Building a computer? Need advice/suggestions? Come here!

Lately, I've been thinking about getting a dedicated sound card. This RealTek onboard chipset is okay, but I'd prefer something that's GREAT or AWESOME. So, I have a few questions.

1.) Is EAX in supported games as exciting as they'd like people to believe?
2.) Would having a dedicated sound card improve my framerate in games?
3.) Are PCI (not PCI Express x1) sound cards fairly decent? My motherboard has one free PCI slot and one free PCI Express x1 slot but the PCI Express slot is covered up because my graphics card is dual-slot wide.
4.) What brands of sound cards are worth it? I've found great reviews on Sound Blaster Audigy series and Omega Striker sound cards, but I really don't know much.

I'll be using 5.1 analog outs for my Logitech X-540 system with the sound card, if that matters.

And purely for my curiosity but unlikely to factor into the above:
5.) Can HDMI be used solely for audio out while VGA or DVI is used for the display?

Thanks for any help!

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Originally Posted by Freelancer

Looks good, I would of grabbed an i7-620M instead of the 720QM if given the choice however.

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The price difference between the 620QM and 720QM was only $20, so I decided to go with the quad core and the 2MB bigger cache. I hope to play BC2 on ultra with this thing, or close to it. Benchmarks with the 720QM and HD 5870 show I can just about squeeze an average of 31 fps. Hopefully the diamond cooling compound I added will keep everything, well, cool.

The main difference is that the i7-620M (not QM) has faster cores (2.66GHz) instead of more slower cores on the i7-720QM (1.6GHz). Unless you're going to be using lots of multi-threaded applications the fewer, faster cores will offer better results.

I know BFBC2 uses quad cores, so you may see better performance with the i7-720QM though it will probably be very similar. All your other non-multi-threaded applications will perform worse with the i7-720QM as opposed to the i7-620M.

Both are great processors though, and in day-to-day computing I doubt you'll run into performance issues.

Other than BC2, I'll also be running Dawn of War 2 and probably some CAD and photoshop down the road. So you're probably right, I'll be fine for the next few years or so.

O, and Starcraft 2 will apparently support quad cores too.

It didn't when I was playing the Beta... :S

So it look's like I'm going to be needing a over haul of my PC soon as the motherboard I currently have is only running on two cylinders so to speak.

Been looking at a few motherboards for under £100 and found this Asrock which seems pretty decent.
Anyone have any past experience with the newer Asrock boards at all?
I want to update my pc a bit but I do not want to go with Asus as the past three boards have killed themselves on me and Asus RMA service is absolute diabolical, the last board I sent to them for repairs got lost for SEVEN months in the Czech republic...
I seem to remember Asrock being a pretty solid board, was the make of the first board I ever had which was AMD at the time as well.
I plan on slowly upgrading over time so I think this board would give me a good head start.
click here;

Newegg, is there really anything else? Unless you have a local store that has prices similar to Newegg like I do, no shipping = win.

I've found video cards on eBay I want but I'm not sure if I should buy it. First, a XFX Radeon HD 5850 HD-585A-ZNFC with lifetime warranty - $260 starting bid price/$320 buy now and the other, a XFX Radeon HD 5870 XXX HD-587A-ZND9 with lifetime warranty - $305+ bid. Should I go for either of them or is buying off of eBay a waste?
(I'm looking for where I can buy new reference XFX Radeon HD 5850s but at the moment I can't find any as I have called several stores.)

Also, if I wanted to sell another computer component such as my power supply, where should I sell it? And if I sold it for $50, is it an appealing price?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Freelancer

Newegg, is there really anything else? Unless you have a local store that has prices similar to Newegg like I do, no shipping = win.

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Last i heard Newegg doesn't ship to UK.

Okay guys, I'm in a predicament need to choose something that will last 3 years:
1. Buy a non-reference XFX Radeon HD 5850 HD-585X-ZAFC from Amazon for $294.99 shipped with double lifetime warranty
2. Buy a used XFX Radeon HD 5850 HD-585A-ZNFC reference model from eBay for more than $280 shipped with lifetime warranty
3. Buy a used XFX Radeon HD 5870 HD-587A-ZND9 XXX Overclocked Model from eBay for more than $350 shipped with lifetime warranty
4. Buy a used XFX Radeon HD 5870 HD-587A-ZND9 XXX Overclocked Model from eBay for more than $320 shipped probably without lifetime warranty
5. <Insert Custom Suggestions>