PCI-E upgrade on the cheap

[Devlish]

Having read Custom PC's (print mag - is it a competitor? Can edit out if required) review of the 7800GS AGP card which basically advised dont bother upgrading from a Radeon 9800 at medium resolutions, i've decided to upgrade to a PCI-E system. I want to spend a lot of money on a X2 system at xmas, but not right now, so im thinking the following specs on the cheap:

Asus K8N4-E nForce4 4X (Socket 754) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-125-AS) £44.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL) £89.95
GX-044-CO Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO) £179.95
CA-008-HP Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W Modular ATX2.2 PSU - Red UV (CA-008-HP) £52.95

Subtotal £367.80
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £8.95
VAT £65.94
Total £442.69

Into this i'll be slotting my AMD64 (S754) 3200+ which should be good for a bit. I need a new power supply because I have a 350W at mo, but everything else will be cannabalised.

Any thoughts?

 

[Lanz]

Looks good to me, but cant u use your current ram and PSU?

Im in the same boat, I was gonna just get a cheapo NF4x mobo and 7900GT, my PSU and ram will be fine.

 

[trojan698]

You'll need the new PSU, theres no way a 350w psu will have enough power for that x1800xt or a 7900gt for that matter

 

[Devlish]

Judging by the current calcs im borderline on my system as is, throw in a new gpu and i think thatll take it over 350watts so gonna have to bump it up, besides which I can use it in the new sys.

As to the memory youre right, I may just settle with my 1gig and see how that goes. Thanks for the idea.

 

[Lanz]

Chances are it would, so long as its a good make. You dont need 500W PSUs, you just need quality. The 7900GTs are relatively low power compared to some cards.