At least almost all PCI-E video cards will be backwards compatible up to version 3.x so you can upgrade your video card in the far off future without having to worry about that. I did, however, find this 9600 that I really like: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150290

Chemical said: I am kinda conflicted on SLI with video cards, on one hand it would be nice to have 2 512mb video cards provide 1 gig of video memory but I have seen quite a bit of discussion talking about how it is better to just have one expensive/superior video card due to cards in SLI not being as efficient.

Sli/Xfire - Powerful, cheap performance compared to monolithic GPUs, flexible so you can decide to change it up later.

Cons - If you're sensitive to framerates then you'll be sensitive to microstutter which makes it feel like the frame rate is lower than it actually is. It requires a more expensive motherboard/power supply and puts an overhead on the CPU as well. Also some games do not scale so you can get lower performance than Single gpu solutions and you have to fiddle with the settings. Also Graphics memory does not stack, 512+512 = 512mb total.

Single bigger GPU - More expensive, easier to setup and run. Requires a larger initial investment but does not lock your graphics choice down to one maker. Smooth framerates if you're sensitive and does not have as many issues with glitches, slowdowns, or games failing to run. You can consider running Sli/Xfire in the future and it gives you a better base to work from.

As for your system I would recomend.

That antec case for $90 After MIR

2-4GB of patriot ram - $25-50 after MIR

Core2 E7200 ($131)or AMD X2 -5000Black edition($87+cooler) Or 5600+ 2.5ghz ($87 with cooler) With either AMD or Intel chipsets for motherboards, they are better trust me.

 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=2010200022+4801&name=Mail+In+Rebate - biostar motherboard $65

Seagate 320gb HDD for $60

Windows Vista 64/32 because it would run well on your system and Directx 10 is starting to become important. $95 - OEM

Aprox cost: $450 AMDAthlon X2black edition 4gb ram 320gb HDD and a very fast cpu with Heat sink aprox $20 leaving $350 for a Radeon 4870 with 1gb of GDDR5 ram and well within your budget.

You get a fast, cheap, reliable, quiet computer that will last you a very long time. If you find the performance starts to lack you can turn up the wick on the CPU to get some more life from it.

This is the config that I've been looking at...

 

 

$811.94 with $55 in rebates. 

Here is something that was bothering me: should I stick with XP or upgrade to Vista? I have always gotten my OS with prebuilt systems so I dont have an extra license around but still from the crap that I have heard about Vista I was considering that it might be better to simply get XP for as long as possible and upgrade later on.

Thanks a lot for everyone's feedback I am very grateful, I thought that picking my
components would have taken far more time but thanks to you guys it's much easier.

Chemical said: Here is something that was bothering me: should I stick with XP or upgrade to Vista? I have always gotten my OS with prebuilt systems so I dont have an extra license around but still from the crap that I have heard about Vista I was considering that it might be better to simply get XP for as long as possible and upgrade later on. Thanks a lot for everyone's feedback I am very grateful, I thought that picking my components would have taken far more time but thanks to you guys it's much easier.

For me Vista is more responsive when multitasking, it can use multi core cpus better than XP and it opens commonly used programs really fast by storing them in memory. Some people like the interface, some people hate it... Me? I do but if you don't this is a non issue as you can change it back to XP standard if you like. I find it performs faster than XP once the annoying disk thrashing indexing is complete on your computer. I use both on a daily basis and I can attest that whilst its not worth upgrading an old computer to Vista because the improvements aren't huge, it is worth it if you're getting a new one. IMO of course. I have had Vista for almost a year now and I've seen it improve hugely in that time. It's certainly ready for primetime now.

Ok, I think I have all of my parts figured out. http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=partsbc5.png

If there is anything that I forgot to put on the list or there is something incompatible or bad then dont hesitate to tell me. I am going to discuss these parts with a couple people I know so I have time.

Chemical said: Ok, I think I have all of my parts figured out. http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=partsbc5.png If there is anything that I forgot to put on the list or there is something incompatible or bad then dont hesitate to tell me. I am going to discuss these parts with a couple people I know so I have time.

Hello tabbed browsing...wow! :o If you're not planning on overclocking, you can lose the cpu fan and just use the one included. Also, you might not want to get the 64-bit version of vista due to driver compatibility issues. Make sure all of the parts you are ordering and any peripherals that you already own have Microsoft signed drivers or they will not install. Almost missed it, but ditch that hdd and get a SATA one. Much better performance. Finally, you don't have any sort of optical drive. Otherwise, looks good to me.

chuckd said: Chemical said: Ok, I think I have all of my parts figured out. http://img45.imageshack.us/my.php?image=partsbc5.png If there is anything that I forgot to put on the list or there is something incompatible or bad then dont hesitate to tell me. I am going to discuss these parts with a couple people I know so I have time.   Hello tabbed browsing...wow! :o If you're not planning on overclocking, you can lose the cpu fan and just use the one included. Also, you might not want to get the 64-bit version of vista due to driver compatibility issues. Make sure all of the parts you are ordering and any peripherals that you already own have Microsoft signed drivers or they will not install. Almost missed it, but ditch that hdd and get a SATA one. Much better performance. Finally, you don't have any sort of optical drive. Otherwise, looks good to me.

He has 4gb of ram, so he kinda needs 64bit. If he got a 1gb card he would have less than 2.8gb Usable ram. But I do agree on the HDD, Im sorry I missed it, kinda just glossed over that part.

As for driver compatibility if its been signed off for Vista, and everything has then it will work on 64bit.

Optical drive? Is that down the page more, it seems to have a scroll bar.