Need to cut Price of Rig

Q1)

My chosen Configuration is: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

MSI P35NEO-F Motherboard

Ram:Kingston 4x1 GB DDR2 800MHz

Hard Drive: Seagate/Western Digital 500GB

Power Supply:Tagan 800W BZ800

Graphics Card:MSI ATI 4870HD 512GDDR5

I already have all other components. I need to cut the costs by 25%. Suggest what i should change and to what?

I was thinking the Graphics Card since i don't play a lot of First Person Shooters,but I don't want to get stuck with a poor graphics card either

Q2) Is this setup future proof(4 to 5 years) i.e can I play games designed to use Quad Core well and can I use DDR3?

Q3) Can I set an older game to run/use only one core and how?

You don't need a 800W power supply for that rig unless you plan to go SLI.Drop it down to 600W, that should be fine as long as it is a good make. You probably don't need that kind of hard drive. Opt for a slower, smaller hard drive. (Depends on your uses, but 360gb should be fine). You don't need a fantastic processor to run the latest applications. Again, depends on your uses but a E7400/E7500 should suffice.

Switch the E8400 to the E7400.

Switch the motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L (doesn't save you money unfortunately, but it's a more recent chipset).

Switch that 4x1GB setup to a 2x2GB.

You could save a bit of money with a smaller hard drive.

The power supply you could cut way back on, something in the 550-650w range, like the Corsair TX650w.

The graphics card you could scale back to the HD4850 without any huge loss in performance.

As for your other questions, that setup is not future-proof. Dual-core processors will be outdated as soon as multi-threaded applications take off (probably within the next year or two), Far Cry 2 is already one game that takes advantage of them, and we'll see more games follow suit. The chipset you selected is older, and doesn't support PCI-e 2.0, and LGA 775 is on its last legs anyway. The RAM you picked uses all four slots on your board and doesn't allow room for future expansion, and graphics card technology just moves too quickly for any card to stay realistically competitive. Thinking back four or five years ago, the graphics cards available were the GeForce 6-series and FX-series and Radeon X800 and 9-series, none of which are anywhere close to powerful enough to play modern games well.

And you probably could set core affinity on an older game, but it would be pointless, you're better off just letting Windows handle it.

I'll go with the following E7400 , 2x2 GB ,Corsair 550-600W and HD4850

Q1)Is there a good Quad Core in same price as a E8400?

Q2)What are the main advantages of the Gigabyte?

Switch the E8400 to the E7400.

Switch the motherboard to the Gigabyte GA-EP43-DS3L (doesn't save you money unfortunately, but it's a more recent chipset).

Switch that 4x1GB setup to a 2x2GB.

You could save a bit of money with a smaller hard drive.

The power supply you could cut way back on, something in the 550-650w range, like the Corsair TX650w.

The graphics card you could scale back to the HD4850 without any huge loss in performance.

As for your other questions, that setup is not future-proof. Dual-core processors will be outdated as soon as multi-threaded applications take off (probably within the next year or two), Far Cry 2 is already one game that takes advantage of them, and we'll see more games follow suit. The chipset you selected is older, and doesn't support PCI-e 2.0, and LGA 775 is on its last legs anyway. The RAM you picked uses all four slots on your board and doesn't allow room for future expansion, and graphics card technology just moves too quickly for any card to stay realistically competitive. Thinking back four or five years ago, the graphics cards available were the GeForce 6-series and FX-series and Radeon X800 and 9-series, none of which are anywhere close to powerful enough to play modern games well.

And you probably could set core affinity on an older game, but it would be pointless, you're better off just letting Windows handle it.

RayvinAzn

Also, I would like to know if I should wait 4-5 Months for the i7 920 and DDR3 to get cheaper.

The amount I can Spend Remains the Same.

Q1)Will it allow me to be Future Proof(5 Years) and will it get me any noticable Performance Gain(if any)?

The main point is that if in 3 years an new strategy/Rpg game comes then I should still be able to play them, i.e it should be upgradable.

Future Proof(5 Years) and will it get me any noticable Performance Gain(if any)?

The main point is that if in 3 years an new strategy/Rpg game comes then I should still be able to play them, i.e it should be upgradable.

azurueus

Q1)

My chosen Configuration is: Intel Core 2 Duo E8400

MSI P35NEO-F Motherboard

Ram:Kingston 4x1 GB DDR2 800MHz

Hard Drive: Seagate/Western Digital 500GB

Power Supply:Tagan 800W BZ800

Graphics Card:MSI ATI 4870HD 512GDDR5

I already have all other components. I need to cut the costs by 25%. Suggest what i should change and to what?

I was thinking the Graphics Card since i don't play a lot of First Person Shooters,but I don't want to get stuck with a poor graphics card either

Q2) Is this setup future proof(4 to 5 years) i.e can I play games designed to use Quad Core well and can I use DDR3?

Q3) Can I set an older game to run/use only one core and how?