Improving my build

[z1ggy]

I want to upgrade my system a little bit in a few weeks, by adding more memory, a better video card and a new monitor, for better gaming and movie watching. I was going to start by erasing windows XP and installing a clean version of vista..is this a good or bad idea? Would a dual boot be better, because I want to take advantage of vista's ability to recognize more memory than xp so my gaming experience would be better. Im thinking of getting 2 more gb of the same memory I have now, a gtx 260 or HD 4870, and a good 22inch monitor. What are your suggestions?

 

[TheStu]

Well, it all depends on what res you want on that 22" display. You can either get the classic 1680*1050, or a higher res 1920*1080 display, which would of course also be high def if you wanted to get a bluray drive later down the line.

As for the OS. There does exist XP 64bit, but the diver support for it is rather weak compared to Vista 64. However, since Windows 7 is supposed to be coming out later this year, you might just want to take the RAM hit for now in XP and get the Windows 7 beta. Plenty of people have been professing that it is just as stable as a full release OS, and I don't necessarily disagree.

Also, what games do you play, and are you the kind of gamer that wants everything looking as good as humanly possible, or do you not care. I would assume that you do care since you already have an 8800, however depending on what games you play, you might not need the extra power of the gtx260 or 4870.

 

[z1ggy]

I play games like COD, crysis, Counter strike and I am going be buying starcraft 2 when that comes out later on in the year. I probably am going to want the 1920*1080 display because of the bluray option and I like to watch tv shows in HD as well. Do you suggest not getting the extra memory for now, or get up to 4gb and get the beta version of windows 7? Overall, I want a better graphics than what I have now. If anybody could suggest a good 22 inch monitor..I looked at the ones at this months build, but the mid range and high range ones seemed too pricey for me, and that Acer looked good, but its only labeled as low end.

 

[TheStu]

Well, DDR2 is crazy cheap so you might as well get the extra RAM. Next... Maybe consider the GTX 260 instead of the 4870, I think that it uses less power.