Thinking about an upgrade
 

Hey all,

I last upgraded my system in 2003, and I feel it's time for an upgrade! Currently i'm chugging along (surprisingly well) on :

AthlonXP 3000+
A7N8X Deluxe Mobo
1.5gb ram
XFX 7800GS Extreme Edition GFX Card
Xtreme Gamer Sound Card (this can stay I think)

Was looking for a system that can run modern games well, and run well with all my photography and art software. I'm looking to spend around 450 pounds tops (around 650$). Would this be enough for a modern upgrade?

More than enough (well, you might go a little over depending on the particular prices for your regio). An E8500, ATI 4850, 2 GB 1066 DDR2, 400GB HDD and an Asus P5Q should run you under $650.

I'm getting a lot of people advising me to go for the Intel and Ati, rather that AMD and Nvidia. If I do go with their advice, how does this sound -

Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 G0 Stepping (2.4GHz 1066MHz) Socket 775 L2 8MB Cache (2x4MB (4MB per core pair) Retail Boxed Processor - Ebuyer
Gigabyte GA-G31M-S2L iG31 Socket 775 Onboard VGA 6 channel audio mATX Motherboard - Ebuyer
PowerColor HD 4870 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-E Graphics Card - Ebuyer
OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) DDR2 800Mhz/PC2-6400 Memory GOLD DUAL CHANNEL Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-18) - Ebuyer

I'm still debating whether to fork out the extra 100 for the 4870 or go with the 4850. At the moment I play on a simple 17" LCD screen, not widescreen or anything. I might upgrade this later on though.

Additional Spam:
Also, would a few months old Arctic Power 600W PSU support all this?

That's mainly because in this round, Intel and ATI's offerings have had the best bang for your buck.

Definitely spring for the Q6600, and with it being the G0 stepping model, should the overclocking bug bite you it's got tons of overhead for you to take it to 3.0Ghz+. As for the 4870, it might be a bit much if you have no plans on stepping up to a larger display device or aren't going to play many graphics intensive games on your PC.

However, as you said, that may change in the future so weigh that against the cost to put it in now. Your OCZ PSU will be fine, 600W is more than enough and I'd only be iffy if you were planning on a Crossfire dual 4850/480 arrangement.

It's a toughy for sure! I'd like to play some of the recent games, Assassin's Creed, Crysis, Far Cry 2 etc on high graphics, something i've never had the opportunity to do before now. Just not sure if I should go for the 4870!

Well: Are you going to get that new monitor sooner rather than later? If so, go for the 4870. If not, stick with the 4850. But AC, Crysis and FC2 on high? Definitely the 1GB 4870.

Best if you can track down Sapphire's 1GB HD4870

Sapphire is a good choice for ATI cards for quality/price.

WD Caviar SE16 is a good, fast, quiet hard drive for a decent price.

This site has a good reviews and recommendations.

Samsung F1 1TB 32mb:
Newegg.com - SAMSUNG Spinpoint F1 HD103UJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - Internal Hard Drives
It's a very speedy drive, I just got one myself.