Hello everyone.I recently installed a radeon hd 2600 xt graphics card and was hoping to install another one to set up crossfire.Unfortunately my system is some 4 years old and some components dont meet their requirements.(especially their certified ones).So i need to replace my mother board and psu.Now ive learned(this is a learning process for me)my tower is btx form and cant find products to meet the certified requirements.I,m looking for high end products and would be grateful of any info and suggestions anyone can provide.I have a dell xps gen 4,(sorry about the flashy lights)dell ou7084 board with intel i925x chipset.And is it just me or is this btx form causing problems in general.

If you are replacing the motherboard, then it makes little economical sense to stay with the older CPU and memory technology. I strongly recommend you hold out until you can budget for a new, current technology motherboard that supports current technology CPUs and RAM. Then at that point, there's no reason to stick with that case and PSU, which is greatly restricting your options to hard to find, and expensive choices.

Ive got a pentium 4 ht at 3.80ghz and 2 gb ram,i'll upgrade if nesecery but i thougt that was ok.But i think im better off getting rid of the btx case anyway,i dont get the impression btx is taking off with other manufacturers.Ive only upgraded memory and dvd writers and sound and graphic cards,im not sure if i could pull off a barebones system.

Well, that appears to be a socket 775 CPU so you should be able to find a current motherboard that will support that CPU. That will certainly save some money there. If your current RAM is DDR2, then there are still plenty DDR2 RAM boards around, though DDR3 will be pushing that out.. So I think you can do what you want pretty reasonably.

BTX is a much better form factor, but some times the better technology just does not take off. We are starting to see more and more ATX cases that use some of the better features of BTX, such as PSUs on the bottom.

I,d rather you stuck with the negatives,i need a good excuse to convince the missus i need to buy all new gear.I cant find a board thats btx compatible on ati's certified list or do i really need to worry about it being certified.I also cant find any highend (I dont want to have to upgrade again for as long as possible)btx boards on line.

lol - you should have said that in the first place!!!!

Okay, the truth is this. Microsoft Vista is a much more secure operating system and for reasons I stated here, it is unwise to put Vista on older hardware. Therefore, you should upgrade your computer to all new hardware, then install Vista so you can better protect your lovely wife and your children from predators, ID thieves and other badguys.

That said, PCIe is PCIe, whether it goes into an ATX or a BTX motherboard. So BTX certification for add-in cards does not apply. BTX primarily deals with the motherboard layout and mounting holes, the case layout, and the physical dimensions (not electrical characteristics) of the PSU.

Well then,It seems quit clear,I need to gut my pc and start from the ground up.Just wondering why you suggest waiting for vista sp1.Thank you very much for your advice,

yours sincerely jkon.

Because Vista is very new so there are some bugs to work out and SP1 promises to address many of them. The same thing happened with XP, it was not mature until SP1. Even Windows 98 did not mature until Windows 98 SE (second edition).

does it make a difference if you install now and get the sp1 update when realesed

In theory, no. But just as with XP SP1 and SP2, (or any major upgrade of any system, for that matter) sometimes, the upgrade does not go smoothly. But as long as you have backed up all your critical data, and you have the latest drivers for your hardware, you should be okay.

Just one more question,Would you be able to recommend a good guide to system building(for a beginner) ,I'm gonna need something at hand when i take this on.

Thanks again.

How To Build A PC, Part 1: Component Selection Overview
How To Build A PC, Part 2: Choosing the Right Vendor
How To Build A PC, Part 3: Putting It All Together