Looking for Buying Advice on AMD Gaming PC

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Hi all, I'm looking to buy a new Gaming PC and customized one on pc-specialist.com. Based on the review I read for the Processor and Graphics Card it seemed like it would do the job. The price is cming in at £623. Here is the spec:

Processor (CPU) - AMD PHENOM II X4 945 3.0 GHz SOCKET AM3 8MB CACHE
Memory (RAM) - 4GB CORSAIR XMS3 DUAL-DDR3 1600MHz - LIFETIME WARRANTY
Motherboard - ASUS® M4A79XTD EVO: DUAL DDR3, S-ATA II, 2 x PCIe x16, 2 x PCIe x1, 2 x PCI
Operating System - NO OPERATING SYSTEM REQUIRED
USB Options - 6 x USB 2.0 PORTS (4 REAR + 2 FRONT) AS STANDARD
Memory - 1st Hard Disk - 500GB SERIAL ATA 3-Gb/s HARD DRIVE WITH 8MB CACHE (7,200rpm)
1st CD/DVD Drive - 22x DUAL LAYER DVD WRITER ±R/±RW/RAM
Graphics Card - 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 4850X2 PCI EXPRESS (Special Offer)
Sound Card - Sound Blaster® Audigy™ SE (£24)
Network Facilities - ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
Memory Card Reader - INTERNAL 52 IN 1 CARD READER (READS XD, MS, CF, SD, etc)
Case - STYLISH PIANO BLACK FUSION CASE inc. 2 FRONT USB
Power Supply & Case Cooling - 600W Quiet Quad Rail PSU + 120mm Case Fan (£59)
Processor Cooling - STANDARD CPU COOLER
Firewire & Video Editing - 2 x IEEE 1394a FIREWIRE PORTS (1 onboard, 1 at back panel)

There is an option to get an ASUS® CROSSHAIR III FORMULA: DDR3 - Republic of Gamers, CrossfireX motherboard. This would bump the price up to £684 from £623. Would the price increase be justified?

I want to be able to play all the games out atm and still be able to run new games for a few years at a decent fps.

There are a few other single card options; 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 4870 PCI EXPRESS is £614, not much of a price reduction, would it be worth the extra £9 to get the 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 4850X2 PCI EXPRESS?
Another option is the 1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 4890 PCI EXPRESS which is £652. What do you think would be the best option?

From what I've read DDR3 RAM seems to be the way of the future, I wanted to get it just so I wouldn't have to worry about upgrading the RAM for a few years. Would there really be no benefit in getting DDR3 over DDR2 without an I7? If I did decide to drop the DDR3 I would have to go for a different prebuild as the only option is DDR3.

So what does everyone think? Is it a rip-off? Would I be better of going for a different Processor Graphics Card Combo? Is pc-specialit the best site for this or are there cheaper alternatives? Is the motherboard up to scratch? Should I buy a more robust cooling system (I don't plan on over-clocking the system so I figured the standard cooling system would suffice)?

If anyone would like to give me some advice I would be really grateful.
Thanks in advance,
Barry
 
http://www.techspot.com/review/198-ati-radeon-hd-5870-review/page6.html

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1080/7/

As you can see in the two reviews above even a 4870 x 2 is strugling with the latest games so a 4850 x2 just don't cut the mustard these days.

Take some time out to read up some more before spending your loot. Same advice goes for cpu's, psu's.

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Not another PC Specialist.com enquiry?

First off, that supplier does not come recommended, lots of folks here have had bad experiences with them, but be my guest.

If I were buying a ready made unit Novatech and OCUK would be my first ports of call.

The price for the quoted system, imo, is not a rip-off but a fair price.

No make is specified for the PSU so it's likely a cheapie and not good. The PSU is possibly the most important component in a computer, everything depends on it, so this is not good.

Take heed of Abarbarian's advice in the post above, that machine won't play all the latest games at decent settings.

Look to an i5 or i7 based system with a branded PSU (Corsair; Seasonic; OCZ to name a few) with at least an Nvidia 98 series, preferably a 2 series.

To play latest games and be future proof think around £800 - £1000.
 
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