Building my own new computer system

**Mcstrange** · 09-27-07, 09:47 PM

You cant get more video card for the money than the 1950pro. Comparable nvidia card would be the 7900gs or 7900gt, both of which I believe will cost you a bit more

It looks like a fine system, but you do want to get an SATA hard drive not an ATA one.

**imp** · 09-27-07, 11:51 PM

thanks for the further advices!:
how does the system look now?

- INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6750 2.66GHZ 4MB L2 1333MHz FSB DUAL-CORE
- Asus P5K-E Deluxe/WiFi-AP Socket 775 Intel P35 ICH9R Chipset Dual-Channel DDR2 1066/800/667Mhz GigaLAN 2x PCIe x16 eSATA/SATA 3.0Gb/s Firewire 10x USB 2.0
- 2GB DDR2-800 (2x1GB) PC2-6400 DDR2 Dual Channel Memory
- Antec Sonata III Quiet Super Mini Tower 500 Watt power supply
- Seagate Barracuda (ST3500630AS) 7200.10 SATA NCQ 3.0Gb/s 500GB 16MB Cache (OEM)
- BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 nVidia GeForce 8800GTS Chipset (580Mhz) Shader Clock (1350Mhz) 320MB (1.7GHz) Dual DVI HDTV Out PCI-Express Graphics

**SapiensErus** · 09-28-07, 12:19 AM

Thats a pretty buff system you got configured there. Make sure that the PSU included with the case is buff enough to drive that 8800 GTS. I upgraded a similar system with a mid level 500w PSU to 8800 GTS and there were some issues with power consumption. Although that system had a RAID stack which was using a lot of juice.

I am not up to speed on the state of 8800 GTS 320 equivalents in the ATI world; but from what I see you got a system that will run all the games TTP hosts at full spec and oblivion at relatively high spec. I bet McStrange has some advice about the video system...

**NyghtEntreri** · 09-28-07, 12:39 AM

If i were you Imp... I would get an evGA 8800... there customer service is sick and The step up system is sick.... Plus if your vid card gets messed up for whatever reason and you forgot to register your product...they still will hook you up with a vid card....

EvGa is the company to go to for Nvidia cards....

and as far as ATI... I would suggest getting an 1950XT..... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814102067

Best bang for your buck.... very good price.... It is probably the best under 180 card you can get right now...

Trust me that card is a good card....just make sure you have a good power supply....

**imp** · 09-28-07, 02:09 AM

Well I've been talking to some ppl...and it seems like I'm willing to spend a little more for longetivity of computer. I'm planning on getting one of these three video cards...I'm leaning towards the first link...what do you people think?

http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php...tail&id=332359

http://www.infonec.com/site/main.php...tail&id=342460

http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applicatio...&Sku=P450-8054

**SapiensErus** · 09-28-07, 08:43 AM

While I have not used xFx or BFG products ppersonally, I am running an eVGA 8800 GTS 640 and am totally satisfied with it's performance on a 19" LCD. A friend of mine swears by BFG however. the last several cards I bought were eVGA; but I do know the 8800 GTS 640 is a pretty solid card. I can turn oblivion all the way up and force AA x8 along with HDR lighting. my 8800 GTS 640 gives me between 80-100 FPS on BF2 and between 70 and 100 FPS on BF2142 both at AAx16. Again, this is using a 19" monitor.

I cant speak of the Radeon from personal experience but that 2900 is supposed to be pretty darn tough too.

I dunno.. if your case has a window which color will compliment your other components?

Personally I went with black and chrome to compliment the black PCB of my Mobo...

**~~Cecil900~~** · 09-28-07, 09:01 AM

I would go with the XFX 8800 GTS 640 MB

**Mcstrange** · 09-28-07, 09:51 AM

If your not looking for the cheaper end of the performance cards, the 8800 gts is where to aim for. If you have a monitor smaller than 22inch the 320mb version should be plenty of power. the 640 version of course will give you a bit more umph for the future though.

I have the <a href=http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?item=N82E16814130071> EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB - </a> Card and will also attest to its power.

I have a 24inch monitor at 1920x1200 and very respectable average frame rate around 60 with 4x AA and 16x AF in BF2142, and Team Fortress2

**Axeager** · 09-28-07, 09:57 AM

I've given this speech way to many times, but here we go again. Everyone recommending high tech graphic cards are out of their mind. Anything above a Nvidia 7800GTX is paying to much. There is barely any difference in in anything higher then a 7800GTX. There is no game capable of using 2/3 of a Nvidia 7800 can offer. You will never use the full potential of what that card can offer. So honestly you have to ask yourself. Is it worth paying $200-300 to see that tiny pixel twist that you probably won't even notice not to mention even noticing it. That's just my two cents.

**Mcstrange** · 09-28-07, 10:14 AM

I would agree with you in isolated situations black. As in if your only playing CSS, on a 19 inch LCD and dont care about fancy quality levels then your absolutely correct, you dont need more than a 7800-7900 level card.
I frequently recommend the ATI1950pro, and the 7900gs as they are by far the most graphic power for the money and work very well on the average monitor people have.

But you are entirely wrong when you start talking about people that are interested in the next generation of games that are coming out, such as Crysis; and or play games in high resolutions, IE 1600x1200 and above, and want high levels of Anti-aliasing, and Anisotropic filtering. If this is your situation, you are not wasting any money on the high end segment of the market.

Trust me there is a big difference between playing at 1280x1024 without or with low levels of aa and af and playing at 1920x1200 with 4x AA and 16x AF and a 7800 level card would be crushed by those graphics settings and IMHO the extra 150 dollars was very well spent in my case.