Greetings fellow Anandtech posters:
Yet again I have come to you seeking advice, knowing that the myriad of well-informed hardware enthusiasts that thrive on this boards can offer excellent advice.
Here's my situation. I am itching to upgrade my computer (my current rig is in my sig). Although my computer is still decent, and can run the newest games mederately well(well, FSX notwithstanding!) I feel the time is ripe for an upgrade. Xmas cometh, and a sparkling new rig might be just what the doctor ordered. By the way, the main use this computer will have is gaming.
To the point: I live in Mexico, where computer hardware is not only scarce, but also prohibitively expensive. Indeed, a 20"+ LCD can go up for over $700US! Madness. Ditto for Video cards, specially high end models.
However, I'll travel to the US for Xmas, and I'm planning on buying some parts. Unfortunately I may not have more than US$800 to spend. So I won't be able to buy all the parts for a full upgrade. I have 2 choices then:
A) I could buy this board and thus, get a Core 2 Duo E6400 ($200ish). With the board I could keep my current 7800GS (AGP), my RAM and the rest of my rig, while getting a brand new C2D. Unfortunately I fear my GPU will be a bottleneck when gaming and there will hardly be any improvements in games. I also dislike the fact that the board is only PCI-Ex4 (and not x16!) which could be a hassle when getting a PCI-E card.
Another problem with this is that I would need to wait for a friend of mine to travel to the US at one point the upcoming year so that I can ask him to bring me the inevitable PCI-E GPU and my LCD. And God knows when that will happen!
B) I could just buy the parts I can't get here for reasonable prices (GPU - I want a 8800GTS) and the LCD (A 20.1" Widescreen 1680x1050 LCD) and then gradually (it'd take me a couple of months) buy the rest in here (C2D E6400; 2GBDDR2800, 500GB SATA HDD, etc, etc,) at about 10-20% more than in the states.
What do you think? Which route should I take? I was strongly considering A, until I found out the ASRock775 doesn't support PCI-Ex16.
Thanks and sorry for the long post :laugh:
Yet again I have come to you seeking advice, knowing that the myriad of well-informed hardware enthusiasts that thrive on this boards can offer excellent advice.
Here's my situation. I am itching to upgrade my computer (my current rig is in my sig). Although my computer is still decent, and can run the newest games mederately well(well, FSX notwithstanding!) I feel the time is ripe for an upgrade. Xmas cometh, and a sparkling new rig might be just what the doctor ordered. By the way, the main use this computer will have is gaming.
To the point: I live in Mexico, where computer hardware is not only scarce, but also prohibitively expensive. Indeed, a 20"+ LCD can go up for over $700US! Madness. Ditto for Video cards, specially high end models.
However, I'll travel to the US for Xmas, and I'm planning on buying some parts. Unfortunately I may not have more than US$800 to spend. So I won't be able to buy all the parts for a full upgrade. I have 2 choices then:
A) I could buy this board and thus, get a Core 2 Duo E6400 ($200ish). With the board I could keep my current 7800GS (AGP), my RAM and the rest of my rig, while getting a brand new C2D. Unfortunately I fear my GPU will be a bottleneck when gaming and there will hardly be any improvements in games. I also dislike the fact that the board is only PCI-Ex4 (and not x16!) which could be a hassle when getting a PCI-E card.
Another problem with this is that I would need to wait for a friend of mine to travel to the US at one point the upcoming year so that I can ask him to bring me the inevitable PCI-E GPU and my LCD. And God knows when that will happen!
B) I could just buy the parts I can't get here for reasonable prices (GPU - I want a 8800GTS) and the LCD (A 20.1" Widescreen 1680x1050 LCD) and then gradually (it'd take me a couple of months) buy the rest in here (C2D E6400; 2GBDDR2800, 500GB SATA HDD, etc, etc,) at about 10-20% more than in the states.
What do you think? Which route should I take? I was strongly considering A, until I found out the ASRock775 doesn't support PCI-Ex16.
Thanks and sorry for the long post :laugh:
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