Gaming PC.

[kandrathe]

I just built two boxs around the ASUS A7N8X-X motherboard with AMD 2800 XP and AMD 3000 XP. And, I own 3 other boxes with NVidia graphics cards. Like you, I've had nothing but great experiences with NVidia. The reason I chose the architecture was simply price. I wanted the best bang for my buck, and wasn't willing to pay the $500 premium you are for your architecture. I started my research at 3DMark, and other benchmarking sites to see what hardware was performing the best, and then researched how cheaply I could get that architecture.

My Spec;
Case: Any stylish Steel ATX 10 Bay Minitower. I went with Raidmax.
Raidmax Model 268WBP(BLACK/SILVER) 10-bay Case -- $43
Powersupply: Tt or equiv -- silent and 400W or > -- I went with Allied 450W 2 ball bearing fans -- $42
ASUS A7N8X-X -- $60
AMD Barton 2800+ -- $135 or; AMD Barton 3000+ (2.17Ghz) -- $195
1GB PC3200 x 512MB Memory -- 2x$90 or $180
HD: I went with Seagate, but if you like WD,
I would use at least one of; Western Digital 120GB SATA WD1200JD 7,200 RPM 8MB Hard Drive -- $137
and finally, (I like Sony for CD devices, and I wouldn't skimp on this item) so I chose
Sony CDRW/DVD Combo Drive Model CRX300E/B2 (BLACK) -- $60

For one which was not going to be a gaming machine I went with Nvidia EVGA GeForce4 MX440-8X 64MB DDR 8X AGP -- $47

For the one that was going to be a gamers box, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128 -- $300

Add about $100 more for a nice keyboad, an optical mouse, rounded cables, a FDD, some good Tt Heatsinks with fans and you are set.

So the lower end AMD 2800/Nvidia box cost me ~ $800 -- I already had the 17" monitor for this one and the 3000 with ATI card cost me ~$310 more. I went with the ViewSonic E90fb 19" for ~ $210. I just benchmarked the AMD 3000/ATI Radeon box at between 5950 and 6100 3DMarks on air without problems. As far as I have seen just over 9000 is the max using water/and peltiers. For comparison, my old 650 mhz Pentium III with NVidia GEForce2 256 card performed at 97. I can live with 6000.

So, again, I have nothing against either AMD or Intel, nor ATI or NVidia. All of them are capable of building great product, and sometimes really crappy products as well. I am just sure to do my homework, cross my fingers, and buy stuff that has a proven track record.