good or nah?

[DonnieDarko]

I'm building a computer strictly for gaming/overclocking but i don't want to boost the price too high.This is what i cam up with:

ThermalTake Xaser III V1420A Black Steel Case
ASUS nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard
Amd Althon xp 2500+ mobile "Barton"
Vantec AeroFlow VA4-C7040
Corsair XMS Extreme Memory Speed Series(256x2)DDR PC-3200
Western Digital 80GB 7200RPM
Lite-on 52x32x52 CD-RW Drive
Lite-on 16X DVD-ROM
ViewSonic G70FB 17" PerfectFlat CRT Monitor
ASUS nVIDIA GeForce FX5900 Video Card
total of around $1200.
Is this a good gaming machine for being on a budget or should i make any changes?

 

[darko21]

looks like a pretty good setup.

Personally I'd go with the 9800pro but that's me you might want to post that question in the graphics forum though.

If I glanced at a spilt box of tooth picks on the floor, could I tell you how many are in the pile. Not a chance, But then again I don't have to buy my underware at Kmart.

 

[endyen]

You may want to check out the Radeon 9800 pro, better card and usually cheeper. I think Ati has a card exchange where you give them $200 and and old (like pci old) video card for a new 9800 pro.

 

[P4Man]

I'd consider more ram. If 1 GB is out of your budget, at least get 768 MB (512+256). 512 Mb is not really cutting it anymore with the latest games.

= The views stated herein are my personal views, and not necessarily the views of my wife. =

 

[DonnieDarko]

I was thinking about the radeon 9800 but I play counter-strike on competitive levels and serval my friends with the same card are having driver problems where they get random and pretty bad fps drops. My local lan center uses the 5900s and they run like a dream.

 

[pat]

Doing so might prevent him from running dual channel.

-Always put the blame on you first, then on the hardware !!!

 

[darko21]

I still think the 9800 pro is the better choice but take it over to the graphics forum. The guys over there do know their stuff and can explain the pro's and con's for each card well.

If I glanced at a spilt box of tooth picks on the floor, could I tell you how many are in the pile. Not a chance, But then again I don't have to buy my underware at Kmart.

 

[darko21]

Dual channel on nforce2 is more marketing than anything. the benifits are pratically nill.

If I glanced at a spilt box of tooth picks on the floor, could I tell you how many are in the pile. Not a chance, But then again I don't have to buy my underware at Kmart.

 

[Snaggle]

looks great and well considered;except for only 512mb of ram.Considering your on a budget you might want to use a fx5900xt-there almost as good as the fx5900.Gigabyte has arx fatalis,tombraider,ravenshield and call of duty bundled with theirs and msi has:ghost recon;marrowind and duke nukem:manhattan project bundled with theirs.

 

[Schmide]

Dual channel is overrated, but running mismatched chips may cause problems at higher frequencies and at the least cause the timings to be backed off a bit.

Dichromatic for your viewing plesure...