Hi, I've decided to build a new rig for gaming. Keep in mind that I'm from NZ where things like this are expensive and not always available. (shipping costs from overseas are often huge)
I've decided to get this board with this CPU.
Would that CPU/Mobo combo justify using this DDR3 ram? or should I get a Corsair PC2-6400 DDR2-800 2GB kit for half the price?
So basicly, would the benefits of DDR3 for a casual gaming rig be worth the extra 80 odd bucks?

I've yet to see any benefits to having DDR3, no matter how much you game. Stick with DDR2 and save money.

I found this which pretty much confirms what you say
http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/1124/print/
However the latency of the DDR3 I'm looking at is much lower than in those tests. Tough decision. Would the $80 be better off going towards the cpu? maybe Q6600? will that out perform the E6850 in games such as call of duty 4?

The latency is lower because the speed is lower - that DDR3 is only 1066mhz, the same speed as high end DDR2 - and that's usually CAS5, not CAS7 like the DDR3. Stick with the DDR2 stuff, really.
As for the quad core, probably not much in COD4, but certainly in Supreme Commander and Assassins Creed.

Thanks for your advice sam.
I've ordered these.
CPU
Cooler
Motherboard
Memory
Video Card
PSU
Should give me a little room to upgrade if need be.

Coolermaster Realpowers aren't very good power supplies, though you could do worse. The rest of the components are alright though.

Hmm, it can be hard to get hold of stuff here at times. I have to wait three weeks for the cpu cooler now, Stock one will do for now as I wont be overclocking anything for a while.
By "not very good" do you mean they dont last? or they have an unstable output?

They can be prone to lower than usual outputs or premature failures and they're often very noisy.

I emailed them today to ask why they hadnt shipped yet. Got a response 5 hours later saying they have no E6850's for 2 weeks but they will send an E8400 for the same price. I specificly wanted the E6850 due to it's overclocking capabilities. Nothing but problems from these guys.

Never really had to provide links to shops in NZ so I wouldn't know I'm afraid. Thanks for the heads up though. Any other places you know of?

Overclocking capabilities?

Can't those 45nm chips hit like 4.5ghz easy?

And then burn up from electronmigration...

The conroe's are well proven to be rock solid and the E8400 only has about a 1-3% performance over the E6850 at stock speeds.

Finally they have shipped but still waiting for word on the PSU which was a seperate order, no reply from them as yet.
sam I've only dealt with a few.
http://www.edencomputer.co.nz/c.aspx should have stuck with them.
http://www.overclockers.co.nz/index.shtml got my H2O gear off these guys, totally forgot about them, very fast and no probs at all.
Then there's always http://www.trademe.co.nz/ where most kiwi's buy there stuff

Thanks kiwi I'll remember those.

Originally posted by sammorris:

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And then burn up from electronmigration...

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New and improved Wolfdales have supposedly hit the market.

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/news.php

6th news Story

The context of 'new and improved' on that page suggests it refers to OcUK's product range and not to the E8000s themselves, but nonetheless even the newer 45nm chips still seem to suffer migration issues, just not quite as badly.