<!--QuoteBegin-Dorian Gray+Sep 25 2004, 07:34 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Dorian Gray @ Sep 25 2004, 07:34 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Dear lord... that title is ASKING for a flamewar. I can see it already... "OMG ATI PWNZ0RZ NVIDIA"... "SUYF NUB NVIDIA > ATI".
As for the question at hand... NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER get a GeForce FX. They are widely regarded to be the worst video cards ever. Even by nVidia fanboys. If you want an X800XT, get an X800 Pro VIVO and you can softmod it to an XT, possibly even an XT-PE. But FFS, don't get the FX series.
Edit: only the X800 Pro's with VIVO can be softmodded. Just to emphasize. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Agreed on the Asking for a flamewar but look like ATi is pretty dominate here because of it's performance on the upcomming source engine.
Yeah you're right the GeForce FX series was THE worse video card series ever, ATi's counterpart cards destroyed them at every corner.
X800 Pro w/o VIVO can be hardmoded to XT-PE opening the 4 closed pixel pipelines. But is REALLY not recommended to do it kinda involves welding two transistors together on the core itself.
As for nVidia's GeForce 6 Series and ATi's X Series you absolutly can't go wrong with either card.
Is you have been reading benchmark reports they will be emphisizing on how one card is dominating another card on certain games, you should notice how the domination is by 20-30 FPS where they allready reach over 100 Frames at this point you don't notice drops of 10 FPS. Not to mention them enabling Anti-Aliasing and Aniostropic Filter which no one but enthousists actualy use.
So bottom line don't go GeForce FX avoid it like syphilis and go with the new DirectX 9 cards as in Radeon X800 and GeForce 6800
<!--QuoteBegin-Isamil+ Sep 26 2004, 01:03 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Isamil @ Sep 26 2004, 01:03 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Why are you getting an Intel? FX-57(I think thats the newest) is what you want. And why are you getting a 6800 ultra. X800XTPE for teh win. Sheesh, people with tons of money never research what they're getting...<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Umm that and AMD Athlon 64 FX-53. And if you reseached a bit GeForce 6800 Ultra will play anything fine. And if you going to start flaming me for being a nVidia Fanboy, well you won't meet a bigger ATi fanboy than me but I am aware enough to know that the GeForce 6800 is serious competition.
Last thing Factor is I think you chose the absolute WORSE moment to get an ALX system. You should have waited for Alienware to finalise and release the Video Array system, which will enable DUAL PCI-Express Video cards.
A processor war would be a short-**** war. There is nothing I've ever seen to even SUGGEST that a Pentium of 'equal grade' (AMD 3000 vs. P4 3.0 GHz) is more powerful then an AMD, and I've seen PLENTY to suggest otherwise. Hertz cycles are meaningless. Once you figure that out, you notice that everything else in a Pentium is pretty sub-average.
im kinda a AMD fan, but i would like to point out that the amd xp 64's are fast, they are not that fast, the higher end amd xp 64's (forgot suffix) are what are beating the p4's but both of their higher end processors cost upwards of 400 bucks
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Sep 26 2004, 03:02 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Sep 26 2004, 03:02 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> A processor war would be a short-**** war. There is nothing I've ever seen to even SUGGEST that a Pentium of 'equal grade' (AMD 3000 vs. P4 3.0 GHz) is more powerful then an AMD, and I've seen PLENTY to suggest otherwise. Hertz cycles are meaningless. Once you figure that out, you notice that everything else in a Pentium is pretty sub-average. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> Agreed when it comes to processor, clock speed means nothing. Not to meantion how the Pentium 4s Hyper-Threading is not true multi-tasking. Until processors with dual cores come out we won't see true multi-tasking.
<!--QuoteBegin-dirtygabbsnevada+Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (dirtygabbsnevada @ Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->im kinda a AMD fan, but i would like to point out that the amd xp 64's are fast, they are not that fast, the higher end amd xp 64's (forgot suffix) are what are beating the p4's but both of their higher end processors cost upwards of 400 bucks
im happy with my amd xp 2100 <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ and I could not be more happy with it. It's so blazing fast when comes to loading/pre-caching before a game I really could not ask more from it.
