I'm about to build a new PC, but can't decide on which motherboard and video card to go for (It'll be an AMD XP2100+ BTW).

Budgeted for around £150 for the video card and another £100 (or so) for the motherboard.

Looked at the MSI KT4 Ultra and Gigabyte GA-7VAXP motherboards and considering a ti4200 video card.

Is it worth spending the extra dosh for a ti4600, or can I just overclock the ti4200?

I noticed on the ti4200's that the memory is slower on the 128Mb version. Will this make a big difference and can I overclock it to compensate?

Stefan

I have a GF4 Ti 4200 (Asus) 128Mbyte card. It's excellent as an all round card for gaming. Obviously the 4600 would be better to go for but you won't get one new for £150.
I tried overclocking my card, It responded well to slight increases in memory and GPU speeds but became unstable and locked up the PC at anything over 20MHz over and above the default speeds.
There is an Asus GF4 Ti4200 Deluxe card (The Deluxe is a purple coloured card) that does run the faster memory but it is obviously a bit more expensive!

Hope this helps,

Dave.

Epox for the motherboard.

i too have a 4200 card 64mb which cost 105 quid and is perfect for all games
You wont notice the diefference between 128mb and 64
128mb is sloweer in most games but only by 1%-2%
Althought 128 mb is sposed to be more futureproof for gaming.
The 4600 is about 80 quid more and not worth is as far as im concerned, given that cards depreciate so quickly as they become obsolete
id just buy the 4200 64mb

I have built a lot of systems with Gigabyte boards of various specs for AMDs and P4s. They have always proved to be very good, documentation is to a high standard, they are easy to set up and I have never had a problem with a single one of them. It is a good idea to go for a quality board, the only time I have seen problems with a motherboard is where it's a cheapo one. I'm sure it is possible to have problems with more expensive boards but I reckon the chances are less.

As for video cards, check out Tom's hardware guide. Last time I looked they had a comparison of the various chipsets and memory configurations in a bar chart form. It was easy to see the differences in benchmarked performance so you would be able to tell if the next card up was worth the extra dosh.

Ken

Speak to this chap for prices
http://www.springbok-computers.co.uk
I just bought a load of gear from him.
Mention my name. Web site not brilliant, but he does no his stuff.

im running a Visiontek TI4400 at over 4600 speeds... highly recommended...

Soyo Dragon for the board.... soo many top features...

ECS K7S5A seems to be guaranteed to take all AMD Athlon XP chips http://pub65.ezboard.com/bk7s5amotherboardforum is a good place to ask questions. Someone there has done an overclockers BIOS version. I got mine at a computer fair £45. Takes SD or DDR RAM !

Cheers

Mick

i've got the K7S5A and while I have no problems with it, most people do, i would not recommend this board... go ASUS, Soyo or MSI