My parents, with a lot of convincing ordered a system for my sister and I from Alienware on July 8th with an estimated arrival date of August 26th. At the time I chose the x800xt pe because the delay was less, 35 days as opposed to the 42 day wait for the 6800 ultra as well as being twenty dollars cheaper and not requiring a 480w power supply as I read in Computer Gaming World. Now my dad got an e-mail today from Alienware saying they have a large stock of 6800 ultra's and they are wondering if we wish to change, offering to pay the difference and they would begin building the system right away (as of now I'm stuck at phase 8 waiting for the x800 xt card). A couple of weeks ago they said it would arrive at our house this tuesday, though with this e-mail I'm beginning to doubt that. It doesn't matter greatly when it comes as I start college next week, but futureproofing is what we are looking for. Here are the specs:
480 watt power supply
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
ASUS® A8V Deluxe - VIA K8T800 Pro Motherboard
1GB Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 SDRAM at 400MHz - 2 x 512MB
ATI RADEON X800XT PE
120GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Plextor® PX-712A 12x DVD±R/W Drive
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 High Definition 6.1 Surround
XP Home
Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard
Microsoft® IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 - USB
Now some questions:
1a.) Would a 480watt power supply be sufficent for a 6800 ultra and the specs above?
b.) What if I upgrade this system 1 1/2 or 2 years down the road?
2.) I mainly play fps and my sister plays sims (literally) so which would be the best all around card?
On a sidenote my dad is not willing to pay the extra $200+ for a power supply upgrade (to 650w) so the 480w will have to make do. I know nothing about the insides of a pc, so it is not so 'easy' for me to just replace it down the road. Maybe I'll learn eventually. Oh, the system cost about 2.9k with a three year warranty (my dad still bugs me with 'any price changes yet?'), we've had nothing but trouble with the compaq I'm on now... I'm more into Half-Life then doom and 'supposedly' ati's top card will run 30% faster than the 6800 ultra, but will nVidia be able to minimize this margin? I'm a big fan of the Half-life mods, but then again I like Call of Duty which uses id's Q3 engine, so I'm kind of stuck in the middle...
Any suggestions guys? This forum is the most knowledgeable one I've been to, so I'm looking forward to your replies and will bring them up with my parents.
EDIT: All the cards run at standard speeds
480 watt power supply
AMD Athlon 64 3500+
ASUS® A8V Deluxe - VIA K8T800 Pro Motherboard
1GB Dual Channel DDR PC-3200 SDRAM at 400MHz - 2 x 512MB
ATI RADEON X800XT PE
120GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache
Plextor® PX-712A 12x DVD±R/W Drive
Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 High Definition 6.1 Surround
XP Home
Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard
Microsoft® IntelliMouse Explorer 4.0 - USB
Now some questions:
1a.) Would a 480watt power supply be sufficent for a 6800 ultra and the specs above?
b.) What if I upgrade this system 1 1/2 or 2 years down the road?
2.) I mainly play fps and my sister plays sims (literally) so which would be the best all around card?
On a sidenote my dad is not willing to pay the extra $200+ for a power supply upgrade (to 650w) so the 480w will have to make do. I know nothing about the insides of a pc, so it is not so 'easy' for me to just replace it down the road. Maybe I'll learn eventually. Oh, the system cost about 2.9k with a three year warranty (my dad still bugs me with 'any price changes yet?'), we've had nothing but trouble with the compaq I'm on now... I'm more into Half-Life then doom and 'supposedly' ati's top card will run 30% faster than the 6800 ultra, but will nVidia be able to minimize this margin? I'm a big fan of the Half-life mods, but then again I like Call of Duty which uses id's Q3 engine, so I'm kind of stuck in the middle...
Any suggestions guys? This forum is the most knowledgeable one I've been to, so I'm looking forward to your replies and will bring them up with my parents.
EDIT: All the cards run at standard speeds