And it does not take a fortune to get an Athlon 64 these days:
<!--QuoteBegin-dirtygabbsnevada+Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (dirtygabbsnevada @ Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> im kinda a AMD fan, but i would like to point out that the amd xp 64's are fast, they are not that fast, the higher end amd xp 64's (forgot suffix) are what are beating the p4's but both of their higher end processors cost upwards of 400 bucks
im happy with my amd xp 2100 <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> I said this in another thread - computers are like cars. If you want a car that will actually do WORK, you get ATi/AMDs. They're slower (Less hertz cycles, less frames) but they are phenomenally more powerful.
If you want a flashy car that doesn't do much besides go fast, you get Pentium/nVidia. It doesn't do nearly as much work, or have as much power, but it has a higher spedometer.
Ultimately, I like having more power, not higher numbers, so I'll stick with ATi/AMD.
<!--QuoteBegin-illuminex+Sep 26 2004, 02:08 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (illuminex @ Sep 26 2004, 02:08 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> He's not getting it for three months. In any case, he gets a huge laugh for purchasing an Intel. Bahahahahahahahaha. AMD > Intel. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> quoted for truth.
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Sep 26 2004, 03:10 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Sep 26 2004, 03:10 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> <!--QuoteBegin-dirtygabbsnevada+Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (dirtygabbsnevada @ Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> im kinda a AMD fan, but i would like to point out that the amd xp 64's are fast, they are not that fast, the higher end amd xp 64's (forgot suffix) are what are beating the p4's but both of their higher end processors cost upwards of 400 bucks
im happy with my amd xp 2100 <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd--> I said this in another thread - computers are like cars. If you want a car that will actually do WORK, you get ATi/AMDs. They're slower (Less hertz cycles, less frames) but they are phenomenally more powerful.
If you want a flashy car that doesn't do much besides go fast, you get Pentium/nVidia. It doesn't do nearly as much work, or have as much power, but it has a higher spedometer.
Ultimately, I like having more power, not higher numbers, so I'll stick with ATi/AMD. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Actually ATi's Radeon X800 XT-PE runs at a higher clock speed than the nVidia's GeForce 6800 Ultra.
I was talking hertz cycles in regards to processors, and frame rate comparisons in regards to cards. Cycles in graphics cards don't mean the same thing they do in processors, but I don't want to get into that, since most people are more familiar with FPS and GHz.
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Sep 26 2004, 03:20 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Sep 26 2004, 03:20 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> I was talking hertz cycles in regards to processors, and frame rate comparisons in regards to cards. Cycles in graphics cards don't mean the same thing they do in processors, but I don't want to get into that, since most people are more familiar with FPS and GHz. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Okay, sorry about that I kinda missread it.
Don't get me wrong I'm a true AMD/ATi fan. I'm running a AMD/ATi rig and I'm loving every minute of it. I was so impressed by ATi and AMDs new CPUs, I actually am thinking of taking up a job to upgrade my older rig from a Duron 750MHz to an Athlon 1.33GHz "Thunderbird" and add a Radeon 9600 XT or Radeon 9800 Pro
But nVidia's 6 Series is one to watch for it's really tight between the two flagship cards, and im my opinion will boil down to a Driver coding war.
Also yes Intel better haul it's **** because AMD is finnaly starting to get the recognition it deserves.
Do what I did - shop around on the sites like Newegg and Pricewatch for a while and build up a base of prices. List them out (maybe 3 or so per-piece you're getting) and see what special offers you can get (Free 2 day air shipping is my favorite). Then, go out to a retail store (I used to live right next to the TigerDirect distribution center in Naperville, IL) and check out the parts you won't mail-order there: Monitors, cases, power supplys. Power supplys you can mail-order for cheap, but don't do that yet.
Look at cases. Cases cost a fortune to ship and usually aren't worth it. If you're like me, and don't care what your case looks for, and are looking for functionality, get maybe a chieftech computer - they're large, lots of mounts, lots of spare parts in case you lose screws, and those nifty snap-in fan brackets I like. If you're lucky, you will be able to find a functional case for cheap and with a beefy power supply in it. (Case I bought had a 500 watt supply in it, after rebates, was only a bit more expensive then mail ordering an equivilent power supply). Look for rebates and sales. I bought a second case so I could build a computer and sell it, it had a 450 watt in it and was only supposed to have a 250!
Anyway, when you have your case/monitor, and you know what you're going to get, buy the parts. Try to get it so they all arrive within a couple days of each other.
And most importantly - you're saving a LOT of money, so buy BIG. I built this rig (with the exception of a new 9800 card) about two years ago and it's still a beefy system. I would say, total expenses in EVERYTHING I've put in it, it cost maybe about $1400. Considering a decent part of that was in upgrades this year, that's fairly cheap.
