Building a New PC

[Demonigeo]

My current PC isn't able to run much of the latest software and so I've decided to build a new PC with a budget of around £700 max.

So far my spec is as follows:

CPU - £137.46
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=401103

Motherboard - £107.50
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=437660

PSU - £68.73
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=443243

RAM - £75.83
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=143574
I'm planning on adding a second stick of this in May.

Hard Drive - £54.91
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=345219

DVD Drive - £26.71
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=513738

Subtotal: £471.14

However, I can't decide upon a case or on a graphics card.

The motherboard supports SLI, however I don't think I can afford two graphics cards at the moment. I was thinking of getting a single nVidia 7900GS and getting a second one later, but I've been told that both nVidia and ATI are working to allow users to convert an existing graphics card into a physics card.

Because of this, I am wondering whether I should buy a Radeon X1950Pro (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=481911) now and then in the future buy two nVidia DX10 cards to put into SLI mode and convert the ATI card into a physics card (or put it into my families PC) - or whether I should buy a nVidia card now, which is more expensive and less powerful than the ATI card, but that gives me the possibility of adding a second card in SLI later (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=488119).

Also, I have yet to find a good case at the moment and would like some help. I would like it to be able to allow for future upgrades, to be black and cost no more than £60, but apart from this I don't have a clue and would like your help.

Also, my parents pre-ordered Vista Home Premium for me already so it needs to be able to run that.

[aNarion.]

hm.. isn't worth buying any stronger CPU? for example 5000+?

[Maical]

core 2 duo cpu's are by far better then amd's in the same price range now, at least untill amd releases their new generation of cpus in april-may
so id say core 2 duo e6300 cpu and an ati x1950pro video card
pc6400 ram as well for overclocking
2 smaller hdd's running in raid 0 can improve performance as well, something like 2x120 or 2x160gb, hitachi having best performances when running games or applications

the raidmax max ninja case looks really nice at a decent price, removable tray for mounting mainboard as well

[Shaun]

Get the E6300, its the same price but better.

You can get a cheaper mobo for £80 than is decent enough. Get 2GB DDR2-533MHz RAM, the more expensive PC6400(800MHz) is not worth it really.
The money you save on your GPU should get you an X1950XT.