Sid

Nahhh, Painless would know wearing stuff like that on night shifts under his fire kit (turnout?) would be frowned upon...don't you Painless....Painless?

I've finalised things now - I've gone with the original order spec, with the Trident case, but changed the 2 x 8800GTs to one 8800GTX. I think the GTs are too new and the heat may be an issue. I've stuck with known stuff that also gives me an option to expand. Thanks for all the input here m8s. Hopefully may be around this weekend....wahaaay

As a young Air Cadet I used to volunteer to support aircrew training at Gunnery School....

This one BG https://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/index.php?page=case4

My wife knows all about my diabolical plan... Thanks for all the info m8s Happy New Year to all - just finished watching the New Year in and enjoying Jools Holland and his party on the Beeb....great stuff

I am coming around to BGs logic in that 1 Ultra now is a great start and would give even more upgradeability when Ultras come down in price in the future. 1 Ultra now would more than cope with IL2 and CoD2 as that is what I spend my time on. If SoWBoB isn't playable on 2 x Ultras then surely we are looking at exclusivity on a grand scale.... The Asus Striker mobo looks like it will cope with things for a long while as it will go up to quad core too

I appreciate this m8s, there is so much out there and the permutations are manyfold. I love the blind mice Logos, so appropriate..... I started off with a budget in mind and went a little above it with what I ordered. I am comfortable with a change from 2 8800GTs to a single GTX/Ultra BG, but if I went to 2 x top end cards later the case and cooling may be restrictive. However, the 8800GTs cooling, on review, hasn't got the larger number of outlets as the larger-in-physical-size GTXs so may be an issue - perhaps they haven't been out long enough for substantial testing. I will run the cooling issue past the builders.

Cheers BB, I'm hoping it will see me through a few games and any changes that come along. Thanks for the link....that affinity stuff looks a bit daunting. I don't mind furtling around with settings but perhaps I will stick with altering the conf.ini and leave it to Windows to start with and see how it goes.

I haven't tried ATI but my lad has a PCIe X1300 in his - we have played around with that and it runs fine in excellent on his LCDs native res. of 1280 x 1024. I suppose the choice is personal and I tend to stick with what I am familiar with. Sli probably is overkill for this but I want to achieve smoothness with as much detail and at as higher res. as I can, not just with IL2 but with CoD2 aswell - the Dx9 is a killer with my older AGP 6600GT. Quazi posts some really good stuff on the forums and he would be my first call. Are you running a dual core processor?

I've ordered one from here http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/ - it isn't built yet so has some scope for change as they allow amendments through the process. The idea is to be as future-proof as I can get in one hit so I have gone for: Asus Striker Extreme mobo 800w quad rail psu Intel Core 2 Duo E6850 with Silent Knight cooling with an additional 120mm case fan 2gig Corsair XMS2 800mhz 2 x 512mb 8800GT - going to give SLi a try XFi Audio Extreme soundcard 150gb Raptor hd with partitions LG 226 22" monitor I'm staying with XP as I'm giving Vista a while longer to settle in. From what I've gathered on forums and reviews etc. the issues I may come across for IL2 are driver issues with the 8 - series cards and the game .dlls (but it looks like 4.09/4.09b may have addressed that) and setting up the cpu by altering some text in the config. Not sure about SLi, some peeps say it's ok but I haven't discussed it anywhere. I would be grateful for views, particularly on the SLi aspect.

AAAAARGH Didn't know which one to put this in but I am having to get my fix just by looking around the forums instead of getting stick time...I am missing the flying. It took a (long) while to find a bunch of like-minded flyers and I am missing the banter etc....I've ordered a new rig - is there a special place to discuss it as I have the opportunity still to change things..... Happy New Year all Regards Sid