Upgrade advice

[silverpig]

Well I've pretty much decided I don't need windows around anymore. The only reason I ever boot into windows now is to play some halflife2 and that's it. Rather than allow it to take up any more space, I think I'm going to do a complete switch over to linux. I also want to do some hardware changes as well.

Current:
A64 3200+ Venice @ 2.67 GHz
2x512 GB Mushkin ram
DFI Ultra-D
Connect 3D X800XL

I just want to be able to play hl2 in linux on rare occasions through cedega or wine. That's all the gaming I ever do, besides maybe some xpilot and mahjongg. I would like a card that will allow me to play 1680x1050 2xAA 4xAF in linux 64 bit. I also want to upgrade to an Opteron 165 dual core. I also want to spend the least amount possible, so a 7800 GTX is overkill. Finding 64 bit half life 2 linux benchmarks is proving sort of fruitless right now, so I'm asking advice. Finish the system:

Opteron 165 @ 2.6-2.7 hopefully (got an XP-90)
DFI Ultra-D
2x512 MB Mushkin ram
?video card?

I know my ati card won't cut it in linux. It works fine, but it's slow. I just want to be able to play HL2, so is a 6600GT enough? 6600 GT OC? or is one of the 6800s going to be needed? Which one? GS GT OC? Can I get a low end 7800 for just a little more? Prices?

 

[silverpig]

Bump for night crew.

 

[Lasthitlarry]

You already have a good system...

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Lasthitlarry
You already have a good system...

Well yeah, but I do a lot of DC for team anandtech, and I do my own physics simulations which are very computationally intensive. A dual core system would help out marvellously. By selling my current proc and getting a new one, it'd help out a lot.

The video card thing isn't a big deal. I could even downgrade to a 6600GT and still get better linux performance as that's what I'm going to be using exclusively.