Need some clever advice :)

[Wildfury77]

<p>I'm getting a new computer <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /> Price target £1400 (UK)</p><p>Planning on using <a href="http://www.vadim.co.uk/" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">http://www.vadim.co.uk/</a></p><p>Some questions <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p><p> 1) C2D 6700 vs cooled overclocked 6600 (the 6600 setup is more costly)?</p><p> 2) AMD 6000+ vs C2D?</p><p> 3) If i went for C2D 6700 (not overclocked) do i need fancy extra CPU coolers?</p><p> 4) ATI 2900 vs NVIDIA 8800 640MB or even (320?)</p><p> 5) How big a PSU? 650MW enough with the 2900 card?</p><p> 6) Tsunami Case ok?</p><p> 7) Vista (yuck) Premium or Ultimate? and 32 or 64 version?</p><p>Lots of questions but I don't want to mess this up.....if someone is extra nice they could suggest a build from this site....i would be VERY grateful!! Otherwise these questions will help me<img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" /></p>

[Rokaab]

<p>Personally I went with <a href="http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk" target="_blank" rel="nofollow">www.pcspecialist.co.uk</a>, it took about 4 weeks from ordering (ie. forever), but I thought I got a very nice system, and cheaper than anywhere else I could find - and the wait (though frustrating) was well worth it:</p><ul><li>E6600 Core2Duo</li><li>some ASUS SLI motherboard</li><li>2x NVidia 8800GTS 320MB</li><li>2GB 800MHz RAM</li><li>22" widescreen monitor</li><li>700W PSU (I rang them up and they said 700W would deal with it fine)</li><li>extra CPU cooling (ok, I got the cheap one at £14)</li><li>250GB hard drive, floppy drive, dvd writer, memory card reader, boring case - but with plenty of room</li><li>1 year return + collect warranty</li><li>probably some other stuff I've forgotten</li></ul><p>This system came to £1271 including VAT, and it plays the game very nicely in Very High Quality (I didnt realise my armour looked so nice <img src="/smilies/3b63d1616c5dfcf29f8a7a031aaa7cad.gif" border="0" alt="SMILEY" />)</p>

[TSR-JasonC]

From the tests I've seen, the Radeon HD 2900 XT is a scosh better than the GeForce 8800 GTS, but not the 8800 GTX or 8800 Ultra.  From the pricing I've seen for all those cards, it's about right. As for the Core 2 Duo versus Athlon 64 X2 question, it's all personal preference.  I personally prefer AMD's products over Intel's, but tests show that the Core 2 processors are faster overall.