I'm bored, some advice please.

[nimbu]

With winter approaching its getting colder, and i need something to do that involves staying at home,

I'd like to setup a new mini rig, some may suggest a shuttle but tbh i find them a little small. Also I have a major bug bear with both AMD and ATI, since there products have matured since i last played with them (had an ATI Rage128, and a slot A athlon once upon a time), i thought id go and give them a chance. The rig is not intended to be uber powerful, as my main rig is up to the job.

The case i'm gonna get is an Antec Aria, I just love these guys cases, and a friend has one and does nothing but rant and rave about it.

for the board I was thinking Gigabyte GA-K8VT800M,
1.) it has to be micro ATX
2.) the VIA platform for AMD64 has had a lot of love recently.

Again im a little hesitant, personal experience with gigabyte has left a bad taste in my mouth. Anyone have comments about this board, or the chipset, and/or any alternatives.

Also im thinking of taking my OCZ DDR 500 memory onto this board, any one experienced that? (512MB on my main rig is lagging a little, would llike to upgrade it, but from the info i can glean from the net my P4C800-E dlx, will not accept 4x256 of these sticks)

Finally we come to the video card, again doesnt need to be uber, I'm mostly gonna use the PC for general stuff and play a game called EVE Online, on it. So needs to have H/W T&L support which most current cards do.

TBH im not left with much choice on this matter, and i know nothing about ATI cards, anyone got any ideas?

Well i think thats it for now guys, any feedback is much appreciated.

Nimbu

MAIN BOX: P4 2.8C @3.2 : Asus P4C800E Delux: Thermalright SLK900 + Papst NGL?: 512Mb OCZ Gold PC4000: 128MB Gainward GS1200XP (5900): 2x36GB WD Raptors in RAID 0: Liteon 52x32x52: Pioneer DVD106s & DVDR105: All Wrapped up in a Antec Sonneta Piano Finish Case

[MD]

Have you looked at the ASUS T2 barebones? for 100 squid its a bargain of a barebones which is slightly bigger than a shuttle.

m@

[nimbu]

do they do a AMD64 one, im pretty sure they are all P4

[Zak33]

Graphics card.....ATI: right....if its for gaming, a bear minimum of a Radeon9800 Pro..ehich can be had for about £130 now.

If its a part gaming rig, part work....a Radeon 9600 or lower....

and if its a mulifunction rig...an ATI All In Wonder card that you can afford.

If you want the best...an X800 Pro or higher up an X800 XT