AMD XP 2800+ GeForce 4 1 gig 2700 RAM --- I scored VERY lucky on this - they sent me 2700 instead of the 2100 I ordered! SBLive Knick-knacks like CD drives and such A 60 gig Hard Drive 500 Watt supply Some case with snap-in fan mounts Obnoxious fans that are really loud, have annoying LEDs in the (Even though the box said they didn't <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->), but were really cheap... and they do like 6000 RPM or something absurd)
That was the original system.
After a few upgrades
+ Replaced GeForce 4 with a Radeon 9800 + Added another stick of 512 mb RAM + Bought a 120 gig drive + Bought a DVD drive + Have had to replace my headset/optical mouse about 4 times. + A couple new PCI fans, since my Geforce 4 melted its OWN fan, and my Radeon melted the PCI fan I had under it.
All in all, it's a great rig, and I'm glad I sunk the money I did in it. The key is to know what deals to snag. That and getting up at 5 AM to stand in front of Best Buy on Thanksgiving.
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Sep 26 2004, 03:53 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Sep 26 2004, 03:53 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> + Have had to replace my headset/optical mouse about 4 times. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Any way to prevent that situation where you have to play with the wire in order to get audio to come out of both channels?
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->+ Added another stick of 512 mb RAM<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Damn dude, that's a lot of RAM. ATi is working on a technology to make the next generation of video cards able to use RAM more efficiently, therefore making RAM less of a factor in game performance.
By the way, just dropped a 9500 pro in, and I can't help but love every second of it. I can only imagine what a real high end card is like...
ati will eventually win, canadian labor is cheaper than american labor, unless nvidia outsources to the far east. <!--emo&:0--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/wow.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='wow.gif' /><!--endemo-->
<!--QuoteBegin-FacTor+Sep 25 2004, 04:30 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (FacTor @ Sep 25 2004, 04:30 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> Well, I have been looking into purchasing my first AlienWare ever.. and I am stuck at the video card only...
I originally snagged a Nvidia GeForce FX 5750.. then I come to see that all the Nvidia cards stall the delivery date by about 30 days... So I would recieve the computer on November 1st if I ordered right now.
However.. the ATI RADEON™ X800 XT.. while an extra 200 dollars.. doesnt stall it at all.. It comes in 9 days.. October 4th..
So all in all.. who really wins in quality?
Ive heard pros and cons on both brands.. and im still confused.. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> ATi
<!--QuoteBegin-EEK+Sep 26 2004, 03:53 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (EEK @ Sep 26 2004, 03:53 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin--> After a few upgrades
+ Replaced GeForce 4 with a Radeon 9800 + Added another stick of 512 mb RAM + Bought a 120 gig drive + Bought a DVD drive + Have had to replace my headset/optical mouse about 4 times. + A couple new PCI fans, since my Geforce 4 melted its OWN fan, and my Radeon melted the PCI fan I had under it.
All in all, it's a great rig, and I'm glad I sunk the money I did in it. The key is to know what deals to snag. That and getting up at 5 AM to stand in front of Best Buy on Thanksgiving. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd--> Shameless plug <a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81493' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...showtopic=81493</a>
Make this rig with less than $1000.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->$192.00 AMD ATHLON XP 3000+ ASUS A7V8X-X MOTHERBOARD CPU COMBO/ $62.00 IBM G76 17" Digital Monitor / $36.96 Linksys Wireless-B PCI adapter/ $61.00 8x4x8 DVD+RW & 24x10x40 CDRW IDE Drive DVDRW / $59.00 Brand New Sealed Western Digital 120 GB Hard Drive / $385.00 ATI Radeon x800 Pro 256MB/
I got a guts feeling that my motherboard is Junk. But oh well.
Total $722.01
And the following from newegg.
CASE LINKWORLD|3131M-C0028U BG/SLV (Grrr... One fan. should have done better reseach)/ SOUND CARD AOPEN|AW850 PCI RTL (Don't care much about sound)/ KB LOGITECH|INTERNET KEYBOARD/ CPU FAN |POLO 735 EXTR 3/1 A2144 RT (Heard some notorious thing about AMD, so I bought the most expensive fan on newegg)/ KINYO PS-193 MLTMEDIA SPEAKERS(Don't care much about sound)/ FD 1.44MB|SAMSUG SFD-321B/LBL1 OEM/ 2 DDRAM 512MB ADATA|64Mx64 DDR400/
Total $263.25
Overall. $985.26 for my new PC<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
X800XTPE wins at the high end unless all you do is play Doom3 6800GT is the best "midrange" value 9800Pro is still the best AGP card you can get for under $200
Comments
As for the question at hand... NEVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER get a GeForce FX. They are widely regarded to be the worst video cards ever. Even by nVidia fanboys. If you want an X800XT, get an X800 Pro VIVO and you can softmod it to an XT, possibly even an XT-PE. But FFS, don't get the FX series.
