Mobo: ASUS Crosshair III
CPU: Phenom II x4 965
RAM: G.Skill Ripjaws 4GB
I am completely stuck on what video card to get. I'd like to stay under about 800$ total, so far I'm up to $500. I want to try an ATI card - had bad experiences with many of the Nvidia cards I've had so far. Was thinking of trying a 5850, since some of those are sitting on the $300 dollar mark and I've heard ATI outperforms Nvidia by a lot in the same price range.
Also, questions:
1) I have a Enermax 1250W PSU - will this be able to power a newer setup? I had crashing problems when I ran a GTX265 that I put down to power issues (had a PC Power Cooling 750W at the time), but the 1250W didn't change anything. Runs stable with my 9800GT. I just don't want power to be an issue.
2) Is it wise to get an aftermarket CPU cooler if I'm not overclocking?
3) Thinking of moving to Windows 7 and trying 64-bit for better RAM usage. I vaguely recall that back in the day with XP 64-bit you had to have a certain kind of CPU or some shit. Anything special required for a 64-bit system?
Any suggestions/advice would be MUCH appreciated - I know there are people here much more knowledgeable than I. Haven't built a PC in so long, the limit of my wisdom is what parts I need and to get whatever is cheapest and has the best reviews on newegg
