Upgrade

[Krylexian]

Hi all,

I am considering an upgrade to my PC and although I know a bit about it I've lost touch with recent techological developments.

I am considering the following:

Asus A8R32-MVP Deluxe Crossfire Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 3700
2 x ATI x1600 Pro (Crossfire supported)
1Gb (2x512Mb) PC3200 RAM

Questions:
Is this the correct memory for the mobo and CPU?

Do I have to use ATI cards for Crossfire? What's the benefits of Crossfire over Sli?

My budget is around £600 - £650 for this, am I better off getting a new base unit of similar spec and does any know where I'd get such a beast?

I'll be using the PC primarily for 3d games and the above component list is NOT set in stone, therefore I would welcome any suggestions or recommendations on the above.

Thanks in advance,

 

[gary996]

Dont bother with crossfire. Get one card X1800XT 512 meg and it will wipe the floor with the 2 of X1600 and the price will be on par or a little cheaper.
Mem is fine.

 

[semi-pro waster]

I'd agree with the above advice, something like this would be suitable and will be less hassle to set up than Crossfire would be

MB-088-AS Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-088-AS)
£59.95 £59.95
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£89.95 £89.95
CP-121-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3700BNBOX) (CP-121-AM)
£127.95 £127.95
GX-048-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC)
£214.95 £214.95
Subtotal £492.80
VAT £86.24
Total £579.04

 

[Krylexian]

That's great info, thanks all.