yay!
after the 'disaster' with the old setup, something had be done ... 8)
and once I have found the first Nforce 250, as far as I can tell in UK
HERE
this was it...
it's a bit on the expensive side for A64 mobos for £128 but it's the high end version and I'd expect they'll always be around £100 mark.
and on the same site OEM 3000+ for 135£ which is not much at the moment, plus the Gigabyte 3D Ultra cooler for 30£...
Wohooo... should come by the end of the week... so I can continue playing Far Cry on desired settings