I have one last decision to make before I'm going to buy my new computer..
The main use of the copmter is general usage (surfing, downloading, using various program etc.), I don't rule out gaming completely but I rarely play games.   Also, I won't do any overclocking.
I will probably buy a (cheap) graphics card anyway, the question is when- because of the DX10 thing..
One option is buying a graphics card now- Leadtek WinFast PX7300GS TD256, and a motherboard without OB graphics card - GIGABYTE GA-945P-S3.
The second option is buying a motherboard with an OB graphics card - Asus P5L-VM 1394 (with a very weak OB card, but I can live with it for now) and wait with buying the graphics card a few months (when Vista and DX10 cards come out).
 
Will the coming of DX10 cards in some months affect the cheap cards market as well, or will those cards be expensive at first and it will take a considerable additional time until they will affect the cheap cards market (as I want to buy) ?
 
Which of the options I mentioned is better in your opinion?
 
btw it's for a Conroe E6300 processor.
 
thanks

just buy a mobo with on board graphics for now  
and add what ever card you want early to mid next year.
 
that way you can see what options are available by then.

GFX cards are really easy to install, and sounds like your not sure you even need/want one. Just get integrated now, if sometime down the road the integrated doesn't cut it get a GFX card.
 
Vista - there's really no reason for you to worry about vista right now, I don't know why so many people around here are so excited about it. Until there is some killer app that will only run on vista there is ZERO reason to install it.

LoL - do ya think the two are related? (Yup, heheh.)
Hey that's not a bad little motherboard, Intel 945G chipset, they could sell a lot of those. Integrated Intel Graphics Media Accelerator 950 - that's not too bad, and probably okay for you.
And you can always fill your empty PCI-E x16 slot anytime in the future.
However I must caution you, these small inexpensive motherboards will supply only 1.8V-1.9V to the memory, maximum.
Any high-quality, high-performance memory will require 2.0V++ so you must be aware.
But regular PC2-6400 or even PC2-5400 will run fine at lower voltage, at the slower 533DDR speed (which would be good for you, it's synchronous with your FSB).
Many folks taken by surprise with this memory voltage thing though,
Regards

uuh, I'm not planning on buying any high performace memory.
I intend to buy a 533Mhz memory to fit with the FSB speed without any overclocking.
I don't know at what voltage it works.. but I guess it's under 1.8V-1.9V...
 
thanks for the answers

You could get a G965 motherboard, which has the new GMA X3000. The benchmarks for it are really bad right now because the drivers don't have everything included yet. When the final drivers come out it should give much better performance than the 945G.
 
Here is a link on newegg to all G965 motherboards.
 
I have a friend making a computer based on the GMA X3000 then will upgrade  when DX10 cards come out and are a reasonable price.

I understood that except the OB GFX card the difference between 945G and 965G is not very big if I do not do OC. and there's no point in investing on it for the GFX card that I will replace without another one in the future. (it's better to just get a seperate one instead)

What kind of features? I probably won't need them too much.
Quad core processors will be available already in nov. 2006?
Anyway, except the graphics card I won't upgrade anytime soon, definitely not the processor. (I guess that at least 3 years from now)
And in 3 years or more there is a good chance I'll prefer buying a whole new PC rather then upgrade parts of it. (so I can still use the older one)

I am sort of doing the same thing - I have an Asus P5W coming tomorrow, but I will use an old PCI FX5200 card I got off a work mate to use until DX10 cards are the norm, this will run WoW at low settings and I can survive with that until the start of 07...

The G965 can support 8GB of ram instead of 4GB on the 945G.
 
Pretty much the only difference is the 945G has more PATA ports. The G965 is just the natural progression of the chipsets.

That pci video card in such an expensive board? You shoulda bought one of the cheaper p5b's if you wanna use Asus and then bought like a 7300gt instead. I doubt a pci 5200 will play WoW for you. The agp version barely does and being pci it is severly crippled so badly that it is about useless.
I wanted the P5W deluxe bad, it was the only board that gave me the feeling that it will last me, but the cash situation means I will have to wait for other upgrades... So I have a P5W deluxe with a FX5200 and a Celeron D 356

That pci video card in such an expensive board? You shoulda bought one of the cheaper p5b's if you wanna use Asus and then bought like a 7300gt instead. I doubt a pci 5200 will play WoW for you. The agp version barely does and being pci it is severly crippled so badly that it is about useless.
 
FYI: I can play WoW on an nForce2 + gF2 IGP with Barton 2800+ 1gb  DDR333 RAM (128 dedicated to video). 22-28fps. Kinda sux for PvP and I ussually turn all the setting all the way down for raids, but it DOES run.
 
My epox mini-me PC (shuttle rip-off, seemed like a good deal so I bought it) couldn't run 2x512mb DDR400, 2800+, and r9200se at the same time. I had to underclock and undervolt the CPU and clock the ram down to 160mhz and over-volt the RAM. Eventually I said screw it and took the GFX card out, bumped the CPU up to stock speed and RAM up to 166mhz and to my delight it actually ran WoW, almost as well as before, and was more stable.  
 
Not every game requires 256mb video ram just to run smoothly and not every game requires 60+fps to be playable

 
When this little lot is paid off - I plan to get 2 x ATI R600 type cards - do you think that will help with performance?

 
When this little lot is paid off - I plan to get 2 x ATI R600 type cards - do you think that will help with performance?
 
 
Well for WoW i say that would be overkill lol. But if you wanna play Oblivion then yea it should really help.
 
Well the idea is this is a long term PC - so I go for the best mobo possible to extent the life - then some time after the R600 launch when they come down a tad, I will get one or two of them... Also waiting for C2Q, I hope the end result will last me for years....

Go for the MB with integrated graphics and AGP (or PCIe) slot. Then when your needs outgrow the integrated graphics, buy yerself a good card and voila!

Yes, that's what I've decided to do. though, AGP ?? Aren't AGP cards passing away from this world already.. ?
The mobo I will buy (Asus P5L-VM 1394) has a PCI-E slot.
Are there even any mother boards with integrated card and no PCI-E (or AGP) slot at all? they must be for extremely cheap budgets.

 
Yeah, AGP is slowly dying. Also, I don't know if there's any MoBos with integrated card and no PCIe or AGP slot at all. But if I didn't mention that, you'd find and buy the 1 MoBo without an expansion slot, then perhaps gripe later about how mean we were...