@Demoskinos: @Jiggah: In percentage terms I think more RAM even faster RAM would have at best maybe a 4% or 5% performance increase if there is any increase at all, but a decent graphics card upgrade would give you performance figures of around 400% to 500% better in performance with the addition of a card like an ATi 6950 or an nVidia GTX560ti.
In games like Aliens vs. Predator- Gamer at Medium Settings (1680x1050, 1xMSAA, 8xAF) the 5570 would hit around 15 frames per second, the 560ti would be around 54 and the 6950 would be around 66 at least.
In Mafia 2 - Gamer at Medium Settings (1680x1050, no AA, 4xAF) the 5570 would hit around 27 frames per second, the 560ti would be around 98 and the 6950 would be around 93 at least.
Though it is worth noting that these benchmark scores were calculated on a PC with higher specs, if you look at the difference in terms of 27 frames versus 93 then you will see that the 6950 produced a 344% increase in performance, or the GTX560 had a 440% increase in the first game, I would expect your frame rates to jump in those games similarly even if you don't hit the 66 or 93 fps achieved in lab conditions.
@Chavtheworld: Sounds like a good choice. When I build, I more or less throw everything in and get it connected in the first stage, that tends to be really messy, then once everything is tested and I know it all works, I remove all cables from the power supply end and then one by one I look at routing the cables start with the biggest/thickest cables. It is not always the best approach and I'm sure that if I built with cable management in mind from the start the builds would look a lot better, but when new kit arrives all I want to do is getting it working.
Often poor cable management is a direct result of selecting the wrong case, cheaper cases often have fewer cable management features than better cases. A good case for cable management at a relatively affordable price is the Fractal R3. The case I use, the Silverstone Raven RV03 is also pretty good as there is heaps of space behind the mobo tray where cables can be hidden, though I could have done more to tidy that, because they are out of sight and out of the way of the airflow they do not impact heavily on the cooling.
@Contro: I find that YoYo Tech staff are not very friendly, it often seems like they would rather not talk to people going into the store, last time I went in I had 100 nuggets that I was itching to part with in return for some fresh ram, and was so unimpressed by their lack of interest in me that I left with my money. I have seen them go through a system configuration with a customer that wanted a high end gaming system with multiple monitors and when I left they were close to £3,000 on the rig and had yet to start picking screens, keyboards or a mouse.
If you looking at spending serious money then go in and talk to them the shop looks good with loads of cases and rigs that you can eyeball, otherwise order from their website or look for cheaper website like Scan, Dabs and Overclockers.
I want the Animus Edition, I can't believe how much I'm enjoying the series, only recently finished AC and have put over 60 hours into AC:II (nearly finished now!), I also have Brotherhood waiting. Have pretty much put all other games on hold just to play these in time for the Revelations launch and loving every minute of it so far.
... occasionally I find a game where I like to alternate between the two like GTA IV where I prefer keyboard and mouse until I get into a car and then I prefer a controller.
So you are constantly changing from KB+M to controller or the opposite, while playing the game? Wow...
A lot would depend on what's happening in the game, though with GTA IV, I've long given up on the story and only play it occasionally to drive around, fight cops, use cheats to get loads of weapons and fight till I drop or just meander around the streets, so if I'm playing at a slow enough pace then I grab the keyboard and mouse when free look is more important or the controller when I'm cruising around in a car. GTA IV is the only game I have where I can comfortably swap between KB&M and controller.
For me games are either perfect for keyboard and mouse, like FPS games or controllers for such as Assassin's Creed or Batman Arkham Asylum, occasionally I find a game where I like to alternate between the two like GTA IV where I prefer keyboard and mouse until I get into a car and then I prefer a controller.
That's an awesome rig, but if you stick with a 5400rpm hard drive you will seriously limit the performance. You have picked a great motherboard with a special trick up its sleeve, but the get the most out of it you need to get a high performance HDD like a WD Caviar Black or a Samsung Spinpoint (I would suggest 1 to 1.5tb) and you really should have a 60gb SSD, the fastest on the market are the Agility 3's by OCZ, but the Intel 320 drives are pretty good too if you can wait for the next firmware update that will fix a software issue in these.
About the trick, SSDs offer excellent read and write speeds, much faster than normal hard drives but the trade off is limited storage, you can't do much with 60gb. Your mobo has a special feature called SRT which lets the SSD work as a cache, to use it you install Windows onto your normal drive and then set up the SSD as an SRT drive. This looks at you normal drive and copies the most used files onto the SSD so they load at SSD speeds. The trade off here is that only read speeds will be super fast, all writing is done to the hard drive and then copied to the SSD if it is a frequently used application or file. But as you will spend more time reading files than writing them that might not be a massive downside, the benefits to this appraoch is that it is a fire and forget solution, you don't need to manage the system but can enjoy the benefits all the time, like start up times taking less than 40 seconds instead of around 2 to 3 minutes.
@BUCK3TM4N: Kingston HyperX is pretty good ram, the reason it looks cheap is that ram has pretty much dipped to a record low at the moment, buy now while you can get it cheap as prices will go up as supplies dry up due to manufacturers slowing down production to regulate pricing.
I tried the beta around Christmas time and thought that the graphics were below Counter Strike: Source levels, I really expected a lot more from this, it might be better now, I might take a look soon but not really in a hurry to try it.
@weeman105: lol, AMD has been playing catch up for quite some now, approximately 8 years IIRC. Are you planning on building a Bulldozer rig or looking at a new rig and want the info in order to decide between that or a Sandy Bridge?
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