Yet another new system (opinions appreciated)

[gcstader]

Hey everyone,
I'm finally upgrading from my 2.6ghz P4 and IC7-MAX3 to the P975X chipset w/ a Conroe CPU. I'd like to order everything from newegg today but before I do, I just wanted to see what you guys thought. Okay, here's what I'll be ordering:

AW9D-MAX (soon as it's off back order)
E6300 Conroe
Sapphire X1900 XTX
1 GB DDR2 800

Couple questions:
1) What's the deal with these sky-high prices for RAM? If i remember correctly, I was pricing out this system a month ago and memory was signifigantly less expensive. 2 GB DDR2 800 is running $300 and up on newegg. Should I wait for prices to come back down?

2) I'm kind of hesitant about dropping $300-$350 on the video card. Would it be smarter to wait for the DX10 cards to come out? Are any signifigant price drops on the horizon?

Thanks,
Greg

(Oops, I think this thread should go in the Hardware Discussion section; maybe a moderator can move it?)

[rapture]

I have the same video card and love it, probably the best peice of kit I've bought. Manages to drag my socket 754 3000+ through Obllivion quite nicely at 1280x1024

Gets VERY noisey on boot but can't say I notice it any other time. Depending on your case/cooling this may differ.

Wait I sec, I read that wrong. I have the XT. Have a look at the benchmarks before you pay the extra money for the XTX, for most of us I don't think the differences really justify the extra cash.

[gcstader]

Yeah the performance gain from the X1900 XT to the X1900 XTX is minimal but, on newegg right now the X1900 XT is going for the exact same price as the XTX... figured I might as well get the XTX if I'm going to drop $350 on a video card.

The price fluctuations on RAM and video cards lately has me kinda cautious about taking the plunge and ordering everything right now....

Thanks for the advice :)

Greg

[edcentric]

What price on the X1900XT??? It looks like $250 or so to me.

I wouldn't go with the XTX unless you are running high resolution (more than 1600x1200) with all effects turned on.

[gcstader]

oops double posted, look below :)

[gcstader]

You're probably looking at the 256 mb version. The cheapest 512 mb version is the ASUS EAX1900XT (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814121554) at $346.99. But you could pick up the SAPPHIRE 100150L Radeon X1900XTX (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102672) for $354.99.

There appears to be a decent size performance decrease going from 512mb to 256mb (depending on the game) according to some benchmarks I saw over on anandtech.com (http://anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2821&p=6).

[gcstader]

I dont know you might have a point there. After looking at those benchmarks again, the 256mb version only trails by 5-10 frames in almost every game. 5 or 10 FPS to save $100 might be worth it.

What do yall think?

[rapture]

Dunno, 10fps is a lot and could be the difference between playable and unplayable for some newer games.

That seems like a good deal for the XTX

[TheLostSwede]

I wouldn't drop that kind of money on a DX9 card when DX10 is around the corner.

[rapture]

3 months at least till the OS is released, how early are you expecting to upgrade to vista?