I'm An Idiot...........You decide.

[Boondawg]

My budget got sliced in half, on my way to my future 2-7800GTX System.
So now I have to take one more step in upgrading my current system, before I can achive my future goal of a:

1 - Asus A8N SLI Premium NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard ~or~ DFI Lanparty NF4 SLI-D nForce4 Socket 939
Price: $189.99

1 - AMD Athlon 64 FX-53 / 1MB / 2000MHz FSB / Socket 939 / Processor with Fan
Price: $629.99

1 Set - Geil Dual Channel 2048MB PC3200 DDR 400MHz Memory (2 x 1024MB)
Price: $244.99 a set

2 - eVGA 256-P2-N533-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card
Price: $579.00 x2 = $ 1,158.00

$ 189.00
$ 629.00
$ 244.99
$1,158.00
___________
$2,220.99

Current System:
P4-2.4 Northwood
1024MB PC 2700 DDR 333MHz
Radeon 9800XT 256MB Running At 8x

Objective:
Better Gaming Framerates By January 1

Budget: $800.00

Projected Follow-up Budget: $800.00 April 1

Should I:

A. Buy a X850 XTPE or a GeForce 6800 Ultra & 2 GHz of really good DDR 400?
About $800.00
This would allow me to use my current motherboard & processor, then in a few months, buy the Asus A8N SLI Premium NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard & the AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, let it set.
About $800.00
Then in a few more months, buy the two 7800GTX's.
Cost: About $800.00

B:Buy a Albatron PX915P4C Pro Socket 478 Intel 915P & a 7800GTX and 1 GHZ of really good DDR 400?
Cost: About $800.00
Which would allow me to use my current processor, move me into PCI Express, and I would have the 7800 onhand for when I build my future system. That step would be, to buy the Asus A8N SLI Premium NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard & the AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, & use my 7800 & 1GHz of DDR 400.
About $800.00
And then a few months later, buy the other 7800, and another 1 GHZ of really good DDR 400 with the
follow-up $800.00.

C: Buy the Asus A8N SLI Premium NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard & a low end AMD Athlon 64 processor and a 7800GTX?
Cost: About $800.00
I could use my old DDR 333MHz memory, and then a few months later, buy the other 7800, and 2 GHZ of really good DDR 400 with the follow-up $800.00.
And then, a few months later, move-up to the AMD Athlon 64 FX-55.
About $800.00

It's all so very confusing, on which way to go, without wasting time & money. The main objective is to get fast framerates by January 1, with $800.00.
The future build is secondary.
So, which way should I go?

[OcX]

D. Buy a 7800GT, DFI Nforce 4 Ultra-D, Venice 3000+

[IWasHungry]

I would suggest option C. And replace "low end processor" with "3000+ Venice" or "Opteron 144 when they come out".
:)

[kraftmayo]

Agreed, buy a Venice system, SLI capable, but just get one x16.

[Quailane]

EEEW! Don't buy a FX-53 piece of crap. A much cheaper san diego will blow that away.

[kraftmayo]

EEEW! Don't buy a FX-53 piece of crap. A much cheaper san diego will blow that away.


Venice isnt an FX

[Free_Loader]

No need for the FX if you are not going to tweak too much. Get a 4000+ or something like that. Right now I have an SLI setup with two MSI NX7800GTX's;FX-55;1G PC4000 Mushkin Redline;ABIT FATAL1TY AN8 and I think my bottleneck is the CPU. I need to get an Athlon X2 4800+ or better most noticeable for BF2.

[funnyperson1]

D. Buy a 7800GT, DFI Nforce 4 Ultra-D, Venice 3000+
I would probably go that route to, although I would add 1GB of good PC3200, PC2700 is just holding back a Venice horribly.

I would not get the FX-53 because imho it is a waste of money, the ease with which you could get a Venice 3000+ past FX-53 performance levels with overclocking is crazy. FX chips are for people who have too much money to burn, or just like playing around with high end chips. THe Venice, or a San Diego would be a smarter buy.

