I've had my system a bit over a year and it's getting a little outdated. It has served me exceptionally well and i'm astonished at how well my little X1600XT Bravo Ed still performs pumping out Bioshock on high at 1440x900 and Crysis at medium - low and i will be sad to see it go

Anyway, I have 2 slightly different build plans and i'm not really too sure which one to go with even though the only difference is basically the case. If anyone has any suggestions to things i should change or to which build i should go for that would be great.

Prices are in Australian Dollars and both websites are Australian.

PC Maniacs Build

CASE
Gigabyte 3D Aurora 570 Black - $215
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz - $339
HDD
Western Digital WD5 500GB - $155
MOTHERBOARD
Gigabyte GA – X38 – DS4 - $245
OPTICAL DRIVE
Pioneer 215 D/Layer 20x DVD RW - $45
POWER SUPPLY
OCZ StealthXstream 600w SLI PSU - $125
RAM
Patriot PC2-6400 4GB 2GBX2 LL - $239
VIDEO CARD
Powercolor HD3870 PCS 800Mhz 512 - $324
TOTAL
$1687 + $71 = $1758

Online VIP Build

CASE
Antec P182 Black - $190
CPU
Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4Ghz - $325
HDD
Western Digital WD5 500GB - $138
MOTHERBOARD
Gigabyte GA – P35 – DS4 - $234
OPTICAL DRIVE
Sony AWG D/Layer 18x DVD RW - $55
POWER SUPPLY
Zalman 500w ZM500-HP Modular PSU - $134.93
RAM
G.Skill F2-6400CL5D 4GB - $189.95
VIDEO CARD
Powercolor HD3870 PCS 800Mhz 512 - $322
TOTAL
$1589.87 + $79 = $1668.87

They are the 2 i have at the moment and i am willing to change a few things around.

*NOTE*
I don't really care about how cheap anything is, if it breaks i will get it replaced. I've had generic RAM and a cheap MOBO in my current build and nothing has broken

I am in a pretty solid state about buying an ATI card built by Powercolor as my X1600XT is a Powercolor card and it's been great. NO hassles ever.

I am aware the 8800's trump the 3870's, i don't care. They are great for the price and i am an ATI fanboy

I do not really want to be spending more than $1800 AUD

I am aware ATI/AMD's new Dual GPU R680's are coming out very soon and i will be waiting to see what they are like

Thats about it really, Any suggestions and things people have to say would be much appreciated. Thanks heaps,

I'd go for the 1st one - better board, better RAM. Not sure why your prices for the same item vary between the two - can you cherry pick and build your own to save the difference?

They are 2 different sites charging different prices, dunno why but meh. Yeah i was thinking about combining the 2. Don't know what case i would actually prefer though, i've always like the P180 and P182 but that Gigabyte 3D Aurora is pretty nice imo.

Given the choice I would always prefer the Antec product - I have two of them and like the solid build quality and attention to detail of both of them.

Okey doke. Thanks. Probably get the P182 in the end. I wish i had the money so i could get it now

Also make sure you have a 64 bit version of either Windows XP or Vista if you want to properly use all that ram.

Yeah will do thanks for reminding me Didou. XP 64 Bit. Been there done that with Vista.