7900GS vs. 8800GTS, and will my new PC be good

[The Zune Guy]

Am going upgrading my PC to the following because I'm sick of slow computing and it just doesn't cut it for games (I previously just ran them on low settings)

*AMD Athlon X2 4600+ (From Sempron 3000+)
*1GB Ebuyer Extra Value Memory (1x1GB PC2-5400)
*MSI Skt 940, SLi Motherboard
*17" LCD monitor (From Dabs.ie, €130 one)(Was 15")
*Liteon DVD8900 16x DVD+-RW
*A cheap, £7 or so keyboard
*I have an existing HDD, speakers, mouse, OS etc.
*Obviously cooling etc.
*E.V Black/Silver, LCD, 500W PSU Case (Ebuyer E.Value)

Its going to cost me bout €680-€730 (Including GPU) minus the money I make from selling off my old one on Ebay or in the town, but I have two Q's,
(1) Is it any good. I can't afford a Core 2 Duo so AMD will have to do, but what bout d case etc.
(2) In terms of graphics, my current graphics card is shoddy (Unlocked P.P, Overclocked GeForce 6200). Am planning on getting either a 7900GS from Ebuyer or a 8800GTS from Buy.com (How much is P+P to Irl). Is an extra €50 worth it?
Help v.much appreciated

 

[saltynay]

you need more ram
you need to overclock that cpu
you may need a better motherboard msi are a good company but have never heard of that model
save money on the lcd by not getting one till later if you already have a monitor monitors are luxuries whilst components are harder to replace easily
that psu seems shoddy

 

[OatesyX]

Hey bro . another paddy right first things first, for high end gaming you need 2 gigs of ram . for eithor of those cards . and for the love of god do not get a cheap powersupply no matter how good a deal it seems. stay with a respected brand such as north q , Antec, something like that. google and reviews are you friend there. seems like a nice rig. if you arent HUGE into your gaming 1 gig of ram and the 7900gs there would do you grand. depends on how much you want ultra high settings really

 

[Sora]

actually you can do very very good gaming with only 1gb of ram. The games will start out laggy untill all of the textures get loaded into the stick. I gamed with 1GB of ram for a while and a 7900GS and after adding another game it wasn't any noticeable performance.

You could get an 8800GTS and 1GB for now if you wanted and add another gig later.

 

[maroon1]

I recommend Core 2 duo

 

[darkop16]

Thats a good upgrade. AMD's prices have dropped a lot. So if your on a tight budget, you can get a good dual-core with amd.

The 7900gs is a good gpu. I had one up to january. It maxes out bf2 and oblivion (with 2x AA). The 8800gts blows the 7900gs away though. If you can get the 8800gts, then go for it. The 320mb version is all you need with a 17" monitor.

 

[Sora]

the 8800GTS kills the 7900GS no questions asked..

an 8800GTS with 1Gb will DESTROY a 7900GS with 2GB anyday...

1Gb is still enough for some good gaming...i would get 1Gb now and upgrade to 1GB later instead of making a 250 bucks upgrade later on a vid card.

 

[KingAustin]

you need more ram
you need to overclock that cpu
you may need a better motherboard msi are a good company but have never heard of that model
save money on the lcd by not getting one till later if you already have a monitor monitors are luxuries whilst components are harder to replace easily
that psu seems shoddy

Monitors are luxuries? If you're going to say that, you could easily say computers are luxuries. a 15" is very small, I couldn't stand having a computer with a 15" monitor. 17" are about the same price as 19", so IMO you should go with a 19" and 7900GS than a 17" and a 8800GTS

 

[Sora]

19 inch wide is plenty big enough for me...You dont NEED huge monitor. I had a 15 inch for ever and it was fine honestly...sure bigger is better though.

 

[Rich_Franklin]

Monitors are luxuries? If you're going to say that, you could easily say computers are luxuries. a 15" is very small, I couldn't stand having a computer with a 15" monitor. 17" are about the same price as 19", so IMO you should go with a 19" and 7900GS than a 17" and a 8800GTS

he said lcds in the beginning of the sentence so he was referring back to them. crts are cheaper i supposed. So maybe u should get a crt for now.