Please help on final spec

[Rhodan]

Ok guys,

I've got a budget of £700 for a pc. I need it for gaming and vmware sessions for my studies when i'm not playing games ! I already have a 17" CRT, but need everything else.

This is what i'm looking at getting from OcUK:

AMD Athlon 64 2800 (Socket 754) - OEM (CP-085-AM) £82.00
Asus K8N-E Deluxe nForce3 (Socket 754) Motherboard (MB-065-AS) £75.00
OcUK Value Floppy Drive - Black (HD-001-OK) £6.50
NEC ND3500 16x DVD±RW Dual Layer ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-021-**) £52.60
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL) £99.95
Zalman CNPS7000B-Alcu Ultra-Quiet CPU Cooler - Retail (HS-008-ZA) £24.50
Antec SLK3700BQE Black Quiet Midi Tower Case - 350W SmartPower PSU (CA-011-AN) £53.00
Samsung SpinPoint P SP0812C 80GB SATA 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-010-SA) £43.00
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) (AC-000-AC) £5.75
OcUK ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (XR98-C3) (GX-005-OK) £109.95

Total: £648.90

Now i'm not sure if i should go with the XFX GeForce 6800, which would bring the total to £695.90, or get a A64 3000+ instead. Please also comment on the case/psu and general "quietness" of the components (is the GPU fan noisy ?).

Your expert advice will be greatly appreciated !

Thanks guys !

[nichomach]

I'd have thought that getting the 6800 would make more sense; likely to have more of an impact in most games than a relativelt minor speed bump to your CPU.

[steve threlfall]

The 6800 will outperform a 9800pro and as its not much more go for it.

[mike_w]

The 6800 will make more of an impact on performance than a new CPU.