Worthwhile upgrade for 1600x1200?

Metalface Mark · 2 Feb 2006 at 17:48

Just ordered a new Dell monitor 2001fp, would the following be a worthwhile upgrade for it, or would it be overkill?

MB-130-AS Asus P5WD2-E Premium Intel 975X (LGA775) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-130-AS)
£149.95 £149.95
GX-052-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 ***CrossFire Edition*** 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-052-PC)
£299.95 £299.95
CP-112-IN Intel Pentium 4 930 Dual Core "LGA775 Presler" 3.0GHz (800FSB) - Retail (CP-112-IN)
£204.95 £204.95
SC-032-CL Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS Edition - Retail (SC-032-CL)
£128.95 £128.95
Subtotal £783.80
VAT £137.17
Total £920.97

thoughts? Ive already got a X1800XT, i always waste a shed load of money throughout a year buying and selling stuff, so i thought if i just went 'balls' out it should run everything all year without me worrying about it.

Would the soundcard fit in okay if ive got 2 x1800's in there?

semi-pro waster · 2 Feb 2006 at 17:52

It is up to you but can I ask why you are going for Intel on what must surely be a games machine? An A64(or X2) will almost certainly give you more power for your money and the motherboard will be cheaper as well.

But having looked at the motherboard you have picked the soundcard will fit ok but you may be best to put it in the bottom PCI slot to enable your Crossfired cards maximum airflow and cooling.

TheCrow · 2 Feb 2006 at 17:55

Id go amd X2 and dont waste ** money on a high end soundcard unless u sitting with £500+ of speakers and have a very good ear for sound.

Metalface Mark · 2 Feb 2006 at 18:00

My preference is intel, i dont like the current amd crossfire board.

I initially was thinking of just getting the motherboard and crossfire card, as ive already got a 630 intel and 2gb of 667 ddr2 memory, but seeing as the new dual core chips on intel arent that expensive, i may as well max the thing out.

I dont think the cpu would be a major factor with 2 x1800's in any case. Finally it would be a bit of a rare setup, as ive not seen many people with a intel dual core crossfire setup, so a bit of uniqueness, id be interested to see how it performed compared to everyone else's X2 setups

Larok · 2 Feb 2006 at 18:15

I think you could run games all this year on one x1800, saving loadsa money!

Although I'v not much experience with 1600 by 1200. Also why be the one to risk on the intel chip, all the benchmarks for gaming point towards amd superiority.

Metalface Mark · 2 Feb 2006 at 18:27

I want silky smooth 60fps on everything really, its just not possible at 1600x1200 with some games. If i switched to a64 id have to ditch my ram, and i always have less problems on intel boards, they are pretty rock solid, ive had quite a few a64 boards, and ive never been totally happy with any of them.

Larok · 2 Feb 2006 at 18:30

I see where your coming from with the RAM influencing your choice. Diffilcult one, sounds as though your are committed to intel and I hope you enjoy your 1600 by 1200 gaming!