Thanks guys, kinda thought I was been slightly miss-lead.

Great input :)

Hey all

I'm building a new machine shortly but have ran into some conflicting information, perhaps some experience or advice from the locals here may help me out. Heres what I orginally intended to build.

CPU:Intel Q9450

MOBO: XFX MG-ISH9 780i

RAM: Corsair 4096-6400C5DHX (4GB pair)

GPU: XFX 8800GTS Alfa dog ed.

Being that I live in New Zealand, the Evga exchange program does not exist here so I'm not interested in any of their products, I really wanted to stay with XFX cause I've had good experiences in the pass. Most of these products are very cheap in NZ too, so please don't tell me to get something else because its cheaper :)

The problem I have is I've been talking to the local PC shops and the guys are telling me that;

A: the XFX 780i mobo DON'T support the new intel Q9450 cpu's, even though it clearly states it on the web (same with the 680i mobos). Some sort of conflict happens, funny, I thought seeing the Q9450 hasen't been released here yet.

B: Corsair is "crap" because it has a high fault rate, even thought they have a 5 year warranty. I also was told G-Skill RAM was the way to go, mainly (I believed) because it was the main RAM they stocked in the store I was in, but I've heard that G-Skill aint all that. I was also told the Corsair RAM doesn't overclock well.

C: SLI is crap on 780i & 680i mobos, apparntly is down scales the GPUs. This I'm not too worried about as I'm still on the fence about SLI, but it would have been nice as a future option.

D: One guy told me I'd need to run at least a 800W PUS for both these builds. This seemed a little exessive to me?

So, with all this in mind I decided to build/price up another machine, heres the alternative:

CPU; Q6600 Go verison.

MOBO: Asus P5E X38/ICH9R

RAM: still sitting with Corsair 4096 4GB

GPU: XFX 8800GTS alfa dog

So really I've only changed the MOBO & CPU. A little more information on what I intend to use the computer for:

Gaming @1600 x 1050, I would overclock the CPUs (on air) to about 3Ghz - 3.2GHz, SLI only as a future up-grade, either that or buy a new GPU.

So any thoughts on this, are there any truths to these claims or am I getting the "sales" pitch by desperate sales people?

Thanks in advance :)

really? I was wondering about that....I've never owned a widescreen monitor before.

If thats the case, the Samsung might be the better choice

thanks

I've been looking at monitors and found a rather cheap 24" LCD, its an AOC 416v, anyone had one of these before, or have any experience with them? Just want to know what peoples thoughts were on them.

Failing the AOC I might go with the Samsung 226BW, the only thing is I want to play 1600 X 1200, which the Samsung falls short on.

...and yea, I know they're TN panels but hey, I don't have the money for anything better but I do haveaccessto some colourcalibrationtools that should help.

any comments please :)

Thanks guys, great feedback. I was kinda thinking there wasn't much in it between 800 and 1600 and as for the GPu, I've been waiting since the 8800's came out for something new (same old story, wait wait...) but that up-grade option sounds very appealing.

once again, thx for the positive posts

Hey all

its that time when I need to up-grade my PC (used for gaming only), but I'd like some feedback on what I'm looking at:

CPU: Intel Q9450 2.66Ghz

I intend to over clock this (on air) to around 3Ghz - 3.2GHz, or even more

MOBO:Evga nforce 780I or Asus P5E, X38 DDR2 or XFX MG-N780-ISH9

I'm having the biggest problem on deciding which mobo to go with. I want to run SLI sometime in the future (yes, I will play in 1920+ res), and I need a good mobo that can handle over-clocking well. Also, I cant decide between 800MHZ or 1066Mhz RAM (which is better?), I don't want to go down the track on DDR3 atm

GPU: Geforce 8800GTS 512MB (G92)

The brand on this card isn't too important to me, I'll properly go with XFX XXX version as I've use XFX cards in the past. I've also read that the over-clocked versions of this card make little different on performance, but who knows.

RAM: once I've sussed out which mobo I'm getting, then I'll worry about the RAM, but like I said, not interested in DDR3, why? too expensive and, from what I've read, not that much faster than DDR2..comments?

Anyway, comments, suggestions, ideas..all are wellcomed

thanks

watch as i bend over, and squeeae out my crysatl-ball.

that item is located in your 'start-up' folder. This can be found under 'system prefs'-'account'-'login items'. just de-select it.

p.s. after reading the link it says just what i said :( bad timing by me

as topic says.

1. Choice

2. Reason

thanks