If you build your own rig I recommend the following: Intel Core 2 Duo e6300 or e6600 (either will do nicely and overclocking is a must to gain you even more performance per watt) 2GB DDR2 RAM (shoot for some Corsair XMS or even some cheap DRR2 RAM will do go for PC5300 as Core 2 CPU's dont care about which memory you use) ATI X1950 PRO 256MB (ATI now has the upper hand in OpenGL and Direct3D games though a DX10 card will future proof your system alot more though they are expensive and will only be tested if you either play with Vista or play games at stupidly high resolutions, the amount of video memory is based on what resolution you play at but 256MB should be more than enough for any DX9 game at 1024x768) 500W PSU (shoot for a reputable manufacturer as the low cost models will blow easily if you overclock makes like Tagan, Seasonic, or even BFG are good ones to go for the more part you put in the higher the wattage needs to be if you shoot for two GPU's you will need a 600W easily) Asus Striker (the motherboard is the most important part of the computer as this will decide everything else you buy for the system, I strongly recommend everyone who is trying to build new system go for a very extravagant motherboard and this will make things easier in the long run to upgrade later on, this board is by far the best Core 2 motherboard available today) Cooling (shoot for the Core 2 duo's best HSF the Arctic Cooler Freezer 7 Pro this is a beast and will really allow the best overclocks possible from simply HFS cooling. Water cooling is a good way to go but as Ive no experience in the field I will not like to advise people on this very tricky and possible system fatal idea) Case (This is optional make sure you get a big enough case first to fit everything in and possibly some more upgrades later on.) HDD (This again is optional it all goes on what you are doing with your PC if its any kind of media like movie, picture editing or gaming then shoot for nothing below 250GB and go for a SATA-II connection the Western Digital Raptor X is the best choice or the Seagate makes are very good. If money is object then go for a SCSI drive these babies are flipping fast. If its only simple web browsing or office use then go for 160GB and you might want to go for IDE connection as this isnt as fast as SATA-II but will do the job either way.)

Everything else is optional for you as Ive covered every major component for your PC build, hope this helps all you PC lovers out there. Thanks.

Cha0sLord wrote:Ok.. I got currently Core Duo e6300 6GB worth of RAM, (1gb each) A really cool case which I don't know the name of An ATI Radeon 9800, A nVidia 7800 and a X1950 Asus Striker (I think) And a 700W PSU (As it says on the box it came in) A 400GB HDD And a Cooler Master Geminill (Looks cool.) What can I make out of that?

Edit: The RAM is DDR400

well lets start off at the CPU first its a nice CPU and will fit lovely in the ASUS Striker motherboard. The 700W PSU will give you more than enough juice to run everything. However seen as you have 6GB of DDR400 RAM and the ASUS Striker is not compatible with DRR RAM and only works with DDR2 RAM (unless the motherboard is backwards compatible then it will however the striker is not) so trade that in or sell it on ebay and get 2GB RAM make sure you shoot for PC5300 or over some Corsair Dominator RAM is the best at the moment but its expensive. The graphics cards I would get rid of the 9800, and the 7800 and keep the 1950 for the time being as this is the best out fo the three as long as its PCI-E then it should fit nicely within the Striker's slot if its AGP then trade all three in for either an ATI X1950XTX or if you have enough an Nvidia 8800GTX which will truly bring your games to life. The HDD is 400GB which is more than enough for anything you will do, though if its gaming please please go for a Western Digital Raptor X as these are fast though expensive they are the best for gaming.

Now if you enter the BIOS once the build is complete, find the CPU features and change the CPU Multiplier from what ever it is (i think its 6 for e6300) change it to around 8, go futhure if you will but make sure its cooled nicely first as you could blow it) this should up the CPU speed if you feel really lucky then change teh RAM timing to 6-6-6-18 and then you will be able to up the FSB to around 350MHz maybe even more! this will up the CPU power even future.

Over all this is a bloody decent PC build and the parts you have are good.

miyamoto666 wrote:

iamthegamepro wrote:the duo core 2 is so popular these days...........dam it.......i wanted to be the only kid on the block with all the power!! i wonder how amd is gonna fire back.........

their too busy trying to glue a CPU chip to a CPU chip, silly really given the fact that these two will creat so much heat that water cooling will be the only option.

*CPU chip to a GPU chip