New PC - advice

[Melak]

The 'backstory':
Currently I've got a 3 year old POS sitting under my desk...Sempron 2800+ (2,2GHz), 1 Gig of RAM and a GF 6800 GT (256MB). Now this would suffice for a little while longer, it's just that all the online games I use(or used) to play run worse with every update. While e.g. CS:S ran fine at 1280x1024 on maximum settings no matter how many players, on a messed up XP two years ago...now, on a clean XP, it doesn't even improve the framerate if I change resolution, quality settings, hell I tried to see if it ran better in DX8 or 7 mode...it doesn't.

So basically, I'm looking for a new rig for gaming and rendering. While I'm not to keen on overclocking, I'd like to have the option in the long run. I had something like this in mind:

Intel Q9450 - 280€

Asus Max. Form. - 190€

8GB Corsair DDR2-800 - 180€

Antec Ninehundred - 90€

Some 600-750W PSU, probably Enermax - 100-170€

HDD, Sound, Cables, Shipping... - 250€

So some 1140€ for the thing, graphics adapter excluded.
Which is another problem...
I'm not sure if the G92-reuse GF9s are worth waiting for, or if I should just get a 8800GTS, or two...

I probably chose some bad models/brands etc. so I'm looking forward to any suggestions you might have

[Samurai]

Intel Q9450 should be faultless, and you've gotta tell me where you're picking one up for €280, as the best UK price I've found so far is £245ish (approx €324).

Motherboard choice is the only bit I'd choose differently, I have an Asus myself- about 5 years old- and it's been rock solid, but friends buying more recently have complained about quality and also compatibility. Couple this with their Technical "Support", which I know to be dire at best, and I'd point in the direction of one of the other brands- probably either MSI or Gigabyte. Personally, I'm likely opting for the Gigabyte GA-P35-DS4 (Link).

Antec should be good- got a P182 here, very happy.

Enermax PSU- also good, I went with a Corsair unit- 5 year warranty, and a modular cabling system, which means you only attach the cables you need- handy for when you need to improve case airflow.

As far as GPU goes, I'm a firm believer in not buying the latest/greatest unit- they always tumble in price, and there's always something "better" on its way next month. An 8800 GTS would have no problems at all with current games, a GTX or Ultra would be even faster, but if you have the money to burn then go for the best you can afford. Again, MSI would be my recommended brand for this- and their GTS comes factory-overclocked.

Good luck with the build.

[Melak]

Thanks for your suggestions!

The cheapest Q9450 I could find at the moment was around 275€ plus shipping at mindfactory.de, where I'm going to get some other components to. I'll see that I can limit it to as few stores as possible to save shipping costs.

I'd like to get a PCIe2 board with and DDR2, so that I may switch to a new card some day without getting a new board...looks like it'll be the GA-X48-DQ6. Slightly more expensive but a newer chpset as well.

The modular cabling is accounted for, and the Nine Hundred should provide ample cooling for now.

I'm not sure if the extra cost for the Ultra is justified, I think I'll go with a GTX.

Including a 750GB HDD, some generic DVD Writer, a Creatve "X-Fi Music", some cables and shipping ( I managed to limit it to 3 stores) and substracting 60€ that someone still owes me that adds up to 1.473,98€, about what I intended to spend.

Thanks for your suggestions again

[Clay]

I have an asus motherboard purchased about a year ago, and never have issues. I would recommend holding off for the rest of the 9 series to be released (9600's are out now and are amazing (same or better than 8800gts 320) but the 9800s should be out soon enough.

[Melak]

Why hold off for a card that's the same chip recycled all over again, when the 9600 performs oh so slightly better than a 8800 GT while being marginally cheaper? (10€?)

The 9800GTX will only have a very small increase in clock rates compared to the 8800 GTS (25MHz core speed) while using the same chip and amount of memory, why would it perform a lot better? Also, would the new GTX really be the same price as the old (G80) one?

And yes, theres still the GX2...but I hardly think it'll be cheaper than 500€, so it kind of blows my budget.

With the 8800 GTX dropping to 270€ I think I can assume I'll get a decent card that I can swap out for a GF9 or 10 some time in the future, should we ever get the new chips...

If I'm wrong about the performance of the 9600 please correct me, but the few benchmarks I've looked at made it appear that there's little of a performance increase.