Enermax are good too. Although they do sometimes use rebranded other makes, but all with quality parts.

My current main one is a Thermaltake ToughPower modular PSU and that is also great. Modular means you only need the cables you are actually using inside the case which is always better.
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Yes, like I said I did do my homework with this one as the PSU is kind of vital. The single 12V rail delivers 50A. And I saw a thorough test that showed that it really does deliver what it says on the tin. See the specs here, and the test I read is here. (The link is straight to page five of the test which is where the numbers are.) Really, I'm not too worried about this one.
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What a story - I've been so lucky with PC hardware. Even second hand stuff - never a dead on arrival or failing component, ever!

Your new rig is awesome - love the pics, and I don't mind huge cases. After all, all you're loosing out is a bit of room space. It still sits there just like a smaller case, but with better airflow and more internal work space. With the size of some components these days, better safe than sorry and I'm sure that case will last you years.

The Phenom II's are a huge improvement over the Phenom I, are true multicore rather than two dual cores stuck together and are pretty much equalling the core2 quads.

I have the Q6600 on my work machine like Harrision and it's an awesome CPU for overclocking, but the Phenom II's are right up there too.

The i7's are the top CPU right now, but their price is extortionate.
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Oi. My own rig died a while ago (about a month I think), and I still haven't been bothered enough to build myself a new one, even though I've already selected parts. I certainly hope I won't have to endure such a frustrating experience!

Seasonic is a very good brand also, by the way, when it comes to power supplies. They're especially good at silence and efficiency.
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Yes, my 500W in the old system was a Seasonic. No complaints at all about that one.

Looking around a bit I decided to cancel that EVGA graphics card for now. I'm going away for a while on a job now anyway, so I haven't decided on a different one yet. I may still end up with an nVidia card though. Looking at the current 4870s from ATI their specifications are noticably lower than the nVidia cards. The option of getting two and running them in crossfire means I definintely have to get a bigger PSU. That doesn't mean I'm not considering it.

However ATIs 58xx range is just around the corner. I don't exactly know when cards will be appearing on the shelves, but the actual GPUs are released early september apparently. So since as mentioned I'm going away for about a month on a job (will be back briefly the second weekend), I'm just going to put the whole decision off until I get back, see what things look like then.
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Teho, great decision - the new ATI cards are bound to force price cuts and repositioning of the market, so you might as well wait as you said and see how things are before christmas.
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That is a very good point about the new ATI cards due out soon. Worth waiting a couple of months if you can. You still have your 7800GT to use at the moment, which with your new CPU and ram should still perform OK in recent games.

Regarding the 4870, it is actually more advanced technologically than any nVidia card, but obviously not as high performing as the top end nVidia cards. But it isn't far behind, and the price is far lower. And as mentioned my 4870 has handled all games so far on maximum settings at 1280x1024 without a single issue and high framerates. So they are still brilliant for the price.
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4870 is a beast of a card with its GDDR 5. The whole ATI range, from the 3850->4890 and the new 4770 are just great value performance cards that nVidia has struggled to equal on price/performance. Some say ATI have taken a loss to gain market share recently. Their next gen cards will probably be normally priced for quite some time.

nVidia has been farting around renaming the 8800 tech for ages now, but they do the job and I prefer their drivers and control panel. Their top line cards are fast, but expensive.

I mainly use the PS3 for gaming and left my PC gaming rig at x800XT PE A64 3400+ level once I realized SM3 games like oblivion were being developed primarily for the console market.

Just recently however, I picked up an Asus Dark Night 9800GTX+ OC for £60 (inc postage) and an Asus SLI M2N Deluxe with AMD dual core CPU for £30 from ebay, so I couldn't resist upgrading it. Haven't got around to swapping out components yet, as the x800XT still runs all my games fine!!! I bought all the SM3 games on the PS3.

PC technology second hand is just sooooo cheap.
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That is generally true. Although some older tech can be rarer to find and prices shoot up. Take a look on ebay at the moment at the socket 939 X2 dual core CPUs. The 4800+ is still commanding over £100, and I've seen some sell close to £200. Mad when you look at better performing lower end core2duo CPUs selling new for under £60. Just shows when there is demain prices do still shoot up.

However in general yes, 2+ year old PC hardware drops in price so fast.
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Yeah it's true that - I guess it's people who just can't part with their aging motherboards, afraid of updating too many components or having to reinstall the OS, so the 939 x2's go for silly prices.
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