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[Splinter]

My brother is coming over in March and I'm very tempted by this Novatech bundle
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-6204G#

 to upgrade my ageing P4/AGP system. Makes a lot more sense than forking out £50 just for an ATI AGP card.
I can't really go much higher in price, but if I could stretch it would be the Intel quad, but it's only got 2 sata ports

[Glamdring]

That looks good. It'll bring you into the modern age especially if you have a decent graphics card to plug in.

[Splinter]

ATI Saphire 5770?

[Splinter]

Looking at specs of mem/core clock speeds/DX etc, it looks like the ATI cards are best value for money.
Having said that, this Gainward card looks pretty darn good value
http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?GW-265

[Glamdring]

They're quite nippy but I'd be looking for an ATI just now because they do DX11 which Nvidia don't.

[Splinter]

You're right Glam.
ATI it is then...erm either 5770 or 5850, but methinks the 5770 will suffice due to my pocket.

[Thermalsig]

The AMD combo is pretty decent and I think it's the best road for you Splinter. The mobo for the AMD is a newer chipset and has more expandability. You do realize it's micro ATX? They must pack that board tight.    The big difference between the Phenom and the Athlon cpu is the Athlon has no L3 cache. They are decent cpu's though, OC well and do well in gaming for the price.  The Intel 775 socket is dead already plus the mobo is several generations old. Intel has no upgrade path for it. The AM2 socket is still alive and AMD has announced future cpu's that will be compatible with the AM2 socket. I think you made a good choice. On the video card, memory capacity beyond a certain point only benefits you when you go to large monitors. You don't game on a 30" monitor, do you? If you do, I need to go into business with you. Read this short synopsis on the two cards you're considering. http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/geforce-310-5970,2491-4.html

[Glamdring]

On the video card, memory capacity beyond a certain point only benefits you when you go to large monitors.

Not quite true. In certain games such as GTA4 the more onboard video RAM you have the better. The graphics card stores the scene so the less paging it has to do to system RAM and the swapfile the better.
In the middle of playing GTA4 my 8800GTX packed up. It had 876MB RAM. I was given a 9800GTX+ as a replacement. Marginally faster card but it only had 512MB onboard RAM which did make a difference to screen redraws.
a 1GB video card is lovely and what I'm aiming for when my card comes to changing time.

[Splinter]

Thanks both Therm and Glam.
It would seem that the AMD route gives me a little 'future proofing' combined with an ATI DX11 card.
I play on a an Asus 22" widescreen which is perfectly acceptable.
The only niggle I have about the AMD bundle is that the mobo only comes with 2 sata ports, but then I could always slap in an ide DVD. I like to run 2 hard drives as I don't partition anymore.
I'll also go Win 7 x64 if I can stretch to it, on a clean install.

[Thermalsig]

On the video card, memory capacity beyond a certain point only benefits you when you go to large monitors.

Not quite true. In certain games such as GTA4 the more onboard video RAM you have the better. The graphics card stores the scene so the less paging it has to do to system RAM and the swapfile the better.
In the middle of playing GTA4 my 8800GTX packed up. It had 876MB RAM. I was given a 9800GTX+ as a replacement. Marginally faster card but it only had 512MB onboard RAM which did make a difference to screen redraws.
a 1GB video card is lovely and what I'm aiming for when my card comes to changing time.

I was referring to his whole package Glam. I agree on certain games more memory helps, but you're more likely to get cpu bottleneck with out the supporting system. I know that I have always had to balance my system to keep things playable. I upgrade one piece at a time and I early on I used to go out and buy the fastest, largest( +memory in case of the gpu) component I could buy with out considering whether or not I could fully utilize what I was buying. I think it's more important to consider the system, it's upgradability and components as a whole and making sure you have a balanced system, cpu, ram, chipset and gpu. I was guilty more than once of have my system choked out and thinking I should be doing better. 

[Splinter]

So 1024 on a gpu would be better than 512, I assume?

[Glamdring]

Yes, in a single word. Especially in certain higher end games. As McThermal points out a bottleneck in any system should be avoided but that bundle really isn't bad. Coupled to a mid-range 1GB graphics card and you're away and room to spare.

[Thermalsig]

I don't mean to be quarrelsome, Glamdring, but whether more memory helps or not depends largely on the memory bus and the type of memory used. A blanket statement of yes only works if you use 2 cards with a similar bus and memory. The 5770 has only a 128 bit bus and uses GDDR5, the 260 has a 448 bit bus with GDDR3 and usually beats the 5770 in benchmarks with less (1Gb vs. 896mb)memory. I think it's more crucial to research the card(s) you are looking at and see how well they do with the games you play and make a choice that way, taking account the resolution you will be playing at also when making the decision.

[Glamdring]

I agree. My experience is with GTA4 which does demand more graphics RAM. Even so I'd err on the side of caution and buy more.

[Splinter]

Because I may not receive another visitor for a year or two I thought this would be a tad better

Novatech Motherboard Bundle - AMD Phenom II Quad Core 955 - 4Gb DDR3 1333Mhz - AMD 785G Motherboard Asus

http://www.novatech.co.uk/novatech/specpage.html?MBB-9554G

It's another 100 quid but should give me all I need for a while, with a 5770 card.