Looking at building a new gaming system. So far I have

Asus p5e3 premium
intel core 2 quad 6600
OCZ DDR3 1333mHz 4x1gb
Thermaltake V1
thermaltake armor case
gameXstream psu

Looking for advice on graphics card. My budget leaves about $270. Thanks for the help and if you have any suggestions for different items that I have already chosen please let me know.

Okay so, this will be my first diy computer and I wanted something that could last me for a while and be upgradeable in the future. I believe DDR3 will be the new standard so that is why I went with the RAM and motherboard; however, I am having doubts about DDR3.

My budget is 1200-1300 if that helps any.

I also was looking into a 64bit system. not sure if I want to go to vista or stay with xp. I have 32bit xp now and it works great.

I dont believe that the asus motherboard has HDMI compatibility and I would really like that. If you have any other suggestions on a motherboard that I could use for top end gaming and as a media center let me know.

I will let the gamers and the hardware enthusiasts give you a list of hardware or mainboards for you.

I got to say dual core and quad core are 64 bit compatable.

You can buy XP 64 bit.Or go for Vista 32 bit or 64 bit.

I will say Vista home Basic is rubbish that is just my opinion.Buying home you would or should just stick with XP.

So my choice would be Vista buisness or ultimate.

I have Vista Ultimate 64 bit,I like it the more I use it.Although having Vista 64 bit is a little bit of a pain due to driver issues although more hardware manufacturers are making the updated drivers.So I would check the driver issue before buying hardware.

Then we have the problem of some software that will not run on Vista 64 bit you would have to check what is compatable yet again.

As for nVidia cards, I'd take a look at the 9800GTX+ or the GTX 2xx series cards. Newegg has some very good prices right now, too.

After looking more into DDR3, pretty sure that Im not going to go that route just yet.

And if I cut back on the motherboard that leaves me more room for a better graphics card.


BFG Tech GeForce GTX 280 1GB 512-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16
pqi TURBO 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800
DFI LANPARTY DK P35-T2RS LGA 775 Intel P35
Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz,

Going with a combo pack thermaltake thoughpower 650w and armor case.

also looking at the EVGA GeForce GTX 280 as alternative

Instead of the NVIDIA cards, which tend to have bad driver problems with Vista, Try for the Radeon HD 4850, or 4870, or 3870X2.

Newegg.com - ASUS EAH4850/HTDI/512M Radeon HD 4850 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H487F512P Radeon HD 4870 512MB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

Newegg.com - MSI RX3870X2-T2D1G OC Radeon HD 3870 X2 1GB 512-bit (256-bit x 2) GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Desktop Graphics / Video Cards

All of these have a better Bangforbuck than any Nvidia card.

So what would you suggest

vista ultimate with radeon gpu
or
xp 64bit with nvidia gpu

and I am not set yet if I am going to go with 32 or 64 bit yet

Even with the 3870 radeon gpu I have money left over, since they are not SLI compatible getting two of them is out so is there a better one out there. My budget for the gpu is $400, however its always nice to save money