Barton or Thorougbred?

[clockwork67]

Finally decided to buy a shuttle 45G from gemma - I was going to buy an XP2500+ Barton to go with it but they don't appear to stock it but they do stock XP2600+ Thoroughbred. Is it worth sourcing the XP2500 elsewhere or getting the 2600 from gemma - is there that great a difference in performance - also can you recommend a budget graphics card that is capable of running most new games at 800X600

[unrealrocks]

TBH there isn't gonna be a great difference!

Something like a 9600XT/Pro would do you, if its only 800x600 then maybe something like an FX5200Ultra or 9600 Standard!

[Swafe]

id go with a xp2500 they overclock a lot better and have a barton core- but its up to you

as for gfx u shudda got a sn41g2 like u were lookin at onboard gf4 should have played quite a few recent games on a cpu like that at 800x600, so id say fx5200 ish - but of course if you want power go for something better, a second hand gf4ti4200 would probably be a wise choice if not

[clockwork67]

Thanks - Just ordered SN45G with XP2800+ Barton and 512MB Ram - Still haven't decided on graphics card - theres too much info about!! At the moment the favourite is the 9600SE , although I will take your advice and check out the FX5200 - I'm just out to have a look at what you get from pcworld (although its unlikely that I'll buy from there. For I think I should be able to get the system up and running with my Voodoo3 2000 pci (once I get it)

Hopefully I should see some performance difference over my current setup (AMD K6-2 350, 64MB,8.4GB HDD, 2 speed CDWriter (8 read), Voodoo)!!

Just need to save up for DVD writer and new hard drive

[Swafe]

just a bit