Edit: only the X800 Pro's with VIVO can be softmodded. Just to emphasize. <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Agreed on the Asking for a flamewar but look like ATi is pretty dominate here because of it's performance on the upcomming source engine.
Yeah you're right the GeForce FX series was THE worse video card series ever, ATi's counterpart cards destroyed them at every corner.
X800 Pro w/o VIVO can be hardmoded to XT-PE opening the 4 closed pixel pipelines. But is REALLY not recommended to do it kinda involves welding two transistors together on the core itself.
As for nVidia's GeForce 6 Series and ATi's X Series you absolutly can't go wrong with either card.
Is you have been reading benchmark reports they will be emphisizing on how one card is dominating another card on certain games, you should notice how the domination is by 20-30 FPS where they allready reach over 100 Frames at this point you don't notice drops of 10 FPS. Not to mention them enabling Anti-Aliasing and Aniostropic Filter which no one but enthousists actualy use.
So bottom line don't go GeForce FX avoid it like syphilis and go with the new DirectX 9 cards as in Radeon X800 and GeForce 6800
<!--QuoteBegin-Isamil+ Sep 26 2004, 01:03 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (Isamil @ Sep 26 2004, 01:03 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->Why are you getting an Intel? FX-57(I think thats the newest) is what you want. And why are you getting a 6800 ultra. X800XTPE for teh win.
Sheesh, people with tons of money never research what they're getting...<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
Umm that and AMD Athlon 64 FX-53. And if you reseached a bit GeForce 6800 Ultra will play anything fine. And if you going to start flaming me for being a nVidia Fanboy, well you won't meet a bigger ATi fanboy than me but I am aware enough to know that the GeForce 6800 is serious competition.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Last thing Factor is I think you chose the absolute WORSE moment to get an ALX system. You should have waited for Alienware to finalise and release the Video Array system, which will enable DUAL PCI-Express Video cards.
That would get insanely expensive...
Don't start a processor war...
That would get insanely expensive... <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
At least 8 Grand as base system.
im happy with my amd xp 2100
Agreed when it comes to processor, clock speed means nothing.
Not to meantion how the Pentium 4s Hyper-Threading is not true multi-tasking.
Until processors with dual cores come out we won't see true multi-tasking.
<!--QuoteBegin-dirtygabbsnevada+Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> (dirtygabbsnevada @ Sep 26 2004, 03:06 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->im kinda a AMD fan, but i would like to point out that the amd xp 64's are fast, they are not that fast, the higher end amd xp 64's (forgot suffix) are what are beating the p4's but both of their higher end processors cost upwards of 400 bucks
im happy with my amd xp 2100
<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I have an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ and I could not be more happy with it. It's so blazing fast when comes to loading/pre-caching before a game I really could not ask more from it.
And it does not take a fortune to get an Athlon 64 these days:
<a href='http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=19-103-486&depa=1' target='_blank'>http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-103-486&depa=1</a>
im happy with my amd xp 2100 <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
I said this in another thread - computers are like cars. If you want a car that will actually do WORK, you get ATi/AMDs. They're slower (Less hertz cycles, less frames) but they are phenomenally more powerful.
If you want a flashy car that doesn't do much besides go fast, you get Pentium/nVidia. It doesn't do nearly as much work, or have as much power, but it has a higher spedometer.
Ultimately, I like having more power, not higher numbers, so I'll stick with ATi/AMD.
quoted for truth.
im happy with my amd xp 2100 <!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
I said this in another thread - computers are like cars. If you want a car that will actually do WORK, you get ATi/AMDs. They're slower (Less hertz cycles, less frames) but they are phenomenally more powerful.
If you want a flashy car that doesn't do much besides go fast, you get Pentium/nVidia. It doesn't do nearly as much work, or have as much power, but it has a higher spedometer.
Ultimately, I like having more power, not higher numbers, so I'll stick with ATi/AMD. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Actually ATi's Radeon X800 XT-PE runs at a higher clock speed than the nVidia's GeForce 6800 Ultra.
