what would you change?

[octane7]

I'm going to order new parts for my new rig next week, and I have already everything set but I was wondering what I should change.

I can only change one.

1) AMD Athlon 64 3200+ / to a / 64 3500+
2) eVGA GeForce 6800 PCI-E / to a / 6800 GT PCI-E

Which would you change? 1 or 2? and why?

I'm running this on a DFI Ultra-D motherboard with 1 GB of dual channel Geil ram. (Air cooling, 500 watt power supply, 120 GB Hard Drive)

 

[BrutalDrew]

The video card because it would be more benefitial in games. Also if you are overclocking the 3500+ would not be worth it.

 

[octane7]

Yeah I plan on overclocking btw....

 

[BrutalDrew]

Then definitely the video card without a doubt.

 

[Scott9027]

Upgrade the video card.

 

[BrutalDrew]

I would change to the 6800GT if you play a lot of games. What kind of RAM is that specifically? I personally would stick with the 6800 or even a 6600GT and get better RAM to help your overclock, or improve cooling in some way for the same reason.

Going with a lower-end video card for "overclocking" RAM would be a poor choice. He will be fine with value RAM running a divider. The real-world performance difference from using lower-latency RAM would be negligible while going with a 6800GT over a 6600GT would give him much better performance. This is why I generally always recommend Value RAM.

 

[Yuriman]

This man speaks great wisdom. Actualy, you could still very easily max out a 3000+ on that board. Most top around 2700mhz, which is 300HT. The board is easily capable of 320+. Ohh, I also suggest getting more ram if possible. Games are starting to utilize almost a full 1024mb on their own (Battlefield 2 specificly) so 1.5gb or 2gb would actualy be optimal. 1gb sticks of cas2.5 mushkin runs for $86 each on newegg.

Ohh, and I vote for #2.