Alrighty, I finally decided to do it.... I took some business money and ordered my new machine. I think this puppy will give a pretty good pop for being put together on a smaller budget
New Stuff:
Motherboard: MSI P6N Sli-Fi Proc: Intel Core 2 Duo 1.86 Conroe 4Mb Cache 1066FSB Mem: Corsair Twin DDR2 2048-6400C4 800Mhz 2x1Gb (this ram has so many certifications and such I don't even know Vid: EVGA 7600Gt 256Mb (The plan is to SLI it someday)
--------------------- I have no intention to overclock it, I always prefer stability to speed. But all this stuff is designed to over clock.
One thing I learned early on... always max your cache and FSB, it doesn't make sense to have a watered down proc for $20ish.
I honestly knwo very little about the Nvidia line, I have had only ATIs since my 3dfx card. I will admit I was trying to keep it at about $100. I wanted a GT and I wanted SLI capable. I skimpped a little in thoughts that if the video isn't up to par in a year I would add another in SLI. The 7600GT seemed to be a decent scoring card in reviews I saw... I hope I don't regret it.
I think it will be fine. I was running a 6600GT up until recently.
My thoughts on the 7900 is that it's the tail end of that generation, so any upgrades would mean you jump to the 8800 generation which is geared more towards DX10 features. I tend to think that way. I hold out as long as possible and get the best of the previous technology.
I agree with the whole bus concept, but it was an extra $100 when I ordered. If my power supply hadn't crapped out, I would have used the money I spent on getting a decent power supply to get the upgraded chip.
I did however go with the 1066 FSB and 800 Mhz memory rather than the slower FSB and 667Mhz memory. I am really happy with it and I think you will be as well.