Comments on my PC setup?

[eedmond]

Well I am really close to buying my new system, it is really stretching my budget because I need another $200 for a 20" Widescreen LCD from Dell. In fact I may have to downgrade the video card a little because of expense. I wish ATI would release their cards so nVidia would drop their prices. I am almost tempted at just buying a cheapo $25-50 video card for now(looking at a cheapo x1050) (almost anything would be better than my current Radeon 9800 Pro). And buy a new video card when the ATI's come out.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/p...9&sku=320-5123
http://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion/...Number=3881745

[NooNoo]

Is there a reason you want the Dell widescreen?

[eedmond]

Pretty much never heard anything but good things about them. They are within my price range and they have a good return policy within the first 30-days. Any others that are better in the same price range?

[Stevo T]

from my experience with Dell they have fantastic customer service for businesses but personal they are useless unless you know what you are talking about, have a look online at places like amazon (believe it or not) as they have had a few items suchlike before, other places like ebuyer may be worth a look sometimes there are some good deals there

[eedmond]

What brand do you suggest that I look for that is a top notch quality but not a high price? Dell has always been best price vs quality ratio.

[Stevo T]

to be honest brand and quality from experience is the complete luck of the draw i have had a cheap alternative of a tft last longer than a branded name i had a lg i think it was i cant remember as it was a little while ago but the cheap alternative was a brand tied in with targa so 2 be honest go for a brand you are not familiar with as they do tend to be made by the larger companies. i think targa are somehow tied in with samsung or philips im not sure i could be wrong on both counts. let me know how you get on though

[NooNoo]

I got two samsung 19" widescreens - both are perfect and have had no problems. It's about the speed of the screen, contrast ratio and dead pixel policy.

[eedmond]

Ok, I updated my thing a little. Mainly I dropped my 8800GTS for now and am getting a cheapo 7300GT. It's better than my Radeon 9800 Pro (I think?). This will allow me to save a little bit of money until the end of May, begining of June when the ATI cards are released. Hopefully by then nVidia will drop the prices on their 8800GTS a little bit.

Think that's a good idea? I play all my games now on a Radeon 9800 Pro so I figure I can survive another month or so with a 7300GT (256mb, 128bit).

[Stevo T]

personally i dont see why not if you can manage with that and can run what you want with it and have the spare cash then sounds pretty good to me, just out of curiousity how much is it?

[eedmond]

The 7300GT is ~$50. But I was told about the Radeon X1650 which has more pipelines (12 vs 8) and is $75 with a $25 rebate. I figure I can probably in 2-3 months sell the X1650 for ~$40-50. Am also almost tempted just to get the 8500GT ($100) which is probably about the same speed but is dx10 capable. But am not sure if I could turn around and sell it for $60-75.

Choices, Choices, choices...

[NooNoo]

Wait for dx10...

[eedmond]

Well I went ahead and bought the 8500GT. It was only $100 and I figure being $100 and DX10 I can resell it on Craig's List locally for about that. Probably will be $150 at BB or CC locally. Seems the 8500GT will probably perform about the same as the X1650/7300GS if a little better. So I am happy for now.

[Stevo T]

well as long as you can sell it on and it does what you need its all good

[Deanodriver]

A few questions.

1) The motherboard. Do you really need SLi, or all the features a $240USD motherboard provides? Surely a good 965P board would be plenty

2) The RAM. Won't you need to overclock the hell out of it to justify buying 1066MHz RAM? Even 800MHz RAM is good enough for a 50% overclock, and you're not going to get higher than that with stock cooling, IMO. If you're not overclocking, why buy the expensive overclockers RAM?

Other than that, doesn't look too bad.

[eedmond]

Ya, I goofed on the ram, was thinking the 1066 matched the FSB of the CPU while in actuality I only needed 533. Too late now because it would cost me $40 to return it and the 800 ram that is approved for the board is $150 so I wouldn't gain anything.

As to the MB, yes I want that MB. This computer has to last me for at least 4-5 years. I may need sli, it has a slot for physics card, etc...