Need some help deciding what to buy!

[rout3r]

Today my PC decided to start randomly crashing, so instead of messing about with it I've decided it's time to upgrade it as it is a couple of years old anyway.

Now, do I buy an ASUS A8N32-SLI and a XFX 7800GTX Extreme 265MB...

OR

Do I buy an Asus ATI EAX-X1900 XT 512MB and a non-SLI motherboard (crossfire doesn't seem too good yet, unless I'm mistaken?) - not quite sure which though?

I've never really been a fan of NVidia, and always liked ATi, but the SLI seems like a good idea and the A8N-32 seems like a good mobo. Perhaps I should just get the A8N-32 and the X1900, but I think that kind of defeats the purpose of the SLI, and although I wouldn't use it straight away, it'd be nice to add another gfx card in 6 months time or so.

How noisey are NVidia cards these days?

I'm buying an Opteron 165 and G.Skill 2GB PC4000 to go with this one BTW.

What would you do?

 

[Vogon]

Crossfire itself is fine, the thing letting it down ATM is the mobo's.
If you fancy crossfire, hold on until the new chipset is released (apparently march) and get one of those and an X1900 (don't worry about X1900 branding, they are all built in the same places and just have the brands sticker, get the cheapest).
If you are getting just one, go for the XTX .. (if you can find these for just £20-30 more than the XT, as one was on this week only last week I think) as these seem to have better clocking generally, if you plan to go crossfire, then the XT is the best bet as the crossfire cards are XT speeds.

The stock fans on the 256mb GTX's are very quiet, I can't say for the 512mb ones.

TBH I would get at least a 2ghz CPU .. the memory will only give you 2.25 ghz on that 1.8 one .... unless it overclocks well ... but thats not certain.

At least with 2ghz, you should hit 2.5 ... and that card really needs that as a minimum to be let loose

Possibly go for an X2 or 170 Opty as dual core seems to be a wise move buying CPU's now.

 

[rout3r]

Thanks for that - any ideas what the Abit AT8 board is like?

I would like to wait, but I need to buy something now really.

 

[Vogon]

No idea on the AT8 .. I have the Asus A8R-MVP ... its Ok (now its sorted itself out) but it isn't too good for overclocking .. mine refuses to post over 255 HTT and you are limited on CPU voltage.

 

[rout3r]

Just noticed your edit - cheers


I'll see what I can do, but I don't want to break the bank!