PC config feedback

[HTFriend]

Hi all,

Apologize in advance for another "New PC feedback" topic.

Due to IRL constraints, plus the fact my PC is about 3 years old and Vanguard being better than expected, I plan to buy a complete new PC before the end of the month. It will be used for gaming mainly.
I don't have a real cash limit since I have saved much recently. My main purpose is buying something that will peform well for "a long time" if possible and having pleasure playing the current games (I'm sick of playing at "High Performances" under EQ2 for instance).

I haven't much kept the track on new PC technology recently. Thus, coming across this config from one guy on Silky Venom forum, I would like some feedback about it because it looks like something which matches my "requirements":
rabb1t's space - talkin' tech and pwning noobs
Please only focus on the Core / Sub-Core (minus Physics BFG-tech thing) and Monitor (though I'm still unsure about my requirements for this part).
What I mainly want from the feedback is, is this PC too much of an overkill? Do the different pieces match well together or is there any bottleneck?

I also have a question regarding the OS. From this guy's feedback, looks like I better stick to WinXP 32 SP2 for now if I move to a 64 bits architecture (compared to WinXP 64 because I only plan to move to Vista once the main issues are settled after the launch). What do you think about it?

Thanks in advance for your time!

[Darus Grey]

That looks like mostly solid advice, I just built a rig in your same exact situation.

E6600
I used EVGA 680i motherboard
3gb of PC6400 ram (vorph recommended this for ram as being cheap Newegg.com - G.SKILL 1GB 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM Desktop Memory - Retail )
EVGA 8800gtx
For cooling the zalman stuff comes pretty recommended.

For OS, stick to WinXP32 bit, then migrate to Vista64bit(which will have significantly more support)

Basically I did alot of independent research to build my new rig and came to almost exact same machine as the link you gave, so I'd say its good advice.

I'm running vanguard at 2560x1600 with almost all the settings turned up to maximum(I only keep grass density down because I think it looks ugly) and don't even stutter when theres like 40 people around.
FPS drops by like 15 still in cities, but it stays over 30 at all times for most part.

[HTFriend]

Thanks for the quick reply!

Would you recommand an Intel E6600 instead of the AMD? Looks like several people are mentionning this CPU as being very good.

[Celebrindal]

Check out this thread.