upgrade options

[borat]

i am planning to upgrade my cpu motherboard and graphics card on a tight budget.
iwould like a athlon thunderbird 1.2 - 1.4.
for my motherboard i can choose a gigabyte based on the amd 750 chipset for around 45 pounds($70) or go for a raid equipped via kt133a for around 65 pounds($100). the final option is a ddr kt266 for around 80 pounds($115)
i like the idea of raid but am unsure about how good these chipsets are . the cost of the 750 appeals. is there much of an advantage with ddr memory?
also i have the choice between a geeforce2 gts for 75 pounds($110) or a radion sdr 60 pounds($95) or a radion 32mb ddr for 90 pounds($130).
i want to play games quickly but also reasonable 2D
my budget is around 300pounds and i also want a hard drive which with the processor and ram will take about 160 - 170 pounds of the budget.
any recommendations welcome.
all motherboard choices are made by gigabyte are they any good or can you recommend any other cheap mobos.
many thanks

[Wombat]

I'm not a big fan of the gigabyte brand. Better than a lot of no-names, but they're usually not feature-rich. Epox or MSI will do much better for you.

I would definitely stay away from a KT133A board. The 133A itself isn't so bad, but it's coupled with a 686B southbridge, which is not a very good chip.

DDR will give you an advantage, and the memory is just as cheap as SDR lately. Not only that, but the DDR chipsets are more refined. The 760 is a nice chipset, but boards that use it without the 686b south bridge are a little expensive.
The KT266A seems to be a good performer, and I understand that it is NOT coupled with a 686B south bridge. (Can you tell I dislike that chip?)

Maybe you should consider an SiS 735 board. They seem to be both fast and cheap.

Video cards: I'd consider a Kyro, like the Hercules 4500. Better than average price, better than average performance. If you want reasonable 2D, then nVidia products are not for you. ATi still seems to be a real mess in the drivers department. In order of preference: Kyro, ATi, nVidia.

[Nuno]

CPU: You might consider waiting a couple of weeks more for the AthlonXP launch. If any, Thunderbirds will cost even less (maybe they start bundling them with motherboards )

SDR vs DDR: Not that big oomph, but as DDR cost rougly the same as DDR if you´re assembling a new system there´s no reason to go SDR.

Motherboard: For Athlon upgraders on a budget, go for the ECS sis 735 chipset. $80, more or less, faster than KT266 and AMD 750. Not many overclocking options or Raid. It has 2 DDR and 2SDR slots. You don´t have to trow out the RAM, if you have SDRAM just use it on the ECS (performs on par with a KT133A) and upgrade to DDR later when not so budget limited

Video Card (deja vu feeling passing by): Kyro II 64 Mb. 2d Quality with a $110 GTS, forget it. Get a Hercules 4500 64 Mb, OEM ~$100. You may find even cheaper KyroII 64 Mb boards ($80) from no-name manufacturers, that seem to perform identically to the Hercules, including 2d image quality.

I think if I was you I would get a 1.4 Thunderbird (How much cheaper can they get?) an ECS sis735 motherboard, re-using SDRam, and a Hercules 4500 64 Mb OEM. Now that´s cheap

LOL, didn´t have seen Wombat´s post. Can you say "unamimity"?

[Greebe]

And when Intel's updated p4's hit prices on AMD's cpu's are sure to drop even further.

[borat]

thanks guys
i think i'll go kyro II and sis 735 with ddr