Personally i think macs are brilliant. 2 years ago I had 3 pcs and a dated imac, but since OSX I now have one PC for gaming, an old imac, a new imac and a 12'' ibook.
I have not had a single crash in OSX but what happened about 5 minutes ago on my WinXP PC? Yep it crshed for the umpteenth...
You will be fine for next 1 1/2 to 2 years for running this on high etc, after that you will be able to run games for many years. Absolutely no point upgrading in the next 6 months or so for sure.
Highend are becoming mid range now, For example the 9800pro was very high end a year ago, but now it is about midrange, while the former midrange (9600xt) are now becoming lowend.
No doubt this will happen with the current highend in a year or so.
Looks ok, personally i would opt for an athlon 64 as they perform much better in games. Also how about a 9800 pro?. And you dont need that ram!!, you just need normal 3200 ddr, if you are not overclocking crucial or corsair value is fine.
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/AMD_Bundles.html
Have a nice bundle with an athlon 64 2800 for £250, maybe if you stretch your budget a bit you can get a 9800 pro?
You would not be dissappointed.
Basically AA smooths the edges on pixels so they don't look jagged.
AF is more complicated:http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,1558,1152380,00.asp
Both features are available on both ATi and nVidia cards and has been about for quite a while now.
Please tell me you are joking??? Just because you are losing 10-20 fps you went and spent £700 on a new cpu and mobo. At least wait till october 11th when the FX55 and 4000+ are released...
Use driver cleaner, then install the 4.9s.
Best guide for the flash ;):
http://paddy007uk.freeservers.com/VGAbios/ATI%20RADEON%20x800%20Pro%20VIVO%20FLASH%20GUIDE.htm
Skunx you are comparing two different x800s...
You are comparing a sapphire x800 XT with a connect 3d XT PE
Both the sapphire and connect PEs are clocked the same.