Best Mobo Video card mix

[Tarin]

Jeez, just cause I don't post for 2 years I have to reregister? I'm hurt!

Anyway, It's been a while since I worried about specs for games, but with Halflife2 and Doom III on the way before the end of the year I'm thinking it might be time for another upgrade. Last time I upgraded was about 2 months after the GF3 came out.

System Specs
1.2 GHz AMD thunderbird (jeez, its been so long since i thought about it i'm having a hard time remembering my specs.)
Visiontek GeForce3
768MB Cruicial SDRAM 133.
Asus A7V133 Mobo


Anyway, I'm thinking about upgrading, probably do the mobo, processor and video card at the same time. I know nothing about what Mobo's are out right now, I know processors are pushing the 3Ghz range now (past it?) and I've heard the Radeon 9800 is the big kid on the block as it stands (Almost thinking that bring 3dfx people in hurt NV more than helped) So, give me some suggestions, I'm not looking for Fastest PC on the market, but I want something that can haul ass all the same. I'm thinking about a 2.5 GHz processor and switching to DDR. Might wait until NV puts out its next card to see if Radeon will do a price drop... but, those are just ideas floating in my head. Lemme know if you have any suggestions.

Peace http://www.click-smilies.de/sammlung/cool/cool-smiley-030.gif

[Kain]

How much are you willing to spend?

[Pureevil]

Originally posted by Tarin
...Jeez, just cause I don't post for 2 years I have to reregister? I'm hurt!...
The server was hosed, so everyone had the same problem. The people with thousands of posts were really angry, but they dealt with it.

A good barton 2800+ and an abit nForce2 would cost $296 + S&H from pricewatch. One 512mb stick of micron for $98+ S&H from pricewatch plus the memmory is registered + ECC.

[Pureevil]

Oh and Asus driver support sucks

[Harnagel]

If you go with Nforce2 you will want two sticks of RAM in order to take advantage of the dual channel action. Also, I wouldn't recommend getting ECC registered RAM as it takes a performance hit and really doesn't add much.

As for video cards, that's a tuff call. Nvidia just came out with some new cards and drivers that look to be competitive with ATI's solutions. However the jury is still out on that with lots of controversy over drivers and what not. The 9800pro is a very sweet card in any case.

there's my $0.02

[Tarin]

Hmm.. willing to pay. I suppose I'd go into the $750 range without too much trepidation. I'm willing to spend for quality, but I don't want to spend just to show off how much i can spend on my rig and and i'm not interested in being mr impressive on the eq :p