Sooo many video cards to choose from...

Correct. I forgot about the ones that didnt have onboard video. Sorry.

I was just trying to avoid the typical onboard gfx owner who thinks that they really have 64 MB of dedicated video memory (and not allocated system memory).

 

Yes, but let me also warn you about PCI-E. Nut is an early adapter, which is fine for someone who buys and holds for extended periods of time. Right now though, there is very little performance difference between AGP and PCIE, so for the short term, dont sweat it. And don't fall for the SLI gimmick like I almost did. All that does is split the primary 16x PCI-E to two 8x ones, and the performance gains are MINIMAL, but the cost is very high. Marketing gimmick and nothing more unless you buy a board that actually has dual x16 PCIE slots.

newegg.com & chiefavlue.com (same site).

See also: link

Personal preference. Do you prefer: 1) Handpicking parts and assembling your PC yourself so you know you get quality, or 2) 24-7 tech support, even if it is some guy in India ostensibly named "Joe". Plusses and minuses for both.

 

It's definitely a tough decision.

I actually built my current one from the ground up back whenever it was, so that's not a problem for me. The warranty that I'd get with a Dell makes me lean back that way though. Problem is, with Dell, I'm sure I'd be more limitied with the configuration of the system.

UGH!

Now I'm sitting here thinking I may be eyeing a new system sooner than I thought and I'm looking at new mobos, not really knowing what the difference between any of them are. I do know I'm using a Gigabyte mobo in mine now and have never had any issues with it, but I've always been under the impression that ASUS is about the best. Any input on that subject? Power supplies too?

This is the meat and potatoes of the configuration of a high end system (approx. $1600 w/ unneeded monitor) that I looked at at Dell's site:

P4 3.2 G
1 G Dual channel DDR2 SDRAM 533MHz
160 Gig HD 7200RPM
256MB PCI Express™ x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800
Sound Blaster Audigy™ 2 ZS (D) Card w/Dolby 5.1, IEEE 1394 capability

Think I can build a comparable system on my own for significantly less.

And BTW, thanks again for all the information you all are providing! I know I'm all questiony about this.

 

If you can, if might be a good time to wait a couple of months. The dual-core AMD64 X2 processors are coming out in June. That should force the price to fall on all current processors, since dual core is supposed to be a big improvement over current AMD and Intel chips.

tomshardware.com has info and some reviews on current processors, video, and motherboards - if you haven't been keeping up with the latest developments, it is a pretty good site.

 

Oh yeah, I can wait. Money is definitely an issue (isn't it always?), so if there's a likely price drop in the near future, that would be great. Looks like I've got time to do some in-depth research.

 

like I said, you'd have to upgrade. Probably not worth it unless you just feel like spending on a system that should last, but in the end my AGP - based 9800 will probably last until the jump to 3GHz+ isn't expensive, so I'm sticking.

 

Word.

And as far as building new systems, I cannot advocate Intel at all anymore with the dual core Athlons coming out. I'm not a fanboy, but it has gotten ridiculously one sided lately. the Athlon 64 is so far ahead of of the Intel chips in terms of price/performance that Intel is reeling. Thank goodness they developed Dothan so they had something to fall back on, because the original P4 architecture sucks (incidentally, thats what Dell sells).

I bought a socket 939 nForce3 mobo w/ AGP recently (verrry hard to find) because Ive heard that the dual core athlons will be able to run on existing chipsets that support 939. We'll see if it holds true. If not, my A64 3500+ is a pretty damn fast chip anyway.

 

Fun decisions ahead. Will be watching for the price drop.