Hey all ! I have been having a hard time picking out parts for my soon to be new rig over the last couple of days. First of all I am on a $900ish max CAD budget as we speak.
At the moment I am not looking into sli nor crossfire as I don't think it is necessary, so if you guys could just look at the specs below and tell me if I am on the right page here..
I just want to make sure this system will run stable as a pair with this current setup.
Before I forget to mention it i am going to be running this on 32 win xp Os.
pS, THANKS IN ADVANCE !!

CASE- Xion II Silver ATX Mid-Tower Case with Clear Side Front USB and Audio Ports

MOBO-Asus P5QL PRO Motherboard - P43, Socket 775, ATX, Audio, PCI Express 2.0, Gigabit LAN, S/PDIF, USB 2.0, RAID

CPU-Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400, 3.00-GHz @ 1333Mhz w/ 6Mb Cache (Socket 775) (Retail Box) w/ Heat Sink & Fan

GPU-Asus® Radeon EAH4870/HTDI/512M - Radeon™ HD4870 VPU w/512Mb DDR5 & PCI Express 2.0 (Retail Box)

HD-500GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 SATAII-300 7200RPM 32Mb OEM[/b]

PSU-OCZ GameXStream 600W SLI ATX 12V Ver 2.2 Power Supply (Retail Box)

RAM-OCZ 2Gb PC2-6400 DDR2 Dual Channel Reaper HPC Edition (OCZ2RPR8002GK)[/b]

If you guys see any unnecessary parts please let me know, Any amount of $ I can keep is a huge bonus at the moment with school and all. Thanks A lot again !!

personally i'd go for the P45 chipset, P5Q pro, good mobo, good oc capabilities and a second PCIe x16 slot incase ya want a bit more graphics frther down the line (only 8x 8x crossfire but still good). and the ram can go up to 1200MHz. no much difference in price.

Thanks, how's this mobo then ?
http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=7895

its not the P5Q pro, the pro is the one with the second PCIe x16 slot.

I dont know what shops or online shops you use/get in canada, but did a quick search, found this http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] cture=ASUS
Shop around, might be able to find it cheaper

Go to www.ncix.com and see if you get better prices there. When you find an item you want, add &promoid=1066 to the URL and load the page again, you might save some cash.
If you are in Ontario, NCIX charges the 5% GST but no provincial PST. I believe that's happening for all provinces except BC and those with harmonized retail taxes.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] omoid=1066 Seagate 500GB $70 ($89 without the promoid)
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] quantity=1 WD 640GB $73 ($100 normal)
At these prices, I'd prefer the WD, btw.

+1 for P5Q Pro. It's only $140 instead of $158 with the promoid.
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] omoid=1066

Corsair 750TX: $95
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] omoid=1066
It has the power and the connectors for HD 4870 Crossfire, unlike the GameXstream 600W.

RAM: 2GB Corsair DDR2-800 4-4-4-12, $25
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] quantity=1

HD 4870: $250
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] quantity=1

if your not gonna get a second card, that mobo should be fine

There's a sale at the E8400 too.

E8400 $174
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] omoid=1066

Antec 900, $96
http://www.ncix.com/products/index [...] omoid=1066

The total would be 73+140+95+25+250+174+96 = 853. Actually, you pay $923+shipping+GST and get back $70 in rebates.

^ Yeah that's the thing, I don't think crossfire is worth it for me, Esp with the games I play and My resolutions. Right now Im playing hellgate london, I am more into hack n slash or mmo games so you won't see me playing Crysis. I'm running on a 17" lcd until i have enough to buy a 22". So I'm thinking I could save money by using :
http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=7895
swap the reaper ram with http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=5479
Possibly get a 320g instead of 500g Hd, since i dont need all that space and perhaps
get a smaller peak load PSU, 600 seems too much for 1 4870.

ps, Im buying my parts in-store to avoid extra s&h etc, and i mainly shop at pccanada.com or tigerdirect.ca

Thanks for the input guys

You should look at www.directcanada.com, they have the lowest prices i have seen and free shipping for 300$+ orders for some time

tigerdirect.ca is too expansive.. i saw them selling 4870 for 363$ while others sold 300... the sapphire one is 354$ (+ shipping) wight now compared to 311$ (free shipping) on directcanada.com.

SEE! this is why i hate living in England! we get charged soo much more for all this stuf! ripped off! not fair! that case that i'm using on my system aswell with £1=nearly $2US is around £140 and the E8400 is $230

any of the P45 mobo's will see you right. and the reaper memory is better in my oppinion, with 4-4-4-12 i think it is. but then, if ya not overclocking, get 800MHz ram and clock it down to 667 (1:1) and bump up the timings.

Ok, perfect, i really appreciate you guys sticking around for last minute help

So it looks like this right now... Remember No Crossfire Intention atm...
Gaming on a 17" soon to be 22" and no Crysis for me

Asus® P5Q , Socket 775, Intel® P45Chipset w/ PCI Express x16 (ATX) $134.99

OCZ 2Gb PC2-6400 DDR2 Dual Channel Reaper HPC Edition (OCZ2RPR8002GK) 4-4-4-15 $79.99 ($35.00 Mail in rebate)

Intel® Core™2 Duo E8400, 3.00-GHz @ 1333Mhz w/ 6Mb Cache (Socket 775) (Retail Box) w/ Heat Sink & Fan $179.99

Asus® Radeon EAH4870/HTDI/512M - Radeon™ HD4870 VPU w/512Mb DDR5 & PCI Express 2.0 (Retail Box) $299.99 ($30.00 Mail in rebate)

320GB Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 SATAII-300 7200RPM 16Mb OEM $59.99

I still need a decent case, i don't care for it being fansy i just need to to have good air flow and fit all this and i also need a new psu, like i said i think the 600w is a waste because i have been told a 450-500 can run a 4870 easy, thoughts ??

www.pccanada.com / www.tigerdirect.ca

Do you mind finding a good case under $100 and a psu

Case:
http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=7840 CM690, $80

When you say, "No Crossfire Intention atm" do you mean you want one HD 4870 now and you may add a second one later and at that moment it's OK to throw out the PSU and motherboard and buy new ones for Crossfire, or do you mean you want the PSU and MB you buy now to support Crossfire already? The second approach is a waste if you never do Crossfire, but a lot smarter if you do it. Try to decide, OK? For example if you buy the P5Q (that's not the same as P5Q Pro, it's a MB with a single PCI-E x16 slot) and then decide you want Crossfire, you'll have to buy a new MB. Same thing for a 500W PSU.

If you think you will do Crossfire eventually, get the P5Q-E:
http://www.pccanada.com/viewitem.asp?id=7894 $170
If you are absolutely sure you won't want Crossfire ever, the P5Q is perfect and saves you $35.

Thanks i like that solid black case, but at the same time you posted i found this one for the same price http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicat [...] =A406-1030 which one do you think is better or at this point does it not matter ? Only difference i think is yours has 3x 120mm and mine has 2x 80 and 2x 120... But to answer your question I was along the lines of thinking that Crossfire was unnecessary, for me anyways...I'm not going to be playing Crysis, I run on a 17".. will be 22" max in a month or so, unless you prove me wrong... but from what i've heard sli/xfire isn't needed. What are your thoughts?