do indeed get a 512MB graphics card, not a 256MB one. 

Im a bit confused. Im looking at this page here, seems the most attractive option to me at the mo:

http://www.pcoption.co.uk/pcbaseunits/index5d_8800slip4con.htm

and one of the sites features is system benchmarking! Which you would have thought would give you a good idea of what to/not to get. However, each system starts as one basic core, with customisable features, and as people request different components, they benchmark each system as they come of the line.

Check out the inconsistancies here
http://www.pcoption.co.uk/gamingbenchmarks/index.htm
and you'll see what I mean! I think its cause they tell you what the systems processor and graphics card were, but not the motherboard, PSU etc.

I just worry that my choice might me one of the anomalously low ones... 

LCD monitors are way more eco-friendly than CRT (use less than half of the enevery a CRT does) = cheaper electricity bills. 

there is also the waste produced, resources used, and energy used during manufacturing, and the waste produced when you dispose of the monitor (of course nowadays the law requires them to be collected and recycled, at least in places like california.) But then, even recycling takes energy and resources and produces waste.

On the plus side, I think LCDs are less likely to give you cancer... maybe? 

Is there really a reason to use vsync with lcds? 

As Lun said, the tearing that occurs is more visible on lcd's. 

but usually I have it on.

And I can notice ghosting on my 4ms screen, although only in exteremly fast movement games like sport ones where there's horizontal panning all the time due to the camera. 

I have taken the plunge, and ordered (and paid for) a new PC :D

8800 GTS 512
Core 2 Duo 2.66Ghz
2Gb Ram

Crysis here we come... I hope.

:D :D

Now I just have to go home and reflect on what I have just done to my bank balance! And sweat over being ripped off by an internet computer company! And wait for like a week or something for it to arrive.

Just wanted to share with people. 

starts showing corrupt graphics even at the default settings, its likely to be dying yeah ? 

Well, it certainly doesn't sound promising.

You could try underclocking it, which doesn't sound particularly appealing, but it would be interesting to see if the problems disappear by doing so.

How old is the current card? You could use this as an excuse to buy a nice new one! :) 

yeah good idea actually, I'll see if underclocking below the default has any effect.

its a 7900GT, so probably around 2 years. 

 

starbuck posted above about nvidia replacing their 8800gt line with newer faster model without renaming them.

bah, it should be a lot easier than this :) 

If I were going to buy a new card right now I'd go for the ATI HD3870. Supposedly the performance is about on par with the 8800 cards, and the price is pretty reasonable.

Of course, I haven't heard about these newer 8800 cards so perhaps that isn't the case anymore. 

contains the g92 bits, very fast card, good value!

OK, there are

Old:
8800 GTS 320/640MB - erm 90nm chips, still more expensive than faster new models with similar names.

8800 GTX/Ultra - 768Mb - pretty fast, still quite expensive - not sure of chipset.

New
8800 GTS 512Mb - 65nm G92 chip - faster than old GTS 640Mb!!

Also
new 8800 GT. *not GTS* 65nm G92 chip - almost as fast as new GTS 512 but less expensive. GOOD VALUE FAST DX10 SUPPORT!! :D :D

ATI - Apparently the newer ATI cards support DirectX10.1 which NVidia cards dont. But I think NVidia cards are faster for the money.

There are others and stuff, I dunno..... 

9600GT g94 21.02.08 estimated price 160�

8800GS g92

Both a bit slower than 8800gt
But less expesnsive. I think I'll buy a 9600gt 

Ati has the better cards for less money at the moment.
3850 a bit more than 100� !!! but not tooo much slower.
3870 as fast as the 8800GT and also as expensive. 

has the sucky drivers or did that change? 

still waiting for shipment.... (sigh)

they claim 7 day delivery :-| 

The computer arrived this morning. I tried to turn it on and it said in BIOS "processor error" "processor temperature error", then would crash after a couple of seconds on the windows loading screen.
So I took the side off, and to my dismay the heatsink was completely free from the MOBO, except for the power supply leads.
The plastic casing around two of the four bracket-pins were damaged, as if it had been ripped off. I managed to re-attatch the two remaining pins, so the heat sink is on, but not quite as well-on as I would like.
The computer powers up OK now.
3DMark06 - about 6500
little dissapointed with that, I have to see if I can configure it a bit better.... 

say they are sending me a replacement heatsink 

I now get a 3DMark06 score of (fanfare):

11467

Those that know will know that for a single card machine, that is pretty good!!

Getting to that score on the other hand was a real ball-ache. After getting home last night and attempting to power up Crysis, I found that after a few minutes of playing the game (well, during the first in-game cut-scene actually) the computer would turn itself off.
I kinda figured out already that this was because the heat sink wasn't attached properly (sorta hanging on one side)
The pins on the heat sink were not in a good way. Two of them were broken (on one side) and two of them were not (on the other side). I managed to take one of the knackered ones off with a screwdriver (an arduous process) which completely broke when it cam off, and then, as if by some act of god, I managed to get one of the functional pins off intact, and re-attach it to the other corner. So now I have a functional pin on two opposite corners.
After attaching the heat sink with the two working pins (out of four) I thought it now seemed pretty steady.

The computer has worked fine since then, impressing me with a very high 3DMark06 score and running crysis playably in 1280x1024 with 2xAntiAiliasing and high details (DX9). He he, I'm gonna try the DX9 very high details hack when I get home...

So, 3 weeks after ordering the PC, after taking nine days for my money to clear in their account, another week to build and dispatch the machine, a wasted weekend due to them shipping it to the billing address last Friday, where I couldn't receive it, getting it yesterday only to have to partly re-build it due to shoddy workmanship, I now have a pretty stonking PC for not too much money (£600).

Would I recommend the company to a friend? Maybe, if the friend knows enough about computers to fix them up a bit, because It was very good value for money (would have been even better value if the build/delivery/machine had worked properly from the start... 

Ricky, what kind of jokers are you dealing with here?

I order hardware online from a couple of different places, and I usually get it delivered interstate the next day, especially from my favourite online store. As long as the stuff is in stock, it's generally 1-2 days (for loose parts).

Last time I bought a new PC I couldn't be arsed assembling it myself, so I has them assemble a near-complete system and ship it to me. Even a custom assembled system only took about 3 days to arrive.

I'm in Australia here, so I imagine the available services in the UK or the US is better.. so again.. wtf? I guess you've already worked it out, but don't buy from those guys again... :) 

out of interest, who do you use? 

...I used Infinity (Brunswick) several times when I was living in Melbourne. They were once 1/2 an hour late with a delivery, but apart from that good service, prompt delivery and decent range (otpions).