I want to be able to run UTIII and Crysis on max and at stupidly high resolutions.

Money isn' t an issue.

Dual core (either AMD or intel depending on your preference) and dual sli 8800' s.

If you want ready made then look at alienware(oops sorry Dell) or Commodore they have a nice gaming rig http://www.play.com/PC/PCs/4-/3476329/Commodore-XX-Q6855-Gaming-PC-Black-+-Ckin-Of-Your-Choice/Product.aspx?dpr=104057 Well you did say money was not a problem

Failing that get off your arse and build one yourself, Ebuyer are very competitively priced at the moment and they have the 6400+ for £144.99

Aren' t we on quad core now?

i' ll ask you to wait for the latest geforce to be released very soon, those are 10.1 dirext x compatible and much more powerful that the current 8800 GTX or ultra... so wait you son of a jew wait, if money is not a problem then it' s easy to choose, just wait for the G90 video cards.

I have heard of issues with the intel quad core' s regarding over heating issues, (this is the for the home market not servers.) simillar to the issues they had with either the P1' s or P2' s in the early days. Just going on industry mumblings. But sure if you have the money why not go for a Quad core' s.

Abasoufiane I think you' ll find the 10.1 cards will not be out until late end of 1st quarter 2008. Only mentioned the sli 8800' s as not sure if Nitro was meaning new desktop this side of Christmas or early next year.

also 10.1 isnt anything that affects games its just some stuff for vista!

also 10.1 isnt anything that affects games its just some stuff for vista!

wroooong it affects games as well, i' ve read about directx 10.1 but sorry i forgot details.

intel will also release its 45nm CPU' s , forgot he code name , and that would be very soon, motherboards which support that are already on the market + DDR3 and PCIexpresss 2.0 ... so wait man a little longer and you' ll have a computer that will kick the shit out of anything.

just remembered one vbery important detail

directx 10.1 hardware will allow " free 4AA" , talk about not affecting game... there are many other improvements over directx 10, read the recent article about it in Tomshardware.

Abasoufiane, DX10.1 games will not be about until late 2008, so why adopt a technology that hasn' t been proven or anything written for it yet? Seeing as DX10.1 cards are not yet out either again why go for unproven technology.
Besides whilst most techie sites are claiming the the current DX10 cards won' t handle 10.1. No one actually knows as it has not yet been released, and to be honest it is not going to add to much in terms of graphic handling and performance as you might think.

As for the 45nm cpu' s i will point you back to my reply they have issues with cooling these chips, in the same way as the early pentiums.

Dont do SLI, it' s a waste. Just get the best GPU, if you get two 8800' s now a few months from now they' ll be outperformed by 1 Geforce9, so if you' re going to get an 8800 just get 1.

one of the main reasons to go from 65nm to 45 nm is the heat issue, 65nm CPU' s were cool enough, 45 nm should allow even higher clock speed with lower heat.. i' ve read a long time ago how Penryn (45 nm) will give a higher clock to the quad core with no heat issue... so if what you' re saying is true, then this is ridiculous it should not have happened ... if you have article about this issue , please give the link , because as far as i know there is no such thing..

The pci express 2.0 will also be compatible with futur cards soo ...

if you get two 8800' s now a few months from now they' ll be outperformed by 1 Geforce9, so if you' re going to get an 8800 just get 1.

What are you talking about?!? A computer part is outdated the moment it' s put together. It' s not like you trade in your old card for a new one. If you actually do that then I commend you for your efforts. But you' re limitiing yourself to just one company. When there' s so much competition going on in this industry in a very short time, keep it broad and open. Go dual all the way. You may think that' s overkill or too much power. However, you' ll never have to ask yourself, do I have enough power to run this?

EDIT: Be sure to pick up 2 Terabyte HD for a Raid. You may want to get a 3rd one or just take the one out of your old computer for backup. But you probably know this, so I' m just rambing on..blah...blahh..blaahhh.

ORIGINAL: kombatfighter
What are you talking about?!? A computer part is outdated the moment it' s put together.

Actually, no, my 8800 was the best card on the market for like 6 months, I bought it at launch. And that isn' t the point, *** face.

