right 300quid MAX. 6300 best bang for buck and overclocks well right?so thats -£130 would like SLi... so a geforce 7900GTO from msi thats that sorted so -£165 what motherboard (do i need via/nforce?what do they use now seems very vague...) what ram should i get? and most importantly WHERE? UK ONLY suppliers please. also how the hell do I find C2D on scan everytime i go to motherboards or cpu's cant find anything and yes i've scrolled through only way i find anything related is a banner that might be advertising C2D... cheers
SLI and C2D isn't ideal at the mo. nVidia only let you SLI with nVidia mobo chipsets and their nForce5 570 for Intel is decidedly below average. ATi do allow Crossfire on Intel P965 mobos but even this isn't ideal due to 16x/4x slots and messy external cables+master card or dongle-less perf hits. nVidia are over due updating nForce5 for Intel (590) but who knows when it will actually hit retail? C2D is certainly sweet enough to put up with this if you really want SLI, it's just a shame things aren't better. For the RAM you want DDR2-667 (5300) or DDR2-800 (6400). 2x1GB is ideal but if you can't afford it go 2x512MB now and look to upgrade or add more later. For specific brand recs search the forums, there's lots of recommendations out there. Compatibility and price would be my primary considerations. If you're getting that 7900GTO from www.dabs.com then it makes sense to grab the rest of your kit from there too. I've used them quite heavily over the years and only had a few issues with them but they've always come through in the end (unlike quite a few other companies I could mention). I've only used www.scan.co.uk a few times, no problems to report. To get C2D you select CPU from the top menu and then scroll down the 'Category' until you find "Core 2 Duo" (click Sort by price and the 'SEARCH'). The 6300 is £117/127 (oem/retail) and the 6400 is £153 (retail). Try THIS link which should take you straight there.
