Budget (of upgrades): £100-120 for GFX card, +£12 for DVD Reader Main uses of intended build: Still Gaming, especially titles requiring more GPU RAM, but also ripping and burning DVDs, audio editing Parts required: New graphics card essential, (Will use the DVD Reader from issue 76 builds) Previous build information (list details of parts): Athlon X2 4400+ and the usual Artic Cooling 64 HSF 2Gb Corsair DDR2 RAM MSI K9A2 CF Mobo (AM2+) 150Gb WD Raptor 500Gb WD Caviar 7200rpm (dual booting with Vista on the Raptor and XP MCE on the Caviar) Radeon HD 3850 256Mb, Akasa Vortexx Nexxo Cooler SB Audigy 2 ZS Optiarc Burner 3Com NIC Cooler Master Elite 330 Case Antec Earthwatts EA-650 PSU Monitor resolution: 1280 x 1024, still a CRT for the minute Storage requirements: No more space required Will you be overclocking: No Any motherboard requirements (no. of USB, Xfire/SLI, fan headers): N/A Extra information about desired (upgrade): Double-height cooling flush to the back of the case is essential This was an emergency build back in April 2008. It was my first ever PCI-E graphics card, I had no experience of them outside of reviews of the 3850 which were favourable when gaming using a CRT and I had to make a budget compromise, plus at the time my favourite games were the Supreme Commander series, which were more CPU-heavy. I've got the PSU for any graphics card out there but have to ask whether something like the 5770 would be held back by my CPU, being an AM2+ and not an AM3 BE or Intel. Would the CPU limitations be too much, should I step down to the 1Gb 4870 or 4890? If I could get away with it, it would be great if I could remove the upgrade and build it into a future Core i5 or AM3 system, but is that unrealistic and should I get the best swan song upgrade for this build, then leave it and build completely anew for the Win7 PC? The other reason I'm asking that question about GPU longevity and buying something now to use later is because I won't have this CRT forever but am treating my flatscreen as a graduation/new job upgrade to spoil myself and have no budgetary limit on it. So a card that could competently play any res up to 19 x 10 would fit my longer-term plans perfectly. Opinions welcome, I haven't looked for street pricing on the 5770 but I know the reference 487x is approximately £120 when I checked last week at Novatech.
Thanks, that was the other question I was trying to remember in my edits. If a 10.1 card is faster then I could put that in my build and leave it, but unlike 2008 I'll wait for all the forum's advice before shelling out.
