My Final Build Sheet

[chrisgill369]

These are the parts ive decided on getting.

AMD (Winchester) Athlon 64bit 3000+ 939pin - £96.61
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=79190

Asus A8V Deluxe Socket-939 - £78.00
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=72725

Western Digital WD1200JD 120GB Serial ATA150 7200rpm - £52.26
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=50949

Corsair (VS512MB400C3) 512MB, DDR400 / PC320 - £51.19
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=66402

XFX GEFORCE 6600GT AGP 128MB DDR3 TV+DUAL DVI - £140.61
http://www.pcwcomponentcentre.co.uk/invt/pvt43andf7

How does it sound?
Is everything compatible?
In which order should i buy things ... i cant afford it all in one go. Was planning on getting mobo first with RAM. Then the rest another month. Which things are likely to drop in price quickest because i will get them towards then end.

Thanks for your help.

[Megadeth2]

I think you should change the mobo to an Abit AX8 or AX8-V or AX8-3rd Eye, which ever is in your budget. This is because you can get PCIe and this will allow you to upgrade your gfx in the future and the PCIe version of the 6600GT is $50 cheaper than the AGP version. Other than that, everything sounds good. Two thumbs up if you listen to my suggestion!

[bunnymanboy]

I second megadeths ax8 rule. If I were considering getting a a64 I would get that.

[chrisgill369]

So PCI-e is just as good as AGP right? because this is gonig to be used for games and only games.

[Megadeth2]

PCIe, what the ****. No offense, but PCIe is ten times better than AGP. PCIe 16x has 8GB bandwith and AGP 8x only has 2.13GB bandwith. The ATi Radeon X850... is the first graphics chipset fully optimized to utilize the bandwith of PCIe 16x. According to benchmarks, it creates the best graphics and even bests the 6800..., so **** yeah, PCIe is better than AGP.

[chrisgill369]

so how come the cards are cheaper

is this the abit 3rd eye one
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=66708
its doesnt say anything about a pcie slot

[Megadeth2]

It is too costly to port a native PCIe card to the AGP interface. They need to produce a bridge which adds to the cost. Currently, the 6600GT on PCIe does not perform any better than the AGP version. nVidia has not released any gfx chipset that fully utilizes the PCIe 16x bandwith. ATi has released the Radeon X850... chipset that fully utilizes the PCIe 16x bandwith and it is a monster. I'm telling you for your own benefit. You're gonna end up spending more money in the end of you pay for AGP right now. There won't be many new AGP video cards and it is a mistake to get AGP right now. Secondly, there is no rule that says if something is more expensive that it is better. Take a look at the AXP and the P4, at least before the Bartons were released. If you compare a T-Bred which is much cheaper than a Northwood 533 FSB, the T-Bred wins most performance benches and it is better period. To answer your question as I did above, it costs more to port a native PCIe chipset to AGP since board mfrs need to add in a PCIe to AGP bridge.

[Megadeth2]

http://www.excaliberpc.com/product_i...oducts_id=4371

This is the AX8-3rd Eye. The one you listed was the Abit AV8-3rd Eye and the AV8 is the older board w/o PCIe and only AGP.

[chrisgill369]

anyone else got any opinions?

and because im buying it separetly, is there anyway to test my motherboard when i get it, without anything else?

[Megadeth2]

You're gonna have to have memory and processor on the motherboard before you can test it. And you need to have the wiring done also.