Future PC Specs .... good, bad?

[Fidelus28]

Hey,
This will be my first time building a PC and i was looking to make sure it ran Vista real well, as well as games for the next few years. I own Oblivion and Black and White 2 and running these absolutely fine is a must. Looking to purchase Spore and Bioshock, coming out so them too. I'm looking to spend no more than $2500.00 AU on the PC.
Here are some ideas i had:

Seagate Barracuda 320 GB
Some sort of 17" LCD Monitor
Corsair 1024MB RAM - 2 sticks
Raidmax Sirius Case
Samsung DVD R/RW with Lightscribe

Now, the tricky parts:
I'm a little confused about CPU's and motherboards.
I was looking at the Intel Core2Duo E6400 which is about 2.13Ghz. However, there are cheaper Intel CPU's that are quicker. Yet, the Core2Duo must be better, right? So which should i pick. I don't want to spend more than $400 on a CPU but i would like a decent one, preferably Intel.

I should also say that i use my PC for gaming alot, as well as school work and the usual. I have a bad habit of opening a million windows, so something that can handle the multi-tasking aspect is good.

Also, a motherboard. I was so lost with the motherboards i couldn't even pick out one. Though something about the Gigabytes sounded appealing. Even though i don't know much about them. So any help with motherboard selection would be appreciated.

Last thing i can think up of is a Graphics Card selection. Something no more than $500 but will hopefully run those games fine. Currently i'm sitting on a nVidia Geforce 6800 in my Inspiron 9300 laptop and it sorta has laggy moments in Oblivion. 0.o Like drops to 20 fps and occasionally below. I won't even mention BVlack and White 2 in its moments...

OO - i forgot a PSU. The Raidmax Sirius doesn't come with a PSU, at least not from pccasegear.com. So i'm not too sure which to select.

Anyway, 0.o that's alot. So, any help, recommendations, advice or opinions would be awesome. There are some minor stuff i didnt add like Headsets, network cards, etc, but i don't think that's that important.

Also, if anyone needs to know i would have my external harddrive attached to the PC (Maxtor 300GB), a Graphire4 Tablet, and HP Printer/Scanner/Copier amongst other things.

Thanks in advance,
-Fidelus28

 

[Grafficks]

Hey

First, I think you should upgrade from a normal 17" LCD monitor to a widescreen LCD monitor that's about 19". You'd be satisfied with that.

If you want your PC to be future-proof and be good for years to come, get about 2GB of RAM (2 x 1GB sticks). 1GB of memory is barely cutting it these days.

If you're building a PC around this time, a Core 2 Duo should be the optimal choice. Those other Intels you see that are cheaper and faster are not Core 2 Duos. You should pick a Core 2 Duo, because (to answer your question) yes, a Core 2 Duo is "faster" (not in the sense of clock speed, but other factors).

For your habit of multitasking, you just need enough RAM and a dual-core Processor, which should allow you to do many things at once.

For the motherboard, I would recommend a nice ASUS motherboard. Definately look for SLI support for future expansion. Make sure the chipset supports the C2D.

If your budget for a graphics card is around $500, then you should definately get a DX10 card. A GeForce 8800 GTS would be nice.

For your power supply, get something around the 600 Watt range, since your PC is going to be pretty high-end. With your budget, you should have enough money to get a high-end PSU, like the ones with more than two +12V rails, modular cabling, fancy lights, etc.

Finally, tell us what website you will get your stuff from, so we can provide a direct link to a product suggestion. Also, this being your first build, you should do quite a bit of research first (mainly regarding the products, since the "how to build it" part is pretty easy). An informed buyer is more likely to be a satisfied buyer.

Good luck with your build

 

[Fidelus28]

Wow. Thankyou so much!
I will be buying from a mixture of these sites:
www.pccasegear.com.au
www.umart.com.au
www.auspc.com.au
I've been researching like crazy, though i know i've still got a while to go.
But thank you anyway - much appreciated!

 

[F1N3ST]

I would get the eVGA 680i board, it is like half the price of the ASUS and is almost as feature rich (Both are stable) and these get very good OC's, get this board and a eVGA 8800GTS and O.o lol