[ju5tin99]

A. Buy a X850 XTPE or a GeForce 6800 Ultra & 2 GHz of really good DDR 400?
About $800.00
This would allow me to use my current motherboard & processor, then in a few months, buy the Asus A8N SLI Premium NVIDIA Socket 939 ATX Motherboard & the AMD Athlon 64 FX-53, let it set.
About $800.00
Then in a few more months, buy the two 7800GTX's.
Cost: About $800.00


Personally I would go with this option but with a different processor. Get your good ram now, and a 6800 or x850 will run pretty much anything on the market right now with good fps. By the time you get ready to buy your 7800's they will probably cost half as much as they would if you were to buy one right now, seeing as how they are the latest technology out. Let those drop to the $250-300 range instead of $500 and you save a nice chunk of change.

[Eddyisgreat]

your post seemed more like a battle plan rather than simply 'upgrading your pc ;)'

[dfonda]

If it was me I would get a 6800 gt and use the rest of the money for dell wide screen. Then push your new system back 6 monthes. You will have better framerates for sure.

[Blackmage]

C, but i would is save until i can buy it all :D

[Jotosuds]

D. Buy a 7800GT, DFI Nforce 4 Ultra-D, Venice 3000+

that's pretty foolproof i thinks... buy it near the end of the year when prices go down more

[darksparkz]

C.

Stick with a 3000+, 7800GTX, and a good $100 motherboard. Heck, spend $80 more and you can get your ASUS A8N Preminum. I'd save for another two weeks for that $80 and get the A8N Preminum.

But if you really can't get that money, go either for the DFI or Epox boards. Depends if your OCing, since you chose the A8N Preminum, I'm assuming you won't OC TOO much. But if you get the DFI board, you can tweak it to SLI almost easily.

By getting a $100 motherboard now, you'll have time to wait until the new X16 motherboards are out.

[SybrCLocK]

get a dualcore or dont get a AMD.. aMD's choke up when multitasking exept the dualcore ones...

[Yuriman]

get a dualcore or dont get a AMD.. aMD's choke up when multitasking exept the dualcore ones...

Certainly they aren't as fast as Intel processors, but I have no problem encoding some video, playing some music, and browsing the web. Also, getting dual cores would seriously hurt his video card budget.

[Cheator]

get a dualcore or dont get a AMD.. aMD's choke up when multitasking exept the dualcore ones...

I think that more of an opinion than anything. I have never used a P4 system that was better at multitasking than my Winnie.

[darksparkz]

They don't "choke up" when multitasing. My 3400+ can perform great while running a buncha applications at once, but compared to a X2, of course the X2 would outperform me in that area. The single cores from AMD are good for gaming though, at least better then X2s and most Intels at this moment.

[GamerTag2]

eVGA 256-P2-N533-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card
Price: $579.00 x2 = $ 1,158.00
This should be good

[SybrCLocK]

well than it must be just me, i`ve worked on alot of amd (no dualcores) and they are a little slugish when do some real multitasking.

hyperthreading is the best thing that intel has come up with... i`m just sorry they are lossing the race here with all the dual cores.. as i hear the Opteron kick intels ass by far.

As for gaming.. AMD or intel is the same thing (single or multicore) it will do just fine.. cuz i dont know anyone that pushes his pc as i do lol.

i personally would go with option C too.

[Xtreme Barton]

wait till the last minute !! and then decide ... why pay for something to sit and by the time you use it the price drops..

do the smart thing and save up for a killer system at once !!

[Boondawg]

eVGA 256-P2-N533-AX Geforce 7800GTX 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 VIVO PCI Express x16 Video Card
Price: $579.00 x2 = $ 1,158.00
This should be good

What did I miss...........or mistake?

:shrug:

[1cem4n]

i am starting to ignore gamertag2's posts as they are all spam, pointless, or trying to be clever(which you're not)

-1cem4n