What card/motherboard should I buy?

[palki]

Hi:

I have a home built PC with an Intel Pentium 4 (3.0 Ghz)
and a Radeon 9800 XT (bought 4 years back for close to $500)
which has served me well over the years (played games, ran video editing
utilities etc). Though I noticed that even this system had problems
running HL2: episode one with full details.

I am thinking of buying a 30" Apple Cinema Display so I need a dual link DVI
capable card capable of running the monitor at full resolution
(2560 x 1600). So it seems that the best cards are PCI express now
and my motherboard (MSI) has only AGP. So it looks like
I need to build a new system.

What motherboard/CPU/GPU combo do you recommend ? (Keep the 30" in mind, GPU needs to be dual DVI capable). I need to be able
to play the latest games in the next 3-4 years (I don't know whether
asking for playing at the full resolution of an Apple cinema display
is asking too much, but I would like that).

Thanks for your advice.

 

[palki]

If I were to sell the Radeon 9800 XT, how much can I expect for it ?
Thanks!

 

[cleeve]

If I were to sell the Radeon 9800 XT, how much can I expect for it ?
Thanks!

I'd guess $50 to $70 on ebay.

 

[kaotao]

If you want a computer to last you 3-4 years, you might be better off doing a cheap AGP upgrade, and building new once Vista and DX10 have had a few months to mature. A 7600GT for around $175 would hold you over for a while. IMO it's the best bang for the AGP buck.

 

[enforcerfx]

If you want a computer to last you 3-4 years, you might be better off doing a cheap AGP upgrade, and building new once Vista and DX10 have had a few months to mature. A 7600GT for around $175 would hold you over for a while. IMO it's the best bang for the AGP buck.[/quote

What about this?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102570

 

[kaotao]

I stand corrected. I saw the thread about that last week. Wasn't sure, and was too lazy to see if they were still in stock.