Yeap, building a new comp.

I'm just gonna post the new specs, and see what you guys think. I'm on a really tight budget, but I suppose I can expand a few bux here and there, just don't add too much to it.

E6300
Gigabyte P965-DS3P
MSI X1950Pro 256mb
Antec TP3 650W

Gonna reuse Case, HDD, DVDRW, Soundcard (Audigy2Plat), WinXP (Vista is crap. Wait till DX10 games comes out first)

I've got a few choices for RAM, I'm not sure which would be better, but I'm leaning towards the Corsairs. Bear in mind I'm looking into overclocking this very heavily, so I'll need the best RAM I can get.
Gskill F2-6400CL4D-2GBPK
Gskill F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR
Corsair TWIN2X2048-6400C4
Will be using this comp for games. And some video editing. I don't think I have to list down all the other stuff like officework, surfing, mp3, etc...

The corsair's gonna set me back AUD$21 more (AUD$370). Exchange rate is about 78c to the USD I think.

Btw, I'm gona be buying most of the stuff from www.msy.com.au and www.scorptec.com.au (RAM from scorptec). I may get stuff from www.cpl.net.au (green guide), but they're generally more expensive.

I would be looking into upgrading the other components slowly, piece by piece as money comes in.... By the end, I want to run an 8800GTX (or the fastest at the time), alot of HDDs in Raid0 and RAID1, liquid cooling (only the best from Swiftech) in probably a Tt armor. I'd probably get aircooling to feed my OC addiction before looking into that $500 swiftech WC....

But of course, it'll get me about 1 year to get everything, so I'm worried about the current config now, I really need something to replace this Northwood dinosaur. If I don't get this now, I'll be putting it off forever, money doesn't stay in my bank account long enough, I'm been putting off this upgrade for 2 years now.

How big is the case? I run into cable problems with the DS3 because the IDE channel is at the bottom of the board. Also, it only has two SATA ports that are RAID-enabled, so if you want to run "a lot of hard drives" in RAID arrays you'll need a RAID controller or something.

Hmm... good point. My current case is a mid-tower no-brander, besides, I'm using SATA drives, so if Pata won't fit, I'll have problems with only my DVDRW. Thanks for pointing that out.

BTW, its a DS3P. I know its not out in the US as of yet, but its essentially a DS4 without the fancy NB heatpipe cooling.

Looks good! You definitely deserve an upgrade from your old system according to your profile. I agree on the RAID, you might want to think about investing in a RAID controller. Suggestion though. Since you say you are an overclocker, you should get an E4300 instead. It is 0.06GHz slower stock than the E6300 (negligible) but it runs on the 800MHz bus, therefore it has a higher multiplier and is more easily overclocked, because you won't have to raise the bus speeds as high to reach "x"GHz.

Ah, I wasn't aware there was a DS3P version.

My understanding is the DS4 is essentially a DS3 with a fancy heatpipe for the NB, so is the DS3P essentially a DS3?

I did think about the E4300, but given that I do run microsoft virtual machine, the virtualisation thats disabled in the E4300 might affect the performance of my PC (or the virtual PC), so I'm sticking with the E6300. Its a good recommendation if I didn't need it tho...

About the DS3 and DS3P, the DS3 doesn't have Intel Storage Matrix (or whatever it was), and therefore didn't support RAID5, which I may use in the future.

BTW, whats the difference in a PCI RAID controller, and a built in one? I don't think I am willing to spend a few hundred dollars on one that has a processor built in.... I'm also worried about the bottleneck the PCI slot will have if I run a 4 disk RAID5 array... PCIe 4x RAID cards are available, but they cost a bomb. I'm not Osama, so I don't really have too many to spare...

I have run a virtual machine on my lowly CPU, and it didn't run slowly at all.

I built a pc with that cpu and mobo for my friend, runs well. Good choices

*edit: please be more concise with your quotes*

I'm still stuck with which RAM to use. I'm definately not going OCZ, even though thats much easier to get. Their RAM seem to prefer to run at higher temps, which I don't really like....

BTW, virtual machine runs like a snail on my comp. AMDs I'm not sure, but I'd say Athlons have virtualisation technology on it. Might be old, but my comp's older

go to newegg. I just bought 2x1 GB ram there, great price and I was able to run a 4-4-4-12 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16820231098

newegg doesn't ship overseas. And the RAM I was looking at runs 4-4-4-12 naturally, which is better since I'll be overclocking my comp. I'm hoping to reach 75% OC on air, or at least 50%.

Definately not on stock coolers. I'm thinking of giving the thermalright heatpipe RAM coolers a go

Look for this ram overseas then. it runs great, bios decrease the ram to 667, something lower than the native mhz, then overclock, the ram will increase as fsb of processor will, you can also change timings. from running 4 different high end ram modules i find this one most efficient for overclocking at price

I wrote an overclocking FAQ, I know all that.

The question I'm asking is, between the 3 RAM listed there, which one will be best? I don't think I'll be looking for CL5 RAM, I listed the Gskill F2-6400PHU2-2GBNR because the chips on Gskill PHU range is supposed to be top of the batch or something. And I can't afford the CL4 PHU chips....

well if price is an issue it seems that upgrading might be out of touch, maybe testing timings will help?

I am building a new comp. Which means I have to buy new RAM, not upgrade.

if you're buying new ram then try newegg.com, or a uk equivelent if you're overseas

Australia. You didn't read the initial post?

I even listed a couple of sites I'm gonna buy my hardware from.

I did, guess I got lost in transition, sorry. What's your fav site you buy from?

probably MSY, but I don't have any loyalty to them. Their service is crap, but marginally better than cpl. Either way, I'll be going to the shop that carries the product I want, at the lowest price.

And don't bother telling me I can get discounts for buying whole systems: they don't.

i dont do bundles, or barebone, still a rip off unless you're building for a unknowledgable content family member