£600 spec.

[mlb07165]

I am due to get paid at the end of this week and am hoping to start a long overdue build. It'll be used for some gaming and running some engineering software like pro engineer or auto cad, plus all the usual stuff like music, films and general web surfing.

I was thinking of getting a hd4850 so that I could hopefully Xfire them at a later date, but was also toying with the idea of a hd4870 as I am hoping to get a 24" monitor pretty soon. So I'm not too sure which to go for.:confused:

I was also gonna go for an e7200 or an e8400 and was wondering if the extra £40 would be worth it.

Also, I am unsure of which mobo to go for, really I don't have a clue.

btw, I can stretch to a max budget of £650 inc. vat and delivery so any comments or suggestion are very welcome.

Cheers. :thumbsup:

[alexnifty]

Whats the multithreading like on your CAD engineering programmes? Does it use a lot of memory? Might want to get a Q6600, with 4GB RAM and Vista 64-bit for that.

Don't see much point in crossfiring two 4850's you might as well get a 4870 now and save yourself some cash in the long run.

MSI P35 NEO2-FR 28015 is the place to start in terms of mobo.

[mlb07165]

not 100% sure what the multi threading is like, but I'm confident that a q6600 and 4gb of ram would run them OK. I've read a lot of good things about that mobo on these forums, I may have overlooked it when I was browsing around, I was looking at ones closer to £100.

[marsey99]

8400 is better but the 7200 is good and fast, and tbh unless your a bench whoooore you will never tell the difference with a little overclock.

i would stay with 1 card just for thease, any of the 9800 gt/gtx/4850/80 will do you fine but the 4870 is the best and plays better at higher res.

http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+(Intel)/Gigabyte+GA-EP45C-DS3R+iP45+Express+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productI d=33329

would be my board of choice, not cheap but loads of features and a bit of upgradability.

[mlb07165]

i think i will probably go for the e7200, it should be powerful enough to run my cad programmes, and that gigabyte p45 board looks good too, I was also looking at the asus p5q ip45 (http://www.aria.co.uk/Products/Components/Motherboards/Socket+775+%28Intel%29/Asus+P5Q+iP45+Socket+775+Motherboard+?productId=32 294), is that one any good.

[mlb07165]

http://i35.tinypic.com/250185u.png

This is what I've come up with. Except the e7200's are currently out of stock so I've put in an e8400 for the moment.
Just wondering if I have to buy any case fans for the antec 300 or do they come included? If not which ones are best.

Any comments, suggestions are welcome.