What CPU & GFX Card?

Hi All,

I am looking at upgradeing again very soon..

Current Build

AMD 64 3800
2GB DDR
512MB ATi Radeon X1800
200 GB SATA

I have been going AMD & ATi for years now. Today I have been reading up all morning and now I am in delimar..

I have been hearing that the Intel duel cores are better then the AMD ones. Would it be worth getting a higher spec Intel duel core?

Then What gfx card?
ATi havent really released anything recentaly and the Gforce 8's look tempting.

Does anyone have an unbiast openions on which direction to go?
I am 90% gamer 10% Productive use..

I have the Core2Duo 6700 ( which the SP1 patch for FSX will recognize) and I too have always used ATi. 4 gigs DDR2 ram.
If you can go PCIe, then wait until Vista has it towards the end of the year.
ATi will be out with their new DX10 card soon (PCIe).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

If your not going Vista, then don't overspend for a DX10 card that you don't need.
Just get the best PCIe card that you can.
One of the ATI 1950x series, I have 2 512mb 1950X in crossfire configuracion.

I have decided to get somthing along the lines of this..


AMD Athlon 64 X2 5600+ (maby the 6000+)
Asus M2N32-SLI Deluxe
Creative Soundblaster X-fi Xtreme Gamer
2 x Crucial 2GB DDR2


I am realy not bothering with a new gfx ard yet
My 512MB ATi X1800 PCI-E can still put up a reasonable fight till the new cards comeing are released.

I have heard that XP its self will not recognice more than 3GB of ram yet apps will still use it.

Is this true?
I have a dvd of Vista Ultimate 64 collecting dust which was an impule buy but don't really want to use it, With all the probelms at the moment. I would rather stick with XP Pro.

If you go Ultimate you'll need more ram.
Yes XP will only recognize 3 gigs but that depends on the motherboard.
Mine has a BIOS update that will recognise 4 gigs, since I to am running XP I'm not using it.

Go as powerful as you can afford, the CPU needs to be strong for later add-on and newer gaming.

I have made a drastic desision..

I am waiting till the 3Ghz quad cores drop in price..

My machine runs nearly everything I want at the moment only the latest things cause slowdown..
So its better I wait.

Good thing to do, unfortunately when it comes into your price range your going to look at the new top CPU and say the same thing.

Good luck and whatever you do. pick up this thread and let us know...enjoy!