I plan to do some card tweaking in the weeks ahead and I'll run the benchmark program to see if I can find any differences.Concerning the computer you built (something I'd like to do):Did you have any experience with electronics etc. before you built your machine?How did you know what components were needed?How does the price compare with a factory built machine?thanks, Howard

>Concerning the computer you built (something I'd like to >do): >>Did you have any experience with electronics etc. before you >built your machine? Well , yes and no -- but I had no experience relating to computers. I did quite a bit of reading on the Internet and found a few tutorials which described how to assemble a machine. It really is quite an easy job -- I physically put the machine together in around 30 minutes and then took another couple of hours to slowly install the various drivers, operating system , etc. I had no problems at all. Probably the hardest job of all was fitting the heatsink to the processor -- but no problem really.>>How did you know what components were needed? A good idea is to find a commercial machine which has the specs you want (keeping away from proprietory brands like Dell? etc) and then price the various components separately. So for example, you might see a Pentium 4/2400 machine running on a brand XXX model YYY motherboard and a brand ZZZ video card . Do some research on these components and see if places like Toms Hardware Guide approves of the motherboard and vid card. If you stick to well known brands of motherboard and vid card like ASUS or AOPEN, you can be reasonably assured of good quality. Then if the commercial computer manufacturer/assembler is selling this particular combination of components , then you can also be reasonably assured that the components are compatable with one another.>>How does the price compare with a factory built machine? I think it is a little cheaper - although I don't believe that the computer assemblers make a lot out of assembling a machine . The best part of building your own is that you can get to choose exactly what goes into it. We have a local computer supplies shop that will sell me all I want and then only charge around $50 to put it all together. I chose to do it myself - not to save the $50 but for the experience of building it. Now that I have done so , I would never buy another complete machine again.Barry

>Hi Barry, >>As of 2 days a go I had the same system as you described >(PIII, 1 gig, 512 sdram, GeForce 2 mx400 32 mb). >Yesterday, I installed an Asylum GeForce 4 Ti4200. >>In any case, I also have the benchmark program and will run >it in a few days. I'll let you know what I find. Thanks HowardHere is the results I get from using the Benchmark programme. As you can see , they are WAAAY below that obtained by people using a P4/2000+ -- but , as this computer of mine does everything I want except give me framerates about 5 higher than I am getting now, I cannot justify replacing the entire machine just for that. Maybe a new vid card like yours may improve the system just that little bit for me.Barry