The point is Geforce 9 cards are coming out in mere months so its stupid to buy two 8800s which are already 1 year old technology.

It isn' t that its overkill or too much power, its that is not going to be ENOUGH power compared to single G9 in a few months.

And don' t try to act like you know what you' re talking about, you' re probably running a Geforce 3.

Go for a Quad core CPU, Crysis will fully support/ take advantage of quad.. also most comming apps and games will support Quad too.

Edit:
http://ve3d.ign.com/articles/news/304/Crysis-3-Quad-Core-CPUs

When' s the latest you want to wait?

Don' t buy anything unless the motherboard has a PCI-E 2.0. Your upgrade path will be pretty ***ing short if you don' t have that much.

OS: The most difficult question. 32 Bit Vista or 64 bit Vista? 32 bit has a maximum of 4GB or memory and that' s shared with the other add in cards. 32 bit should be dead by now, but the 64 bit has some compatibility issues. I would look into it. If all your software is supported I would go with 64 bit. I doubt future games will have issue with 64 bit.

Motherboard:
The X38 motherboards are already out are already out (at least one of them is). It' s basically the top dog now. It supports 45nm chips (penryn) as well as all the older chips already out. This motherboard is perfect except that it does not support SLI. It' s an overclocking champion, if you want to push Penryn quad core past 4Ghz you' ll want an X38 or X48 mobo. If you only want one card which I recommend. Just upgrade more often. If you always have the best card, you' ll always be able to play anything max settings.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=26337&vpn=GA-X38-DQ6&manufacture=Gigabyte

CPU:
What you really want is the Penryn coming out in a few months, November I think. So buy a cheaper but still blasing fast chip just to take on UT III and Crysis. I would go for a Q6600 since Crysis supports quad core.

Videocard:
8800 ULTRA

RAM:
Some X38 mobo' s support DDR2 and some support DDR3. The one I gave as an example supports DDR2. DDR3 is obviously better and in the future it will be a lot better, but it' s very expensive atm. Some motherboards support both. I' m either waiting for DDR3 prices to go down or until I find a motherboard that has two DDR2 slots and four DDR3 slots. If you don' t mind paying 800$ for RAM then go with DDR3, more for future proofing than immediate benefits.

Physics Card:
UT III is supposed to support it properly, I think they hinted that some levels will only be accessible to people with the card. So do what I did, buy one. They' re cheap as hell now. At 300$ I said *** off, but I can live with paying 150$ for the card. Hopefully they won' t drop the support at the last minute.

Case:
Obviously a personal preference, but I strongly suggest the Coolmaster CM Stacker 832 Black. Add about 4 120mm fans and you' ll be good to go. Go for a large case at least. You can thank me when you' re building your PC.

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=22231&vpn=RC-832-KKN1&manufacture=COOLERMASTER

Power supply:
A lot of good options here, I recommend the 1200Watt Silverstone Decathlon. I have the 850 Watt version and it' s great. Whatever you get, make sure it' s at least 850 Watt and you have dual 8 PCIE pins for future videocards.

ORIGINAL: Agent Ghost

When' s the latest you want to wait?

I' m not in any kind of rush.

What would you do?

Enjoy your current Xbxlive FPS untill the Next GPU / CPU arrives.

I' m looking to upgrade my motherboard and CPU (possibly ram if neccessary) early next year. I' m waiting for either the Intel X48 motherboards +Penryn or possibly a higher clocked AMD Phenom chip, it looks like a 3.0Ghz+ Phenom chip could beat a Penryn. The upcoming AMD chips certainly have a superior architecture than Penryn. The only reason Intel will initially be able to hold off the Phenom chips performance wise is because Penryn is 45nm while Phenom will be 65nm at launch. Penryn is just a refresh of Conroe, while Barcelona or Phenom is a whole new architecture.

Get at least 4GB of RAM. Anyone with less than 4GB of RAM should be shot in the face.

You should be shot.

Get at least 4GB of RAM. Anyone with less than 4GB of RAM should be shot in the face.

is this suppose to be a joke, i can' t tell with you

didn' t i tell you we are already few here and we can' t afford retards?