New system

[Tonkyboy]

HI all, just need your opinions on something...

My old system bit the dust after a power surge about a month ago, and those nice people at the insurance company have offered me a new system to replace my old one. I need to know which components I should be pushing them to change, if any...
Old setup...Athlon 64 3000, GA-K8NF9 mainboard, 2 Gig Crucial RAM, ATI X1800XT 256Mb Graphics, 480W Hiper Type M PSU.

New offer... Intel C2D E4600, MSI P31 Neo-F mainboard, 2 Gig Kingston RAM, GeForce 9600GT 512 OR Radeon HD3850 512, Hiper 580W Type M PSU, Soundblaster Audigy SE 7.1, in a NZXT Hush Midi Tower or a Lian Li PC-7B Plus II tower.
Natch there will be the obligatory HDD's and DVD drives.

Which Graphics card ? And is the mainboard a bit on the dated side ? What about CPU ? I've already told them I want to stick with XP, and not go to Vista.

Let me know what you think.

 

[dirtmountain]

The 9600GT is the better card, mobo is adequate, power supply is a cheap one, CPU is better than what you had. Basically a free upgrade from what you had before.

 

[stoner133]

Go with the ATi 4850 or 4870 based video card

 

[houstonserenity]

Take the cash and build your owen

 

[aevm]

Maybe if you drop the soundcard you can use the money toward a better CPU.

The MB and PSU are not great, but they'll do the job.

I'd pick the PC-7B, but the NZXT Hush is nice too. Both are $90 at newegg right now, both have two 120mm fans, etc.

+1 for the 9600GT, it is indeed better than the HD 3850. If you have the option to pay some extra and get a HD 4850 do it.