Custom Built System :: Need advice

[intense]

Ok, first of all, thanks to all that help me out in advance. Its much apprecaited, as this computer stuff is seriously confusing.

OK, I am building a system to replace my steadily declining Athlon 64 3200.

This is a system that is going to see HEAVY photoshop work, lots of gaming, Maya work, and who knows what else. I spend FAR too much time on the computer, so I want something that I don't have to worry about.

Ok, here we go.

Far as the vid card goes, I was going to go 2900xt, but then saw the new 1gb card. Then of course, theres the fact that the 1gb card is pretty much the same price as the 8800 GTX. So, what to do?

For memory, I want 2x2gb chips. Was looking at the Mushkin stuff, it seems decent. Problem is, there 5 5 5 12 and 5 4 4 12, and I have no idea if it will make a differnce. Eventually, I will go to 8gb, but for now 4 will do.

MB will be an Asus I think, p5w deluxe if I go ATI, P5N32-e if I go Nvidia.

Power supply, I have no idea, but I DO want to go SLi eventually. And I have 4 hard drives too, if that makes a difference.


So, any suggestions? Any help is appreciated, thanks much.

 

[darious00777]

What's your budget like. That will determine a great deal more then many things. If you said "I have $500 to spend now, but can upgrade over time", you would get a very different answer then if you said, "I have $1500 to spend now, but don't plan on upgrading anytime soon."

 

[intense]

2000 CAD, for the box. Right now, I am at 1700 with my current pick of the ATI 512

 

[Hatman]

If the memory difference between the 2900xt 1gig and the GTX makes a lot of difference to you then go for the 2900xt 1gig.

I dont see much point in upgrading to 8gig of ram personally, its much faster to buy 2 - 4gig of ram that operates at MUCH faster speeds.