Budget PC and your opinions :)

Ok so guys im looking into making my own PC for the first time and im on a pretty tight budget (uni student :P). These are the parts im thinking about, the purpose of the PC is gaming but im not to bothered if im not hitting top framerates, aslong as it can run the latest games without too many problems im not fussed (things like guildwars, aion and red alert 3).

Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo Q6700
MotherBoard: Asus P5Q PRO
Cooling: Scythe Kabuto
RAM: Corsair XMS2 DHX (4gigs total)
Graphics: Radeon HD 4890
HDD: WD Caviar blue 640GB
Power Supply: OCZ Modstream pro 600
DVD Drive: Dont have a clue yet xD
OS: Not sure on this either. Dunno if to wait for windows 7 release or go with 32 vista

As i said im on budget of around £700-800, this comes in just under £700, so if you have any suggestions it be great

Thanks

The budget gamer platform right now is AM3/AM2+; I'm not familiar with UK pricing, but the Core 2/LGA775 platform shouldn't have any significant price advantages over an AM3 system. You should be able to grab a Phenom II X3 720 and an AM3 785G motherboard from Gigabyte, Asus, or MSI for pretty cheap ($200 US). 4GB (2x2) of DDR3 memory goes for $70~$80, and you can keep your other parts.

For low-cost aftermarket CPU cooling, a Xigmatek s1283v or the Cogage TRUE Spirit are the best choices.

For OS, whichever you choose, I would go with 64-bit.

I'd personally wait for Win7 64-bit but if you don't want to wait that long then go ahead and get a 64 bit version of Vista so that you can use all 4 GB of RAM. It doesn't make a big difference unless you're doing a lot of multitasking but it's nice to be able to use all of it. You should be able to find a good DVD Burner/Drive for 32-35 US or so.

Also, if your motherboard is Crossfire compatible and you have 2 PCIE slots, you should be able to put two Radeon HD 4850 in CrossFire...Although you may have to worry about getting a more capable power supply if doing that, but that configuration is a bit cheaper and better than the 4890 so...

In terms of what you actually need for GW and Aion, I doubt you need that high of a card unless you really want constant 60+ fps at max. I have a HD4670 in my laptop and it easily runs GW at around 75~ fps with max settings. It may be nice for future games though.

I would go with Phenom II x4 945

Check out this combo deal.Combo Deal

It has a deal on MOBO CPU HDD and RAM in one.

^ OP is in the UK.

I'm not convinced that a quad-core is a good investment for gamers on a budget. Modern platforms all have quad-cores as drop-in upgrade options, so there's no point in buying one until you actually need it. Real-world performance difference between quad and dual/triple is negligible outside of a few specific situations (none of which are GW, Aion, or RA3).

I agree, save the cash and get equal or even better performance out of your machine by going the above route ^^^.

I would say though that if you are going with AMD and not planning to OC the tar out of it you should stick with stock cooling. AMD actually has pretty decent reference coolers (better than INtel hands down). No reason to spend money where it's not needed.

Other than that it looks like a good PC and pretty well priced I'd say considering you gouged you Brits can expect to get wit component pricing over there. :s Best part of the USA = cheap PC parts

I thought this and tried avoiding quad core, for the simple fact that i just wont be using that much power, it just seems like a waste

Ive got a few another quick question; i was speaking to a guildy about this aswell, and he suggested that i get 2 seperate HDD's and split windows onto one and programs, onto another. He says it can prevent alot of freezes, crashs and a few other problems, just wondering if this is a big deal or not?

Thanks for the suggestions and comments so far

One Hard Drive with Partitions will do that for you, and it's cheaper too of course

Ah thanks for clearing that up! I wasnt to keen on buying an extra HDD

probably what he meant was, and what a lot of pc builders with a higher budget do, is buy a small, but fast HDD or SSD (solid state drive) eg 32gb, then load OS and key programs onto the small one, and have all data storage on a bigger HDD, but as has already been said, that can be done with partitions, and the performance difference isn't massive.