19.11.2008, 04:38
8600 line is defective and nvidia hushed it up. Google and read. Any 8800 is quality and will serve you well, no matter what the designation. Stick with EVGA or BFG if possible, most reliable companies with excellent warranty service. If on a budget buy a quality motherboard and a cheaper, overclocker cpu and a good fan. You can always upgrade the CPU later that way, but fan/mobo will last.
Intel E2180 is a excellent choice, dual core and runs 3.0ghz OC very easily with a decent cooling solution, my favourite being Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Cheap too. Spend the extra $$ on a good mobo (ABIT, Gigabyte are both good, not ASUS their QC is too unpredictable). 2gb of ram is all you need, don't bother with more. Vista sucks, stay with XP. The amount of ram recognized by 32bit OS varies but could be as low as 2.25gb, because it starts at 4gb and addresses memory backwards starting with things like video memory and motherboard cache. 2gb is plenty for all games and apps now and in the next year or two, at least.
Power supply should be a good brand but don't feel the need to get a huge wattage rating, they're expensive to buy and run every month if you care about electric bill, and totally unnecessary unless you run a mammoth rig. I run my own rig on a 600w and it has 5 hard drives, 8800GT, quad core OC @ 3.2ghz, and tons of other stuff, 7 USB devices, etc. 600w is plenty for this. I had another gaming PC dual core 3ghz with SLI and 2 hard drives and it ran on a 500w no problem at all (I sold it). Just buy a good brand like Thermaltake, Rosewill, BFG, etc. OCZ is good but they don't honor rebates. I got burned on 5 out of 6 purchases last year.
Good luck!
Intel E2180 is a excellent choice, dual core and runs 3.0ghz OC very easily with a decent cooling solution, my favourite being Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro. Cheap too. Spend the extra $$ on a good mobo (ABIT, Gigabyte are both good, not ASUS their QC is too unpredictable). 2gb of ram is all you need, don't bother with more. Vista sucks, stay with XP. The amount of ram recognized by 32bit OS varies but could be as low as 2.25gb, because it starts at 4gb and addresses memory backwards starting with things like video memory and motherboard cache. 2gb is plenty for all games and apps now and in the next year or two, at least.
Power supply should be a good brand but don't feel the need to get a huge wattage rating, they're expensive to buy and run every month if you care about electric bill, and totally unnecessary unless you run a mammoth rig. I run my own rig on a 600w and it has 5 hard drives, 8800GT, quad core OC @ 3.2ghz, and tons of other stuff, 7 USB devices, etc. 600w is plenty for this. I had another gaming PC dual core 3ghz with SLI and 2 hard drives and it ran on a 500w no problem at all (I sold it). Just buy a good brand like Thermaltake, Rosewill, BFG, etc. OCZ is good but they don't honor rebates. I got burned on 5 out of 6 purchases last year.
Good luck!