Help with rig building

[GroundZero3]

i have a step brother who is interested in getting a new computer and i suggested this

Asus nForce2 Ultra 400 Chipset Motherboard for AMD Socket A CPU, Model "A7N8X Deluxe

AMD XP 2600+

Geil Value Series 184 Pin 512MB DDR PC-3200

(not worried about sound or network since its onboard and we have a case, Hard drive, and cd-rom already picked out)

i have two questions

First off is the video card. He has $135 to spend on his video card. There is so many video cards out there i dont even know where to start. He plays Counter Strike, Half life, Battlefield 1942, Halo, Call of Duty, Need for Speed, and he wants to play Half life 2 and other games that will be coming out like doom 3

It doesnt matter if its ATI or Nvidia

Last is the RAM, i know the motherboard supports pc-3200 but i was wondering if i will have any problems or slow down with this ram with my CPU?

i have the same motherboard and and cpu with pc 2700 will he notice an increase in preformance with the 3200 or is he gonna waste his money?

Dual memory on this motherboard, so far we have one stick of 512. I told him to get two sticks (2 x 256) to enable dual channel is there really much of a preformance increase? I couldnt really find any sites to verify

thanks

[RamonGTP]

Getting higher rated ram is good for two reasons

1) If you're going to overclock, you're DEFINATLY going to need PC3200, especially since the new Barton's are not multiplier locked, the only way to overclock is by raising the FSB.

2) If you've got PC3200 memory running at PC2700 specs, you can take advantage of this by running very aggressive memory timings.

[GroundZero3]

thanks ramon, no overclocking will be done

[Rand Dusing]

If he wants to play Halo, he needs a good video card. I have a BBA 9800 and it runs it fine. Mine came with HL2 as a special store thing. But if he wants to play Halo and HL2 he might want to get interested in getting a 9600XT or 9800XT. 9800XT is way to expensive and 9600XT are at max around $200. But if you take off the price of HL2 which will probaly be around 50, it will cost $150. Also, whatever video card you get, you should get one with DirectX9 support. I had a 5200 (DX8) and was playing Halo and I noticed a big difference when I played with a 9800 (DX9). Also, if he wants to play games coming out in the feature, he will need a good video card so you may want to spend a little more.

[Rand Dusing]

I also play BattleField 1942 with a 9800 and that works excellent on high settings and a 9600XT is pretty close performance wise to a 9800 non-SE non-Pro.

[GroundZero3]

thanks for the suggestion, the XT is alittle out of his price range. how about the 9600? how about a MSI GeForce FX 5600XT Video Card


i told him to wait till after half life 2 to see what certain machines run like, but you know how guys are when they want a new computer and have some cash to get some.

[Creatures]

first of all, all these games will work with a GF2 MX, but that's something else

-> 9600XT, i heard it should be lovely for its price! (gonna get that too, in two years )

Creatures

[tgxiii]

No chance he can come up with another $15? If he could, I would suggest a Radeon 9600 Pro from NewEgg.

If the budget is strictly $135, then maybe a GeForce 4 Ti4200 would suit his needs.

[speedyvision]

i would go with the 9600 over the geforce 4 ti4200 any day, ive owned 2 geforce 4 ti4200's and they both run hot and im not to impressed with the graphics on simple things like videos, also they dont have dx9

[RamonGTP]

Quote:

Originally posted by Creatures
first of all, all these games will work with a GF2 MX, but that's something else


Creatures

Ummmmm.... no.

Unless your defination of working fine is 800x600 with low settings... Medium at best. And probably won't even play HL2 at all.