New system ideas

[KJConlon]

Greetings all! I am in the early stages of building a new system and I have a few questions. The system will be primarily a FS system using FSX and payware a/c (LDS, FeelThere, Phoenix) but also Photoshop System board - any opnions on the Asus Striker Extreme? Or am I over paying for this? CPU. I am looking at the E6850 (3GHz) or the Q6600 (2.4GHz) Is the quad core going to give me more performance vs the higher clock speed dual core? RAM. CL4 or CL5? I am looking at DDR2-800. But do I get 2 or 4MB? (>2MB I think I need Vista?) As for the video card - I am sold on the 8800GTX 768 MB Thanks for the input.Kevinhttp://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y81/kconl.../DCAFO_ADOM.gif

[Guest baksteen33]

Hi Kevin, IMHO, addons are best off with winXP. If you don't overclock, get as many MHz as you can afford for FSX. Mainboards: I don't know, but I consider Intel CPUs a job for Intel chipsets. If Intel, you'll only be able to 'do AHCI' with ICHxR chipsets. Perhaps also make sure you get a PSU with 8-pin connectors if you don't want to swap it next time you get a new GPU. ;-) Mem: If you can, plug 4GB and neglect you can only use 3 with a 32-bit OS. The 3rd GB will give your GPU 'room to breath'. Hope this adds to thoughts, kind regards Jaap