I might have been interested if I'd known beforehand... had it been at a similar price to what I paid (as in second-hand/used) and easily accessible. Probably not, though!

I did look at the GTX285's when I was looking to buy, but the best price on a 285 @ 1gb was $425.00 AUD, with a top price $785.95 (beats me why there's such a huge price difference on the exact same item), and the GTX285 @ 2gb started at $509.00 right up to $737.00 AUD.  That's why, after the purchase cock-up, I ended up with the Gigabyte GTX260 @ 896mb, which is good cos my mobo is also a Gigabyte, thus making any possible BOIS or other tweaks easier.

Must admit, though, I had a bit of fun (not) installing it.  Being that the GTX260 is 4'' longer than the 9800GT and 2" longer than the 8800GT being used as a fill-in, I had to move 2HDD's to get it to fit in the case. Then I had to cut half a dozen snaplock ties to access a couple PSU of cables (peviously unused with the 9800GT low powered) to power it up.

Moving the HDD's was a sinch.. easy, but this GTX260 requires two 6 pin plugs, and it took a major re-wiring/re-cabling effort to provide power AND keep the inside of my case tidy.  Several other cables also had to be moved, and cos I'm a tidy/neatness freak, everything had be tidily in its place and properly tied off.

Oh well, it's done now.... 'til the next upgrade.

I hear you. My single core Athlon CPU is a bit faster than some dual core machines I have worked on.

oh and i hope not to sound like a complete idiot but......... what is over clocking?  will i blow my pc up if i do this? 

lol starkers - i have a total of 4 hdd in my pc and NONE of them are screwed in place, i just crammed em in and leave em hanging about. one is laying on bottom of case   -   i dont like housework either  LOL

Now that would never do in a PC of mine... being  tidy freak n' all, but it's probably not advisable, either.  Not that HDD's thrash about when they start up or anything, but possible damage to other 'delicate' components could occur if and when the case has to be moved... going into the shop for repairs, etc.

As for overclocking, that's when you adjust the CPU, RAM and/or video card settings to make them run faster, However, it is not something I would advise a novice to do... in fact, I would advise strongly against it.  Overclocking, if it is done incorrectly or is taken too far, can cause system instability and comonent damage, therefore it is better left to the enthusiast and/or experienced techie..

Me either... but I had better get off me bum and do some dusting/cleaning around here.  Haven't been too mobile in the last few days and we've fallen behind a little... not that it's bad or anything, but I do like things cleaner/tideier than they are at present.

i do my own repairs starkers so never worry about moving it-it works fine for me tho i always blow the warranty withing 5 mins of a new pc arriving as i have it open and install new bits  lol

as for over-clocking i will give that a very wide berth thanx 

Yer own repairs, eh!!  I like a girl who likes to get her hands dirty... though I'd still prefer for those HDD's to be bolted down.  I mean, what if you put something 'exciting' on one and it starts bouncing around in glee???  Put it this way, I had a HDD full of centerfolds once, and that had to be doubly bolted down or it went rampant, and I couldn't have it corrupting the others, could I!

Very wise if you're not experienced, accustomed to fiddling with timings and clock speeds.  I have read up on it and I've watched somebody else do it, but I still don't have the confidence as yet to do it myself, unless supervised by someone who knows what they're doing.  I will get there, however!

nah, starkers, the 285 may be brand new except for the 10 minutes i used it but i'd sell it for 225. i don't want to rip off anyone. i have a couple bites on it here. if i sell it, i'll use the money to get a decent ssd.

I've got a 9800GT myself, 1GB.  Bought it just to play Supreme Commander.  Then I played SupCom (it worked fine), and I didn't like it.       Oh well...then I bought Sins, and didn't have to do anything. 

I always compromise with the screws on my HD's.  I'll screw them in, but only tight enough so I could get out a pocket knife and unscrew it.  I don't want to lose the screws.  'Cause that's where the screws belong:  in the slots.  No better place to put them. 

I've never found the risk/reward to be worth it for overclocking, for me.  Not just the risk of doing it wrong or overheating; there's the risk of timing glitches in the CPU and static discharge.  Not insurmountable, but--what do you need the fast clock for?   I feel that you ought to be able to verbalize what you intend to use it for before you dig in and do it.  If it's to play a sweet game of Quake, by all means do it.

For me, overclocking had a specific goal, upping my CPU for video recording and editing, etc., given that it is more dependent on CPU speed/efficiency than it is GPU speed/efficiency. Since overclocking I've found that I can browse the net and perform other tasks while recording, whereas those additional tasks tended to slow my PC down a lot more beforehand.  It's not like my rig was a slouch before, but I do get more achieved now I have that extra bit of speed.

I think the key is not to get too ambitious when overclocking and not take it beyond the sensible.  For instance, I'd read about extreme overclockers taking their Phenom II x4 920's from 2.8 up to 4.2 - 4.3ghz, but I just wanted an extra bit of grunt to process videos, not run NASA's space program, so we went to 3.22 and stopped.  Thing is, I got a very experience techie to go through it with me, so it's extremely stable and runs like a dream, no hiccups or overheating, with the Zalman cooler keeping it at a steady 52c to 54c, up to 58 - 59c under load.