YiffyGriffy

So I'm a little torn about what to ask for Christmas... I'm assuming I have about a $400 "budget" that I can ask for presents for. I'm trying to decide between getting an ASUS A8N32-SLi Deluxe motherboard and a 3200+ Venice, or two 80GB Seagate SATA drives for RAID, another gig of RAM, and an X-Fi Xtreme Music. What do you guys think? And no, I'm not getting a DFI board, so don't even suggest it

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Went almost two years without any major system overhauls, so I'm treating myself

WarStallion

Well since you cant OC your CPU with that mobo you got i would get a new mobo and maybe another gig of RAM

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YiffyGriffy

Socket 754 PCI-E motherboards don't offer much choice... I'm really leaning towards the A8N32... problem is cost, I feel guilty about asking for $400 worth of Christmas presents...

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Went almost two years without any major system overhauls, so I'm treating myself

ncsa

Yes a new MB and CPU ... HD are really only for space and not too much effect in performance... Plus a new MB is always interesting.. then I will know how that one it really goes.

OJX

It all depends, I don't think you would need an 3200+ Venice because your current CPU is better, even though you can not overclock.

The motherboard seems kind of good imo, although no increase in performance. This you will have to think about.

The other GB of ram would help in games now and in the future for sure so it sounds appealing.

The sound card if only if you are an extreme audiophile, you have something better then onboard which is always good.

The 2 hard drives in RAID might sound appealing but are a little risky and hot. The performance increase from those may be noticeable but not too extreme, I would not get that IMO.

In the end it's up to you, I don't really know your personal interests or likings and I am not sure what you play or listen to to give you a more accurate answer. Hope this helps.

P.S. you can always get cash and save up for something you really want

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ShawnMcGrail

Chilly1 Evap and cap-tube?

YiffyGriffy

The whole plan was/is get the board and CPU for Christmas, sell my Newark for whatever amount and pick up another gig of RAM. That gives me 2GB and dual channel for the RAM and a CPU that can probably do 2.8GHz for a while. Then sometime this summer if/when I get a job I'm gonna pick up a dual core chip, either an X2 4400+ or an Opteron 175.

That would be an interesting gift under the tree... and defeating the whole point in building my own system

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Went almost two years without any major system overhauls, so I'm treating myself

OJX

Sounds like a good plan, I know you might not want to, but I would get a 3700SD right now and get the dual core chip later in the future when dual cores are actually used. It would be a better decision and the chip would be much faster in current-gen apps imo. Happy deciding

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YiffyGriffy

I would too, but again, it's a cost thing. Plus, it is my understanding that UT2007 will be one of the first multi-threaded games, and last I heard it's supposed to be coming sometime in the first half of next year.

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Went almost two years without any major system overhauls, so I'm treating myself

OJX

Yeah but by the time it comes out the 4400+ would be a value processor and would not be very useful considering all the UT series demanded high clocked CPUs. Get a 3700SD now and enjoy it NOW instead of waiting for one game in the future that might have an unknown benefit from a dual core.

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