Hehe...

[BirdRobin]

Yahoo! Finally decided on the components on my new com. But, the more i see a nV6800GT, the more i feel like buying it rather than a new PC.
Guys, i think you all might do a better job of helping me decide.

New PC
1) AMD A64 3200+ (Clawhammer or Newcastle?)
2) MSI K8N Neo Platinum
3) 1GB (2x512mb Corsair ValueRam PC3200 CL2.5)
4) R9600Pro (From my current system)

Or, New card!
Gainward PowerPack Ultra! nV6800GT + current system.
AMD Athlon XP 1700+ (1.5Ghz), 128+258mb DDR266 (Junk latencys.)

I don't really have the money after this upgrade to buy anymore parts for 1/2 a year... And i am upgrading for Doom 3. Recommendations?

"Tommy Vercetti is an innocent man!"

 

[ChipDeath]

I think your CPU & RAM would prove the bottleneck, and a new Gfx card would not really improve your rig <i>that</i> much.

I would suggest keeping the card and overhauling the rest of the system in this case.

What is your present motherboard though? And do you know what core your XP1700+ is (could be palomino, Thoroughbred 'A' or Thoroughbred 'B') many of the 1700+ t-bred 'B' chips are excellent overclockers... so maybe you could just get some fast RAM & overclock your existing system to be a better partner for the 6800...

I would still suggest upgrading the rest of the system over the Gfx card though. That way you get a good boost in general performance as well as in gaming.

---
Epox 8RDA+ V1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @200x10 (~2Ghz), 1.4 Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL/1x512Mb Corsair XMS PC4000 2.5-3-3-7
Sapphire 9800Pro @412/740

 

[BirdRobin]

Nah, mine is the TB-A core, checked it with CPU-Z.

"Tommy Vercetti is an innocent man!"

 

[ChipDeath]

A shame...

The rest of the system it is then. I suspect general gaming performance will improve more with more processing power, and more/faster RAM... than it would with simply the better card.

---
Epox 8RDA+ V1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @200x10 (~2Ghz), 1.4 Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL/1x512Mb Corsair XMS PC4000 2.5-3-3-7
Sapphire 9800Pro @412/740

 

[BirdRobin]

Hmm... yeah, my TH-A was running at 133FSB, when i cranked it up just over 138FSB, the system refused to start, so, its been always 138FSB now... sick.

"Tommy Vercetti is an innocent man!"

 

[ChipDeath]

I was <i>exceptionally</i> lucky with my 1700+. I bought it specifically to overclock (actually bought it to replace a Palomino XP2000+) and knew it was a TB-B when I ordered it, but I was amazed by it's overclockability with comparatively low Vcore. a 533Mhz overclock with a 10% reduction in Vcore is good by anyone's standards.

It'll do 2.26Ghz with less than 1.6V too, but my Cooler isn't as awesome as some that are out there, so I'll wait until the winter before cranking it back up there again

---
Epox 8RDA+ V1.1 w/ Custom NB HS
XP1700+ @200x10 (~2Ghz), 1.4 Vcore
2x256Mb Corsair PC3200LL/1x512Mb Corsair XMS PC4000 2.5-3-3-7
Sapphire 9800Pro @412/740