06-10-2005, 02:15 AM
gekko,Jun 9 2005, 09:39 PM Wrote:I'm currently trying to talk myself down to replacing my tower, motherboard, chip and RAM, but sticking with AGP so that I can continue to use my current video card (128 mb Geforce FX 5200). It's not a great card, but it's again, far more than I'm actually using right now. That would end up saving me a whole bucketload of money, and I could still look at upgrading my card when SLI and PCIe really swamp the market and the AGP card prices really plummet. If I do that, I could instead spend some money on a nice monitor (which I really want to do anyways). I suppose it'll depend on how much I let my geek side influence my "but we need that money for food" side.
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If you are looking for something middle of the road for now, you can build something quite cheap even with a nice video card. GeForce 6600GT cards are going for about $250-$275 (CAD), and Radeon 9800 Pros are going for around $175. Either of those cards will run any current game at very high detail and resolution. You can get a 6600GT in PCIe flavour, but not the cheaper 9800 Pro.
I personally wouldn't even look at SLI unless you are looking to combine two top-of-the-line video cards right now. By the time you want to add another card, there most assuredly will be a more powerful next-generation card on the market that will outperform a pair of previous generation SLI cards.
A bit of a derail, but I think someone could make a killing right now by manufacturing a combination AGP/PCIe motherboard (maybe selectable by jumper?) for people who are in the process of upgrading a AGP system to something PCIe, but lack the funds for an expensive PCIe card.
As for cases, I always hear great things about Antecs, particularly this one. It's a decent looking case, and provides plenty of power on the +12V rail (16A I believe). It's also less than $100 (CAD).