Fuck Crossfire, a single 8800 GTS walks the dog on that card


Jon, either way, ATI sucks.

 

CPU + MotherBoard

This combo leaves me with about ~150$ to get a Graphics card. I'm thinking of something in the 8000+ series...any suggestions? (And give a couple, jacked prices are shit.)

 

Ouch. Anything you can manage to afford in the 8800 range is good, but I doubt you can find anything. What's the cheapest 8800GT or GTS card you can buy?

The 8600's were supposedly a mid-range card but are generally considered to be rubbish. The 7900's were better. However, the 8600's might suit your budget to a tee. I don't think 7900's are available any more.

Are you aware that the motherboard you've chosen has integrated graphics? Ie. a graphics chipset is already on board. Sure, it won't be very good for gaming, but you can probably get Counterstrike running on it (not a promise), and it won't cost you a cent. You could make due with what you've got until you've saved another $50 or $100 bucks to get a much better card like the 512Mb 9600 GT.

How much is that card beyond your budget?

Seeing as we're talking about the low end of the video card spectrum, there may even be an ATI card that would suit you.

http://forums.darklordpotter.net/showpost.php?p=190741&postcount=6
http://www.dansdata.com/askdan00030.htm

 

9600GT is just a few FPS slower than the 8800GT at $150, uses less power, and is a bunch cooler. Good deal imo.

 

E8400 + GA-P35-DS3 + 9600GT/8800GT

Make the CPU E8200 and the MoBo a DS3L if you want more money for the video card. Add in 4GB of RAM, generic will do fine for a budget system with no overclocking. If you want to overclock, either get 2-3-4GB of decent branded RAM, aka GeiL or Kingston or Corsair with either 5-5-5-15 or 4-4-4-12(preferrable) CAS timings and make it DDR2 800Mhz. DDR2 667Mhz will do fine if you go for a no OC and get generic, even if you get branded if you have more money and don't want to overclock.

Getting a $50 CPU cooler will help crazy if you want to overclock. Something like the Thermalright Ultra 120 Extreme will take the chip as far as it can go on air for shit all money.

 

Laptop I ordered today:

http://www.acerdirect.co.uk/Acer_Aspire_4920_Gemstone_Laptop_LX.AKW0X.114/version.asp

Core 2 Duo 2GHz
2GB DDRII RAM
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 2400 XT - 256 MB
DVD±RW (+R double layer) / DVD-RAM
250 GB - Serial ATA-150 - 5400 rpm (Couldn't find a 7200rpm on any affordable laptop anywhere, which is a bit gay)
14.1' TFT 1280 x 800 ( WXGA ) - 24-bit (16.7 million colours) - CrystalBrite

Pretty good for £450. The screen is a bit small, but it's not too bad (the resolution is still 1280x800), and I can always just use my 19 inch monitor instead.

Basically, I was after a Core 2 Duo over 1.8ghz and dedicated graphics, and after that I was simply going for the best deal possible. I'm pretty pleased with the result. It may even be better than my desktop (which is getting pretty old now) though of course the fact that it's a laptop puts it back a bit lol.

It's a pretty trivial thing to like, but I'm loving the CrystalBrite screen technology. It just makes everything look so good (having observed it on other people's laptops). I really don't know why the technology hasn't been applied to non-laptop monitors.

 

Taure: Glossy sucks. Bad. It makes colors more vibrant, yes, but you've obviously never had a glossy screen full time. The glare is ridiculous. You'll NEVER be able to use that laptop out in the sun, I guarantee it.

I have a glossy on my laptop and I highly regret it.

EDIT: Oh and plenty of MAC screens are glossy. As are a few SONY lcds.

 

I'm on a glossy right now, and I prefer it to a matte screen. Pretty much any time there's glare on the screen, you can reposition easily enough.

 

I got my laptop a year ago and then it was already a problem to get a matte screen. The shopmen tried to convince me of the "advantages" of the "more brilliant" and "much brighter" glossy screens, but I insisted on a matte.

I'm glad I did. Except for Jangel I have yet to meet someone who is happy with a glossy laptop screen.

 

Laptops Screens, Glare or Matte? - There are a lot of opinions going both ways.

 

I'm back up, all I can say, is stay the hell away from EVGA. NEVER again. More later

 

Just ordered the stuff for my new computer on Newegg. After 4 years of a Pentium 4, and 2 years of an FX5950, I'm understandably ecstatic.

What I ended up getting:

• Intel E8400
• Gigabyte GA-P45-UD3R
• 2 x 2GB Mushkin DDR2 800 (5-4-4-12 timings)
• XFX GeForce 9800GTX+ (preoverclocked, since it was the same price as non-factory-OC'd) w/ free CoD4
• WD Caviar 640GB SATA HD
• Corsair 650TX PSU
• Antec P182 ($60 cheaper thanks to a Newegg 1day sale)
• Xigmatek S1283 + Artic Silver 5 for cooling
• Some OEM Samsung DVD-RW
• Logitech MX518 mouse
• Microsoft Comfort Curve 2000 keyboard

Will post pix when built. 8D

 

How much does all that add up to? And why are you going with the E8400 core Duo? a Q6600 quad core only costs 25 usd more at newegg.com

How much do you have to spend on this? Intel Core i7 Extreme Edition 965 is what I want in my new machine but at over 1k usd its not going to happen...

Instead I'm buying a cheap enough quad core, shitty 512 mb ddr ram, crap on board graphics. It only costs 200 euro and I can buy new ram and slot my old graphics card in easily enough.

 

I really don't need the extra cores, as very few things actually take advantage of them. Since core for core, the E8400 is faster then the Q6600, and I really didn't care to shell out the cash for a 45nm quad, hai2u E8400. It came to about $830, after rebates.

 

I've got the gunmetal Antec P182, and I love it. Just make sure your power supply's motherboard power cable is long enough, or your fucked.

 

So my new computer only takes pci-e. Anybody know a good pci-e card that I can game with?(preferably something cheap/lower end)

 

Er... aren't pretty much all graphics cards PCI-E?

 

Nah there's pci and pci express, as far as I know its a seprate slot. New computers motherboard only takes express.

Would the SAPPHIRE 100250L Radeon X1050 run anynew games?
Or the ASUS EAH3450 looks good also for 30 bucks.

 

PCI never took graphics cards really (only as an inferior option). You had AGP x4, then AGP x8, and then PCI-E was created (years and years ago now) and ever since then graphics cards have all been Express.

"New computers motherboard only takes express."

Your definition of "new" is rather flexible here. It's been like that for years. Any graphics card you look up will be PCI-Express.

 

Oh lol when I said New computers mb only takes express I mean mine not new in general.

So my question is: Can anybody recommend a good card that I can get cheap(30-35>$) that will run some of the newer games.