45nm. Somebody please point me in the right direction here.

GFX: XFX 8800GT XXX 670Mhz 512MB (G92)

Case: Coolermaster Centurion 534 black/silver alu front (the missis liked this one, and it's dirt cheap. If you know anything else about this case, please tell)

RAM: Cruicial BallistiX DDR2 8500 CL5 2GB (Also cheap, and yes, this is a budget build)

PSU: FSP Epsilon 600w (taken from a previous build)

I will run with the stock cooler for now, and probably get a better one when I've got more money. So, anybody got anything to say on this?

 

[SuperRoach]

Gf playing games, sounds great - what kind of case were you after though? she might like it if you choose something more unique or custom.

I'm in aus, but look at these:

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php...d=4298&zenid=7a23955fdda02ca3c03de27a8efe6670

Or even this:

http://www.pccasegear.com/index.php...d=5104&zenid=7a23955fdda02ca3c03de27a8efe6670

Would be pretty nice

 

[Phoenix]

That was a nice case, and right up her alley, you should've seen her reaction to it when I showed her, but I have already bought a Coolermaster Centurion 534 Black/Silver case. We agreed on getting that case in favor of a pimped-out-windowed-leds-screaming case, since it's going to be in the livingroom. But thanks for the tip, mate.

However, I'm still pondering on what CPU to get. If I should just go for another Q6600 or maybe get the little for expensive Q9300 for myself and give her my Q6600, or maybe even go for a E8400 (it's cheaper than both quads). The reason for this is cause I wanna see if I can get better benchscores on my rig (currently 19995 3Dmarks).