Buying tomorrow, help me decide!

[sirp]

off to buy some bits tomorrow, finally decided to upgrade to PCIE..so close to decision, help me make my mind up please

currently running a XP2500@3200 and 6800GT AGP
GEIL 1gig DDR ram, so will reuse this ram. I have looked at CPU benchmarks for gaming (my use) and there is not much in it between CPUs, where as the GPU makes a big difference.

Thinking of:

Asus A8N-SLi SE nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-131-AM)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940)

OcUK GeForce 7900 GT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail

OR

Sapphire ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-121-SP)

regarding the GPU, i was all for the ATI, but not like the threads i have read on the problems people have had, which seem high in s short space of time. Therefore, the 7900GT is pulling me in.

Overall, this upgrade seems to be the best i can come up with for the performance/pound.

cheers, advise away

 

[sirp]

budget, well..that lot is circa 360, so about that really, not wanting to spend much more really.

the 3700 is a better chip yes, but when i have compared CPU benchmarks in gaming, we are talking about 10 percent tops, compared to about 40 percent pound increase; from what i have read. I only game at 1280 res.

is the DFi board better than the ASUS board then, im not an overclocking nutcase, just ocassional one

 

[sirp]

i'd love a 3700, but its 50 notes more and my GEIL ram might be cack for all i know

im only a part-time overclocker, so im buying with stock in mind really

regarding the XT cards, and issues..i just don't want to end up with a dud ( i know it can happen with any kit). Are the 7900GT easy to overclock a bit, without any mods?

i'm finding this hard to decide, too many opinions eh

the opteron, not considered that, but if i was, maybe the 3700 would be better for me at stock.

 

[sirp]

well..i bought the 3200 venice, and the X1800XT in the end, and upgraded to 2 gig ram

almost finished the install..YAWN!

battlefield 2 looks/runs good with everything turned on high, hurrah!

so far, happy