www.ultimatehandyman.co.uk

my 3rd computer build was epic, dual amd athlon slot a processors.
could boot win 98se in under 10 seconds with that and a newly installed 128k isdn line in my bedroom at my parents house i had a ping on halflife of under 80ms on most uk servers... those were the days eh!

Hi I just joined the forum, and thought I would add a few comments based on the spec in your op.

8GB ram is ample. I would aim for 1600MHz+.

The CPU is ideal for overclocking. You could comfortably run it at 4.4 - 4.5GHz with a decent heatsink. Something like the "Akasa AK-CC4008HP01 Venom Voodoo CPU Cooler". It is approx £45. It is on the chunky side so it would be worth checking it would fit the case you opt for.

The board you chose can run sli, so you could start with a card like the GTX560Ti + and get a second at a later date.

As already mentioned I would spend more on a good PSU so you get something quiet, powerful and that won't need to be updated as you upgrade. I would also consider getting a "modular" PSU. They come with all the connections you will need, but are not hardwired from the PSU, meaning you only plug in the ones you need which makes the build easier.

As for the case, something well ventialted, sturdy and spacious will make the build easier and allow better airflow inside the pc. If you did run 2 gfx cards, + an overclocked cpu there can be a lot of heat, so the more ventilation the better.

I would also consider getting a Solid State Drive for your windows partition and a standard HD for storage. SSD is far superior and you will notice it runs much faster and quieter.

I remember the old beige case pc's that used to BSOD on a daily basis.
And games on 3.5" floppys.

My first PC was a windows 3.1 pre-built thing from PC world... the joys of being 8 when PC's went mainstream and 4GB of storage was mental.

RE: running GW2 on an internal GPU;

my PC's struggling with max settings on a GTX 460 OC Ross :P 1920x1080 & all settings turned up, average 25FPS in WvW

Great game though.

The only games you can really play on an internal GPU are Java based (Minecraft!), some source & Unreal engine and a few legacy games (Morrowind springs to mind)

lol my first pc i blew up, it was an old ibm 286