Mmmm Xmas Time :)

Ok guys, iv been thinking long and hard, and er, gone in about 20 circles! i guess i have about £300-350 i can ask for, for xmas from my folks :) here is my PC atm:

Lian Li PC-75
IC7
2.4C ( not a great OC'er :/ )
SLK-900
2x512Mb TwinMos 3200
Enermax 465watt
GeForce4 TI4600
2x80GB HDDs ( enough for me - got about 90Gb free atm lol )
Compaq S710 monitor ( rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishe and old )

now, my first thought was, oooooooo 9800 \o\. Then i thought, hmmmm no doubt the 0.13u process will increase those babies quite abit after Xmas, then i thought, hmmm i could get a 2.6C and hope its a good OC'er unlike my current 2.4C, Then thought, hmmmmm, 2.4C is a good CPU without overclocking anyway...... and Athlon64 would be the next best step.

Then i thought hmmmmmmmmmmm, how about a new monitor :o this one is pretty pants, and iv put up with it for years, i was thinking about getting a new monitor to repalce this 1 and a 1/2 years ago!

Anyways, i quite like the look of the TFT's atm, but iv heard they arent too great for gaming, then i thought hmmmmmm, i could get a TFT for when im using word/irc/msn/desktop etc and use the poo CRT when im playing FPS's ( which isnt that often anyway ) as i guess RPGs and strats will run fine on it due to low FPS.

So er, hmmm i could get a nice CRT, or a fairly good TFT, or maybe a nice 9800 or perhaps a new CPU?

What do you guys think? and can you recomend any monitors ? as im not up on monitors atm :(

I want to get a DVD ROM soon as well, but that should be pretty cheap :)

I'm surprised you're finding your 2.4C is a poor overclocker, I've heard only good things about it. Personally I would go with a new monitor. If you're saying it's rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishe, then everything is going to look like rubbishrubbishrubbishrubbishe on it. Wait until April or something and then take the plunge with a new videocard, what you have now is good enough. Personally (and I'm in the minority here) I can't justify the expense of a TFT. I'd go with a high quality CRT (if you have the room). Just my 2 cents.

aye they do seem to be alot, and my 2.4C is a very bad OC'er - bad batch i guess.

I have the room for a CRT just the TFT's look nice :(

*checks some CRT's out*

crt - look in bargain hunt forum, there are 21" cornerstone crts for £40-60 + £20 pnp. the best ones i think are all sold but slighlty worse, but still very nice ones are left.

ur cpu is fast enuf imo, not that cpu makes huuuge difference in games anyway

you could try getting a second hand gfx card, there are a few 9700pros being sold which 90% can overclock past 9800pro stock performace. also in bargain hunt again, there is a shop sellig 9700pros for £150, which imo is very good. you wont really need anything better than 9700np for next half year/year anyway....

dont bother with a tft, you could get a few very nice 21" crts for that moneh :P

you can get dvd-rom drives for about £20-40 now, but i would recoommed a dvd-rw instead. theres some (2x ones) going for £41 new, whilst the 4x ones are about £80 new and soon there will be 8x ones pushing the price down for the others :)

not bothered about a DVD-RW atm, if i got a CRT i want a nice one, although the one in bargain hunt is good, its a sorta 2nd pc thing imo :)

GFX card, tempting :) maybe ill get the 9800 SE for 130 and try and wangle a 150-100 quid monitor :D

If I were you I'd get a really class TFT. There are a few really great gaming ones out at the moment that would complement your system nicely. Your current graphics card should be ok for the time being even though it's Dx8. Games like HL2 should still look fantastic anyway.

Yup, I'm with the TFT crowd.

Your PC is fine at the mo,Give your eyes a treat and grab a decent TFT (my money would go with the NEC1760, but that's just my preference).

Heck you could even keep the CRT for a bit of dual display goodness :)