Building a new pc help please

[utrin]

Hi at the end of the month im going to be buying a new gaming pc mainly for age of conan because my current pc doesnt handle it to well. im going to be buying from pcspecialist a company that i can choose the parts and they build it for me.
i have afew questions if someone could answer please:

is the ASUS® MAXIMUS EXTREME worth a extra £100 or should i get the ASUS® P5K3 DELUXE

is the 1024MB GEFORCE 9800GX2 PCI Express best card out at moment or is there a better one?

im getting 4 gig of ram and vista 64

lastly ive heard the cpu isnt that important as long as its fairly good so what would you reccomend im thinking about the Intel® Core™2 Quad Q9450 (4 X 2.66GHz) 1333MHz FSB/12MB L2 Cache

or should i save money and get something abit less expensive?

thanks

[glc]

I would get a DDR2 motherboard - one of the other P5K series. DDR3 is frightfully expensive. I would also save money and get a E8xxx series dual core. I just built a box with an E8400 and a P5K Pro. Building at the absolute top end is usually a waste of money except when it comes to video cards for gaming boxes. Even then, a bit of restraint won't make that much difference.

[Katreat]

I agree with GLC. You can build a very nice gaminig rig for $1000 - $1500. From there on up you can improve performance but it will get very expensive for very minor improvement. As for gaming as GLC pointed out you really dont get any improvment going with a quad so if you just want speed and gaming performance the dual cores are just a capable for a fraction of the cost. As for video card the 9800GX2 is top dog last I heard but the improvement over the 9800GTX is probably not worth the extra $100, but that is more of a personal decision.

For DDR3 relize that the real advantage of it over DDR2 is speed. Since all current processors are topped out at 1333 FSB and since they are unlikely to get any faster with Nehalem and a new socket on the horizon, you really wont capitalize on the speed advantage unless you are planning on a very serious OC.

Kat

[Drunner611]

I would never special order a pc from a site like that. You will be able to save 20% by putting it together yourself. And with that 20%, you can upgrade now or later. That's probably a difference of $400 with the computer you're looking at.

[ToyotaSupra]

Read PCMech's Build Your Own PC article. I built my first PC at age 15 and it was very easy.
If you're up to building your own PC, and live in the USA, order from NewEgg.com

You could get the E8400 if you only plan on gaming. It costs around $200.
As for RAM I'd suggest the Corsair XMS DDR2 800 sticks. Costs ~$100 for 4GB.
For your Video Card the 9800GTX will run AoC just fine. Costs ~$300.
The P5K motherboard will do just fine also. Costs ~$100
For your HDD I suggest a Seagate 7200.11 HDD.
Lite-On Retail for your optical drive.
Then pick out a case.

With that you should be good to go with Age of Conan. I just ordered the rig in my signature, but I do a little more then gaming sometimes.