Building new system

[filterxg]

I just sold my 2.0GHz P4-M laptop on eBay, so I'm left my old faithful 850Mhz T-bird. Anyway its clearly time to buy a new system and yes I have read around and it leaves me two options a budget and midrange system.

Option 1- A64 3500 (Winy), & 128MB 6600GT w/ an nForce4 Ultra (which I could make an SLI someday so the true SLI isn't worth it).

Option 2 ? A64 3000/3200(Winy) & 128MB 6200 (not TC). As I understand it the 6200 can be softmoded to a 6600 vanilla, so the extra $15 isn?t worth it. nForce4 4X.

Otherwise the 2 systems are identical. Price difference ~$250

I'm leaning toward Option 1. Upgrading any component is a very expensive propostion, so I conclude that it is the point of diminishing returns. However many here suggest that the 3500 isn't worth the price over the 3200, or that the GT is definetly worth the extra $70 over a vanilla 6600/6200. I'm not a heavy gamer, but I do play 20-30 hours a month, I also do some video editing from time to time.

Of course I'm not locked into anything (or option, lol), which leads me to my question, what do you suggest? and why?

 

[n yusef]

Hi!
This is my first post here, but I've been reading this forum and other hardware websites (AnandTech especially, of course) for a while now. I would suggest the 3000+/3200+ over the more expensive 3500+ because they are signifigantly cheaper, and are pretty much identical to the 3500+ besides a 200MHz boost. If you're willing to overclock, you can all but guarantee 3500+ speeds (and possibly higher, though the newwer Winnies aren't clocking as high as they used to) from the less pricey Winchesters. Even without O/C, the 3000/3200's should be fast enough for most things, so I wouldn't worry about that.
As for video cards, I would recommend the 6600GT if you do/want to play any new/upcomming games, with the 6200, you'll be stuck with poor resolutions on most games, except maybe WoW. If you mostly play older games, the 6200 may be fine. It all depends on what type(s) of games you play.

 

[ribbon13]

get a 3000 and a real 6600gt

 

[mustap]

get a 3000 and a real 6600gt


i will have to agree with that as an owner of a 3200.