System Check and Opinions Please

[dripgoss]

OK guys/gals, I have a budget of around $1200 and I *NEED* to build a ground-up EQ2/WOW/D3/HL2/BF2 gaming machine by the middle of November and I'm tired of playing the "wait for new technology to hit" game so it's go time.

Basically, I have newegged out two systems that fall within my budget, but the burning question is: Do I go Intel LGA for the time being with a PCIe 6600GT so I can just upgrade to A64/NF4 cpu/mobo when PCIe hits AMD *OR* do I build a nice A64 2800+ Socket 754 on a cheaper NF3 250 board and get a nice 6800/GT AGP and just chuck the whole thing in a year when PCIe is matured on AMD platforms?

Both solutions come out to be about the same, so it's not the money. I'm just not sure if I should look for performance today with a 754/NF3/AGP solution (with limited future-proofing), or go P4LGA/915P/PCIe and at least get some mileage out of a ~$200 6600GT when AMD PCIe hits down the road. Any thoughts or suggestions would be appreciated!!

I know I'm making some concessions on the RAM and case and stuff, but I won't be doing much OC'ing and I need certain things like an LCD and quiet case/PSU. Here's the exact breakdown:

Intel
ANTEC Life Style Series Black Case With 380W Power Supply
Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200
CTX S762G (Silver) 17" LCD Monitor w/ Speakers, DVI
ECS "915P-A (1.0)" 915P Chipset Motherboard For Intel LGA 775 CPU
Intel LGA 775 Pentium 4 520 2.8 GHz, 800MHz FSB, 1MB L2
Leadtek nVIDIA GeForce 6600GT Video Card, 128MB GDDR3

AMD
ANTEC Life Style Series Black Case With 380W Power Supply
Maxtor 200GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive
Corsair Value Select (Dual Pack) 184 Pin 512MBx2 DDR PC-3200
CTX S762G (Silver) 17" LCD Monitor w/ Speakers, DVI
CHAINTECH nForce3 250 "VNF3-250"
Athlon 64 2800+, 512KB L2 Cache, 64-bit Processor
XFX nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-Bit, TV-Out/Dual DVI, 8X AGP, Model"PVT40KND"

Thanks again for looking and any suggestions!

 

[Comparisonman]

I highly suggest going with the AMD system, but upgrade the memory to 1024mb and change the video card to a 6800gt. Even without changing those things, the AMD system still looks better though.

 

[Comparisonman]

Oh yeah, and AMD is especially good for games. Much more so than Intel when it comes to Pentium 4 vs Athlon64.

 

[tornadobox]

UGH, my stomach cringes at the sight of ECS...had too many bad experiences with them a few years ago 🙁

Might I suggest a little twist...I haven't checked out the prices...but maybe look into an AMD Athlon 64 socket 939 chip? That way if you go the AMD route, you could upgrade the mobo and graphics to PCI-e later on and keep the same chip (if that's something you might want to do).

 

[dripgoss]

Wow, that was quick! Thanks for the thoughts so far...

Comp-man, those Corsairs are 512x2, but any thoughts on if that RAM will be decent in either platform? Again, I don't need anything fancy yet. This is for my wifes machine, so it can be a little looser on the specs than when I build *MY* machine!! 🙂

And tornado, that's a good idea on the 939, but I'll have to dbl chk to see what 939 does to my budget if all else stays the same. As an aside, I used to work for a lappy mfr that used ECS and FIC almost exlusively back in 99-00 and yeah, ECS was crap. But I've read reports that they're coming around and again, if I go Intel it's only going to be for a short period until AMD/PCIe comes out so that would definitely be a short term solution. Then again, if it's DOA, then the little MRS. would not be happy!! heh..

Thanks again!