Thread: New Rig

ok, so basically i am a 16 year student curently studying CISCO networking and IT essentials, so i have a reasonably vague insigh into building computers.

3 years ago i began to build my own computer, sweetest thing i'd ever seen ^^

specs

Processor: Intel Pentium 4 2.8ghz
Motherboard: Asus A17
Memory: 1024 RAM
Graphics: ATi 9800 128mb

but now, i have just got a job and i have decided to purchase a beast of a machine!

i was thinking off buying something along the lines of..

specs

Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000 AM2 3.0ghz
Motherboard: Asustek AM2 nForce 590SLI (ATX)
Memory: 4096 RAM DDR II SDRAM PC2 6400
Graphics: XFX GeForce 8800GTX 768mb
Storage: WD Raptor 150gb Serial-ATA
Case: Antec P180 (ATX)
PSU: Antec SP-500PGB
Optical Drive: NEC 18x DVD±RW/RAM Silver SATA

and i was planning on running them with 2 Iiyama 19" screens.

so basically i want my rig to be aesthetically pleasing aswell as good specs.

few queries:

1. i was reading the reviews of the gfx card on dabs.com and apparently it is a "beast" both specs and size and was wondering whether it would actaully fit in my case?

2. Vista or XP Pro?

3. Apparently Vista runs at 4gb where as XP Pro + Home only run at 2gb, does that mean if i decided to roll for XP Pro that it would un-neccesary to get 4gb and my rig would'nt know that another 2gb are there?

thanks in advance for any helpful feedback

pc. basically i just wanted to see if everything would be compatible and to get a few answers answered.

jimmeh_

Originally Posted by jimmeh.graham

1. i was reading the reviews of the gfx card on dabs.com and apparently it is a "beast" both specs and size and was wondering whether it would actaully fit in my case?

2. Vista or XP Pro?

3. Apparently Vista runs at 4gb where as XP Pro + Home only run at 2gb, does that mean if i decided to roll for XP Pro that it would un-neccesary to get 4gb and my rig would'nt know that another 2gb are there?
jimmeh_

1. yes the card should fit no problem
2. Tricky one, XP will be dead in a few years, Vista will be the standard but at the moment Vista in still in its early days so has a few problems.
3. Vista will support 4Gb , XP will run but will not utilise the 4Gb fully so in this case Vista is better

ok, thanks for the reply tech-master

so you would suggest buying win XP or vista?

and will all the components be compatible with each other?

Originally Posted by jimmeh.graham

ok, thanks for the reply tech-master

so you would suggest buying win XP or vista?

and will all the components be compatible with each other?

Tricky one, it would be worth checking that your graphics card, and motherboard supports/has vista drivers available for them, you should be able to check this out via their websites.

Another thing to consider is what software you will be using on the pc, if its mainly gaming then again check the software works on vista ok, you may find some of it need a patch.

Vista is the way to go at some point as it will become the standard, but you may be better of sticking to XP for 6 months and upgrade later.