Using the GeForce cards in the hope you can sometime employ them in a dual graphics card system is premature.
No doubt that Nvidia will produce motherboard chipsets that are capable of running this, there are in the process of doing so right now, but, those boards will be very heavily feature laden and be expensive, and given the sheer power of their high end cards, gamers really will not see much benefit on the games emerging from the studios for some time.
The FX53 is one hellacious performer, no doubt there, owing such would be highly enviable, and its sure to be recognised as a classic as I would doubt that AMD will produce another chip that is so freely overclockable, but you pay plenty for the privelidge.
Myself, I’d opt for the 3500+ chip, sits in the same motherboard and is 90% or more as fast, and it costs a good $500 less, also the FX53 will drop in value quite quickly as AMD are definately bringing out faster versions and dual core cpus have been demonstrated and are on the horizon.
Your memory is real good, I’d go for that myself when I build my next system, but if you are not into overclocking then you could go for something else, however I think in your position I’d look at having 1Gig of memory in two 512Mb sticks rather than two matched 1Gig sticks, and instead perhaps try out Corsair XMS ultra low latency stuff, its more expensive but since you would be using less of it, it would cost less in total.
Here is a really great tip though, check out Corsair Value select range, you’ll get a dual channel 1Gig kit for $150 to $160, this should make plenty of savings and open your budget up, yes you can get faster but you have to be realistic at times and cutting your costs by$350 is such a time, especially when the gains by using very fast memery are relatively small.
I do have to ask if the soundcard is really worth getting, as the onboard sound is very good on that board, you could do without the soundcard and try it out and if it then does not meet your needs than you could install one later.The $70 card will be ok but if you are after some heavy duty stuff where the onboard is not going to be good enough, then maybe this card will not be good enough either, keep the cash in your pocket for now.
Your choice of motherboard is very highly rated, actually for socket 939 boards there isn’t too much to choose in speed between them, this is because the cpu has a built in memory controller and so the chipset does not give the manufactuteres much room to distinguish themselves so pretty much most 939 boards will suffice but you will not do much better than this in terms of value or speed.
I’d consider getting a second hard drive though, if video editing is what you want to do. Getting IDE is both cheaper, and easier to install, you could save a reasonable amount here and still have the speed.
Right now a lcd monitor that is fast enough for gaming is a very expensive choice, and they are not as flexible in use either.
LCD monitors have a ‘native resolution’ which means that they are designed to run at a specific screen res, such as 1200*1000 or whatever. When you change that resolution they dont look as good because they have to interpolate or guess what the nearby pixels should be.
I do recall that there is one LCD screen that is an exception it can run natively in at least two resolutions, I think its by DELL or one of the really big manufacturers but I cant quite recall.
Now you can’t always know just how the latest games will run on your machine, you might be able to run at16001400 on one game but have to reduce resolution to 800600 in a worst case scenario on another game.
Games are getting so sophisticated they are pushing even the very latest cards to the limit and forcing users to reduce resolutions to obtain high enough frame rates, so you need that flexibility.
I’d consider getting a CRT monitor, the technology is reliable and very much cheaper, in fact, with the card you are selecting you may well be able to run two monitors.
As for your software, well if I were you I would seriously look at OpenOffice, its free, but more than that, its good and makes you wonder what Microsoft will do to reply, why pay cash when this is 99% as good,for nothing at all.
http://www.openoffice.org/
I would advise you to get the user book though called** teahc yourself - open office**
http://www.compman.co.uk/cgi-win/browse.exe?ref=653075
This is very highly rated, well worth the cash.
Don’t forget to budget for that most important item, security, firewalls, virus checkers and that sort of thing, to me these are as much a part of any system as the other components.
…and dont skimp on the power supply, that graphics card is a real power hungry monster, I’d look at a quality unit of at least 400Watts, maybe 500Watts.
I reckon by using the tips I gave you, you can reduce your cost by $800 at the very least, more if you include the software, you have much more power than your original selection and it will be upgradeable and have a realistic life of three years or more before some applications start to make it flag.
