It, apparently, has been THAT long since I've been in touch with the current hardware stuff. I am possibly going to build myself a new rig at the end of this year so I went to good old reliable NewEgg to start adding stuff to my 'wishlist'. Some of the stuff out of my current rig I can use still.

I have the following selected out so far:

Case:
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16811129021 (Only because I love Antec!)

Hard Drive (one of two, using my not-so-old-one out of my current rig for the OS):
http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16822136073

I then started looking at Motherboards. I got lost then. What I am looking for (of course) is an Nforce AMD compliant Mobo. I don't need on board sound, nor wireless built into the board. Some of them on there are well over the $200 mark!!!!

So, I figured I would go looking at the AMD Chips. Well I realized I can't figure out what Mobo I need so I really can't figure out what AMD chip would plug into the Mobo! Same thing with memory. Since I don't know what Mobo I need, and what CPU would plug into the Mobo, I wouldn't know what speed memory to get then either! See how the whole thing just spirals out of control?

Then I started looking at video cards. What the hell is up with the naming system this time around? Remember when there was a Radeon 9800 and you knew a Radeon 9500 was slower because it was lower in number? Well now I think they just throw numbers up in the air and pick whatever the hell they feel like. I can't make heads or tails out of that either!!!!

So, throw me some suggestions oh-current-keepers-of-hardware-knowledge. I, apparently must be flying around too much to keep up on this stuff. After I went to NewEgg and realized I had no damn clue, I promptly subscribed to MaximumPC and a few other PC Magazines so I can re-educate myself on this stuff.

This should give you and idea of a build.

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/Se...4&CatId=333

I would go intel Cozzy

Asus Mobo too.

Yup, that is one of those over $200.00 Mobos I was talking about. LoL

I was thinking about just upgrading my CPU from a AMD 64 3700+ to the highest my Mobo will support which is a AMD 64 X2 4200+, upgrading the Ram to 2GB (2x1GB) and installing this video card:

http://www.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=...amp;dcaid=15890

I heard really good things about that card. It is supposedly the fastest AGP that you can go up to? It also supports shader 3.0 which seems to be giving me all my problems.

Will I notice a difference in that new configuration you think?

Yea. You will notice a diffrence...but Cozzy...PCI-X is the way to go...hate to tell you that. DX10 is coming soon and sooner or later you are going to have to switch. Personally I would wait til a game comes out that you will need a DX10 card for. The AGP GFX card days are over unless they come out with a new format.

I got my PCGamer mag in the other day and in one of the articles, one of the editors apologized profusely for 'spreading the hype of DX10' He showed screen shots of games that were both DX10 & 9 capable and 'blew up the images' of the exact same screenshot at the exact same time for the same game. He couldn't see a difference between DX9 or 10. Neither could I. Just more marketing hype to push crappy Vista on to everyone, IMHO.

From almost every article I've read, heard discussed or review I've seen, plus people I've conversed with Vista not only sucks ass but is an even big resource hog than Xp Pro/2005/6 MCE. Oh well, trends tend to continue, don't they? Any companies goal is to get your money into their pocket. Such is life. :/

I pulled the trigger on that new video card. I figure, since I am such a tight-wad, I should probably max out my system as it is now and worry about upgrading later on. Got it from Dell for around $250.00 which wasn't bad considering the other places were selling for around the same price. At least now I will be able to play BioShock and actually use the DVI input on my monitor.

Wait a minute, I don't even know if I have a DVI monitor... oh well....

I'd say you're better off with a new graphics card and/or mobo that supports PCI-Express. That processor is still more than powerful enough to play the latest games (they're getting more and more GPU bound), I mean if I can play Bioshock at 30fps on a 6600GT at 1280x1024 on high graphics, while being SEVERELY CPU limited by an Athlon XP 1600+ palomino, you'll do just fine with that stuff. I'd say just get a newer video card, get the Radeon X1x00 series, or GeForce 6+, the GeForce 7 is pretty cheap now (7900GS for just over $200 anyone?) so you can easily get up to date with just one of them. All the series I just mentioned DO have AGP cards. DX10 sucks, but it actually does look better, albeit very minor. mostly with lighting and shadows, what an improvement for a 150fps drop eh? The GeForce 8800 is the way to go if you have the money, as it plays DX10 extremely well with its raw processing power, the 8600 and lower was... another failure really, the 8600GT runs in the ranks of the 7600GT, and the 8600GTS is in the ranks of the 7900GS. With sloppy DX10 support, the only sensible solution for DX10 in the geforce line is the 8800's. Radeons have the same problem, except they just have a LOT of shaders. again only the high end can run DX10 at 30fps. All the cards will run DX9 easily. Maybe more RAM (if you dont have 2GB, some users report a maximum RAM usage of 1.5GB), and a newer video card.

ALL games coming out right now are DX9 compatable. Well, I can't say that, Halo 2 and Halo 3 are DX10 only (what a surprise, microsoft!) and even then, Halo 2 (already out for PC for a while now) has been hacked to run on Windows XP... XP doesn't have DX10 so... yeah...

Anyway, hope that helps. Oh, and computer building is still just a matching game. Socket AM2 mobo to AM2 CPU, DDR2 RAM to DDR2 mobo, etc.
the way things are done hasn't changed, only the parts have.

Thanks Mew! That video card I ordered is set to arrive tomorrow. I am not sure if I will get a chance to play with it since I have to be at the airport tomorrow morning at 0430, which means my butt is on the road at 0300. So, I may be a little tired when I am done working tomorrow. LoL I may hold off on the CPU and just up the ram to 2gb for now.

*waits another 2 years*