Alright so I'll find one of the core 216 models then - I've never used an ATI card before so If neither is significantly better than I'll just go with a 270/core 216 or whatever - I'm assuming since nobody said otherwise that the card will play crysis very nicely on max settings

So you think the graphics card is fine? How can you tell which core version it has?

Did you have any Specific PSU models in mind?

I'm building a PC for my cousin and he wants it to be able to play all modern games out there(I've been out of the loop for awhile so if there's anything more demanding than crysis let me know)

Here are the specs I've chosen(System will not be OC'ed):

E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHZ + ASUS P5Q Pro: combo deal for $274.98
OCZ Platinum 2x2gb DDR2 1066 : $104.99 - $30.00 rebate = $74.99
EVGA GTX 260 Superclocked (602/2052) : $279.99 - $40.00 rebate = $239.99
Western Digital Caviar SE16 640Gb HDD : $74.99
OCZ StealthXStream 600W PSU : $79.99 - $25.00 rebate = $54.99
Coolermaster Centurion 5: $49.99

Vista Home premium, DVD drive and burner, speakers =$189.96

Total:$959.89

Few questions:
For the graphics card, I heard something about a core 1.21 or something like that how do you find out if it has the new core?

I thought it might be better to go with an HDD that has a 32mb cache or even a raptor - is either of these really necessary?

I know they're not high i built this thing like two years ago.

I was just wondering why they weren't selectable. Whatever not a big deal I guess

It did set it automatically but when i went to change it the high settings were just not there.

I agree the game runs beautifully and it looks very nice but I just was wondering why i couldn't select the high settings

I just played through the COD4 demo and It was amazing the action was intense and it's very immersive. Anyway, the game would not let me set anything above medium.

The game still looked amazing but is there a reason why it wouldn't? the option was not there. I assume it's because i don't have DX10 but I'm not sure that's the case so anyone care to help me out? My vid card prob cant handle it either way but just for person knowledge