Worried my PC wont be nearly enough for Oblivion :o

[KPeh]

You GH'ers did a stellar job on my friends spec here, and all that has made me realise quite how pathetic my own rig is! So want to upgrade for Oblivon, as I doubt it'll run in any resolution other than 800*600 at the moment, and even then on low settings.

So, what I have at the moment is:
A p4 2.8e
9800 Pro
1gb ram (2*512 PC3200 sticks, can't remember manufacturer though)
Abit IC7

And ideally I want to run Oblivion in 1280*1024 with high graphics (not AA/AF particularily). Want this upgrade to last a couple of years. Only other games I'm looking forward to are NWN2 and Spore.

So! On my incredibly tight student loan budget, I'm thinking of getting this:
Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard
Price: £49.95 (£58.69 Including VAT at 17.5%)
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
Price: £174.95 (£205.57 Including VAT at 17.5%)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
Price: £175.95 (£206.74 Including VAT at 17.5%)
GeIL 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS2.5 (GE1GB3200BHDC) (MY-005-GL)
Price: £46.95 (£55.17 Including VAT at 17.5%)
***(So 4x 512mb of ram, when added to my current)

Total = £447.80

But if it's not enough to run Oblivion / NWN2 etc, I suppose I could stretch that further if absolutely necessary? Ideally like to spend no more though.

Also, I have a Sparkle FSB 400W PSU. Enough? And compatible? It's probably 2-3 years old.

Thanks

 

[KPeh]

Apparently there are serious problems with AMD CPUs/chips and 4 sticks of ram, so I guess I'll have to get 2x 1gb. And evidentally a new PSU as well. Can anyone recommend one? Hmm :s.

Also, I'm just wondering how much of an upgrade the 3800+ is from a p4 2.8e? Thinking it might not be worth it, or at least bad value getting one that slow.. Compared with the huge leap between the two graphics cards.

 

[KPeh]

I'm guilty of posting this thread on two forums (admittedly the other was the oblivion one), but (here):

By someone else in the other thread
Be carefull here. Running all 4 memory slots filled with any Athlon 64/X2/FX can cause reduced performance. If any of the 4 memory modules are double sided, your memory will be forced to run at 333Mhz and command rate of 2T. If they're all single sided sticks, you can run at 400Mhz or higher, but you'll be forced to run a command rate of 2T (significantly slower than 1T)

It's a limitation of the AMD memory controller and is well documented. To get around this you need to run 2 larger capacity sticks instead of 4 smaller ones.
I'm in the same boat btw... I have a fast pair but cant add another 2 without it dropping me to 2T, I've tested it and it's no lie. On my system 2T = about 30% slower than 1T. Even 2gigs at 2T is slower than 1gig at 1T.
I'd advise either buying 2x 1gig sticks right away, or stick with what you have until you can afford them.

 

[KPeh]

Right, well I've decided not to take the risk with the memory. I've gone for a Tagan PSU as people seem to like them about here (would have prefered FSB - I've used 4 of them in the past and they've all been fantastic - but the current ones have a blue LED ). So,

Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£70.44
GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£105.69
Asus A8N5X nForce4 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-120-AS)
£58.69
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - Retail (ADA3800BVBOX) (CP-134-AM)
£206.74
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£205.57

**Edit: total: £650, ouch, a bit pricier than I expected, hmm**

So, hows that? Only other thoughts are, that's an awfully cheap motherboard. Seems fine spec wise, but I'm looking for a catch - the top motherboard is £80 more ! Also, if I wanted to overclock it a little (not much, and probably wont) will the motherboard/value ram hinder that?