My four choices of doom...

[RichL.com]

What do i go with? Ive made it easy for you, you can just say the number you would recommend! Wouldnt mind a few comments and amendments tho

1) My AGP Choice with lesser, cheaper, 3200 CPU. and Nvidia6800GT

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Platinum TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-049-CS) 1 <-- Top notch
£149.95 £149.95
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-083-AS) 1 <-- Top notch but no PCIe or SLI
£63.50 £63.50
Asus V9999GT/TD GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-059-AS) 1 <--Very good card, but still AGP8x
£239.95 £239.95
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-111-AM) 1 <-- Good CPU, wud prefer 3500 but its v.cheap and in stock
£113.95 £113.95
Subtotal £567.35
VAT £99.29
Total £666.64


2) My AGP Choice with better, pricey, 3500 CPU. and Nvidia6800GT

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Platinum TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-049-CS) 1 <-- Top notch
£149.95 £149.95
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-083-AS) 1 <-- Top notch but no PCIe or SLI
£63.50 £63.50
Asus V9999GT/TD GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-059-AS) 1 <--Very good card, but still AGP8x
£239.95 £239.95
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-101-AM) 1 <-- Top notch for my price range, but will have to wait
£164.95 £164.95
Subtotal £619.35 approx
VAT £105.29 approx
Total £725.64 approx


3) My AGP Choice with better, pricey, 3500 CPU. and ATIX800XT <-- Should be the fastest.

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Platinum TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-049-CS) 1
£149.95 £149.95
Asus ATI Radeon AX800 XTPE/TVD 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-036-AS) 1
£329.95 £329.95
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-083-AS) 1
£63.50 £63.50
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-101-AM) 1 <-- Top notch for my price range, but will have to wait
£164.95 £164.95
Subtotal £707.40
VAT £120.10
Total £827.50 <--bugger. Maybe a little to expensive for AGP which could by dying after the intro of PCIe


4) My PCIexpress choice with SLI upgrade possible when i want to

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Platinum TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-049-CS) 1
£149.95 £149.95
Asus A8N-SLi Deluxe nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AS) 1
£104.95 £104.95
MSI NX6800GT-TD256E GeForce 6800 GT 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-049-AS) 1
£269.95 £269.95
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-101-AM) 1 <-- Top notch for my price range, but will have to wait
£164.95 £164.95
Subtotal £689.95 approx
VAT £120 approx
Total £810 approx <--not too bad, but very new tech could be dodgy, all sorts of problems could be had.

?

[Stewart]

Number 3.

[mike_w]

Number one. The lower rated Winchester can be overclocked easily, and I don't think the X800XTPE is worth the money over the 6800GT.

As for PCI Express, I don't think it's worth it just yet - when you upgrade to a faster graphics card in the future, you'll probably end up upgrading everything else (i.e. motherboard, CPU) as well. You would also be bottlenecked by the CPU if you decide to use 2x6800GT.

[Stewart]

Number 3 is pretty much my rig, so therefore - the best.

Number 1 may a have a few more smart choices, but 3 is better overall, slightly, so if you've got the cash...

[myth]

#3, unless you make a #5 with the same stuf as 3 except a Ultra instead of a GT...

[ed^chigliak]

No.1 represents best value IMO and it will do the job quite nicely. Nothing really lasts in a future-proof way like they would have you believe and Rev 2 hardware is always less pain. Upgrades always seem to unbalance a system in 12-18 months so I prefer to start a fresh each time.

Here I am with 1gb ram, xp2500+ and 9800np wondering what is my upgrade option? Maybe a graphics card but it will be CPU limited so as always I'll hang in there for a while and then start again. It didn't cost me a whole lot so really I'm not bothered to replace it entirely.

[icp222]

1# for cost effectiveness...
Two things... a) what site are these prices from? and b) Have you considered a MSI K8N Neo2 Plat?

[utdmleach]

I've got the Asus 6800GT 256 mb, needs 2 molex (power) connectors, a good power supply needs to be paired with it.

[RichL.com]

Lol. Exactly the response i was expecting- ever since i started builing my new machine ive been posting on two forums. Hexus forums (seem like fairly mature, reliability minded people), and OCuk (www.overclockers.co.uk, where everyone says "SLI! SLI! SLI! straight away - with only speed in mind, even though its a brand new technology and im quite wary of buying into it just yet) forums - which is also where i got the aforementioned prices and where ive been doing most of the purchasing for my other bits...anywhoo,

I agree with you guys, why go for SLi right now? Personally i think its a very new, very open to faults, noisy, and expensive technology...

Anyway- sorry, back to the point- i have an Enermax 600w expensive beast on order, so i should be fine for a PSU.

Is this Asus board reliable now? I heard alot of people have had problems with it in the past...and does it support the 90nm AMD64 core (winchester) without any BIOS updating?

I reckon ill go for the 3200+, as its very cheap at overclockers at the moment, and i think personally id prefer an ATI as i know ATI, and i like ATI.

So heres number 5:

Corsair 1GB DDR XMS3200XL Platinum TwinX (2x512MB) CAS2 (MY-049-CS) 1
£149.95 £149.95
Asus ATI Radeon AX800 XTPE/TVD 256MB DDR3 VIVO TV-Out/DVI (AGP) - Retail (GX-036-AS) 1
£329.95 £329.95
Asus A8V Rev.2 Deluxe (Socket 939) Motherboard (MB-083-AS) 1
£63.50 £63.50
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Winchester 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-111-AM) 1 <-- Good CPU, wud prefer 3500 but its v.cheap and in stock
£113.95 £113.95

...

Oh, and has anyone heard of "PowerColor", GPU manufacturers? What would be the best manufacturer to buy from for a decent X800XT card? Asus? MSI?

[Thorsson]

Where did you hear of lots of problems with the ASUS? There's so few boards in circulation and I've seen nothing.

TBH when you examine most problems with mobos, it's either down to ignorance anyway (something not helped with new tech by the mobo manuals, which often miss out something important) or a DOA.

[ed^chigliak]

x800xt (non PE) £285 at lowestonweb inc. VAT + P&P OEM card no CD's or £319 if you think PE is worth the extra cost. Graphics cards are nearly all clones of some reference design and I don't really have a preference for the brand. I never seem to get the latest driver on the CD's anyway so OEM is fine with me. Check the manufacturers codes if you want to know the brand probably 3dconnect or powercolour.