Been asked before, but... New setup questions.

[Kreiger]

Hey, first post, blah blah blah.

Basically, i'm upgrading from Socket A comp to a 939.

The new things i'm buying to upgrade are:

DFI Lanparty Ultra-D NF4
Amd Athlon Venice 64 3000

I've got compatible ram/psu for the lanparty already.
(1 gig ram)

I Do Not plan on SLI'ing (but if i change my mind, i know how to mod the board )

Now's the catch. in my Socket A, i had an Integrated Geforce 4 GPU. It runs cs:s just fine (which surprises alot of people).

Since the Lanparty does not have integrated graphics, i have to get a proper GPU, so, here I am, looking at the x800s, and 6600gts, and the different model numbers, and hardocp's frame rate tests, and my head is spinning.

I'd like to spend under 150, but that's not a hard ceiling.

I've been looking at neweggs refurbished items, but i've heard some horror stories from there, and overall, i'm not sure what to snag.

The majority of my geekier friends suggest a 6600gt, but i'm not seeing the fps standards to support such a card. The threads here seem to point at the x800, but again, conflicting and contrasting messages all end up saying the cards i like are more than i'd like to pay.

The eternal problem.

Basically, i'd like some help snagging a decent graphics card for around 150 that can play cs:s on medium-high quality, and will allow me to have hopes of enjoying doom3 (which my current setup can not do) and F.E.A.R (when it comes out) at decent speed and quality.

For the record, i play cs:s on everything low, at 800x600, and i don't mind it horribly, so if i can attain that level for F.E.A.R, that's ok.

I know this is a long post, my apologies, and thanks for reading this far.

Please help!

 

[GFreeman9]

Just to make sure... what RAM speed are you using? I remember when I had my Socket A I was using PC2100 which today is not sufficient. The 6600gt and perhaps a cheap 6800nu may be viable gpu purchases.

 

[Kreiger]

pc3200.

it's actually mixed, ram, two sticks of 256 Geil Value (the kind with the blue heatspreaders on them) and a stick of Corsair. the Geil is Dual channeled.

I checked the various sites, and there should be no compatibility errors with that ram, ghetto tho it may be. I'll be getting new, and better ram later on, but i want a system first.

 

[Thanatos.]

I would also suggust the plain 6800 a 256MB version though.

 

[tornadotsunamilife]

I checked the various sites, and there should be no compatibility errors with that ram, ghetto tho it may be. I'll be getting new, and better ram later on, but i want a system first.

I would imagine you could run into some problems

 

[Kreiger]

I would imagine you could run into some problems

And if i do, i'll cut out the corsair, and run 512 Geil Dual channel until i get better ram, but i checked both, and i'm pretty sure they both work. I hate to cross my fingers on something like this tho.