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So a friend of mine is wanting an upgrade and I'm trying to help him out. His budget is about $1000 after tax (CAD dollars/retailers so no newegg 
)
Current Specs:
AMD2500+
ATI radeon 9600xt
1GB DDR pc3200
Abit an7 board (i'm pretty sure its this one.. just after the nf7-s was released)
I've been browsing ncix.com today for a list of parts for him. I know he'll need a new psu since I had issues with my sonata (which is what he has) case and it's 380 watt psu when I went to amd64
I was thinking:
AN8 32X Abit AN8 32X ATX S939 NFORCE4 SLI X16 DDR 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2 PCI SATA2 1394 GBLAN Motherboard $218.88
ADA3500BPBOX AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor S939 Venice 2.2GHZ 512K L2 Cache 90NM Retail Box $141.45
BFGR79256GTO BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC PCI-E 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 SLI Ready Video Card (BFGR79256GTOCE)$30.00 Mail In Rebate! $309.95
OVERTURE II Antec Overture II Piano Black Desktop Case 2X5.25 2X3.5 2X3.5INT 450W W/ Front IO Port $125.35
Final price: $795.63 before tax
He likes the overture as a case and it get's him the 450watt psu (but I'm pretty sure it'll not work with any possible SLI). The video card is my main concern for him, he doesnt upgrade often so I'm thinking a single vid card with no SLI might be best. In this case I could go with
A8N-E ASUS A8N-E Motherboard ATX S939 NFORCE4 Ultra DDR PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA RAID Sound GBLA $116.15
for a board and swtich up the video for
ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI HDTV-OUT Video Card Retail (100-435703100) $468.95
Final price: 851.55CAD before tax
Which way to go is better? I'm thinking about avoiding SLI for him because by the time he upgrades again it'll probably be hard to find that 7900 card so he's proabbly better off with a pricier card to start with and just to another mass upgrade in the future.
Thanks for any advice
edit: I'm also thinkin that since a new psu probably is needed, he'd be better off with just a dope power supply instead of a new case.
)Current Specs:
AMD2500+
ATI radeon 9600xt
1GB DDR pc3200
Abit an7 board (i'm pretty sure its this one.. just after the nf7-s was released)
I've been browsing ncix.com today for a list of parts for him. I know he'll need a new psu since I had issues with my sonata (which is what he has) case and it's 380 watt psu when I went to amd64
I was thinking:
AN8 32X Abit AN8 32X ATX S939 NFORCE4 SLI X16 DDR 2PCI-E16 2PCI-E1 2 PCI SATA2 1394 GBLAN Motherboard $218.88
ADA3500BPBOX AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Processor S939 Venice 2.2GHZ 512K L2 Cache 90NM Retail Box $141.45
BFGR79256GTO BFG GeForce 7900 GT OC PCI-E 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 SLI Ready Video Card (BFGR79256GTOCE)$30.00 Mail In Rebate! $309.95
OVERTURE II Antec Overture II Piano Black Desktop Case 2X5.25 2X3.5 2X3.5INT 450W W/ Front IO Port $125.35
Final price: $795.63 before tax
He likes the overture as a case and it get's him the 450watt psu (but I'm pretty sure it'll not work with any possible SLI). The video card is my main concern for him, he doesnt upgrade often so I'm thinking a single vid card with no SLI might be best. In this case I could go with
A8N-E ASUS A8N-E Motherboard ATX S939 NFORCE4 Ultra DDR PCI-E16 PCI-E4 2PCI-E1 3PCI SATA RAID Sound GBLA $116.15
for a board and swtich up the video for
ATI Radeon X1800 XL 256MB 256BIT GDDR3 PCI-E Dual DVI HDTV-OUT Video Card Retail (100-435703100) $468.95
Final price: 851.55CAD before tax
Which way to go is better? I'm thinking about avoiding SLI for him because by the time he upgrades again it'll probably be hard to find that 7900 card so he's proabbly better off with a pricier card to start with and just to another mass upgrade in the future.
Thanks for any advice
edit: I'm also thinkin that since a new psu probably is needed, he'd be better off with just a dope power supply instead of a new case.