Chipset/Core Speed: ATI Radeon X800 XT/520MHz
Chipset/Core Speed: nVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra/425MHz
Okay, sorry about that I kinda missread it.
Don't get me wrong I'm a true AMD/ATi fan.
I'm running a AMD/ATi rig and I'm loving every minute of it.
I was so impressed by ATi and AMDs new CPUs, I actually am thinking of taking up a job to upgrade my older rig from a Duron 750MHz to an Athlon 1.33GHz "Thunderbird" and add a Radeon 9600 XT or Radeon 9800 Pro
But nVidia's 6 Series is one to watch for it's really tight between the two flagship cards, and im my opinion will boil down to a Driver coding war.
Also yes Intel better haul it's **** because AMD is finnaly starting to get the recognition it deserves.
Look at cases. Cases cost a fortune to ship and usually aren't worth it. If you're like me, and don't care what your case looks for, and are looking for functionality, get maybe a chieftech computer - they're large, lots of mounts, lots of spare parts in case you lose screws, and those nifty snap-in fan brackets I like. If you're lucky, you will be able to find a functional case for cheap and with a beefy power supply in it. (Case I bought had a 500 watt supply in it, after rebates, was only a bit more expensive then mail ordering an equivilent power supply). Look for rebates and sales. I bought a second case so I could build a computer and sell it, it had a 450 watt in it and was only supposed to have a 250!
Anyway, when you have your case/monitor, and you know what you're going to get, buy the parts. Try to get it so they all arrive within a couple days of each other.
And most importantly - you're saving a LOT of money, so buy BIG. I built this rig (with the exception of a new 9800 card) about two years ago and it's still a beefy system. I would say, total expenses in EVERYTHING I've put in it, it cost maybe about $1400. Considering a decent part of that was in upgrades this year, that's fairly cheap.
AMD XP 2800+
GeForce 4
1 gig 2700 RAM --- I scored VERY lucky on this - they sent me 2700 instead of the 2100 I ordered!
SBLive
Knick-knacks like CD drives and such
A 60 gig Hard Drive
500 Watt supply
Some case with snap-in fan mounts
Obnoxious fans that are really loud, have annoying LEDs in the (Even though the box said they didn't <!--emo&:(--><img src='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/html//emoticons/sad-fix.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='sad-fix.gif' /><!--endemo-->), but were really cheap... and they do like 6000 RPM or something absurd)
That was the original system.
After a few upgrades
+ Replaced GeForce 4 with a Radeon 9800
+ Added another stick of 512 mb RAM
+ Bought a 120 gig drive
+ Bought a DVD drive
+ Have had to replace my headset/optical mouse about 4 times.
+ A couple new PCI fans, since my Geforce 4 melted its OWN fan, and my Radeon melted the PCI fan I had under it.
All in all, it's a great rig, and I'm glad I sunk the money I did in it. The key is to know what deals to snag. That and getting up at 5 AM to stand in front of Best Buy on Thanksgiving.
Any way to prevent that situation where you have to play with the wire in order to get audio to come out of both channels?
Damn dude, that's a lot of RAM. ATi is working on a technology to make the next generation of video cards able to use RAM more efficiently, therefore making RAM less of a factor in game performance.
By the way, just dropped a 9500 pro in, and I can't help but love every second of it. I can only imagine what a real high end card is like...
I originally snagged a Nvidia GeForce FX 5750.. then I come to see that all the Nvidia cards stall the delivery date by about 30 days... So I would recieve the computer on November 1st if I ordered right now.
However.. the ATI RADEON™ X800 XT.. while an extra 200 dollars.. doesnt stall it at all.. It comes in 9 days.. October 4th..
So all in all.. who really wins in quality?
Ive heard pros and cons on both brands.. and im still confused.. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
ATi
Hands down.
+ Replaced GeForce 4 with a Radeon 9800
+ Added another stick of 512 mb RAM
+ Bought a 120 gig drive
+ Bought a DVD drive
+ Have had to replace my headset/optical mouse about 4 times.
+ A couple new PCI fans, since my Geforce 4 melted its OWN fan, and my Radeon melted the PCI fan I had under it.
All in all, it's a great rig, and I'm glad I sunk the money I did in it. The key is to know what deals to snag. That and getting up at 5 AM to stand in front of Best Buy on Thanksgiving. <!--QuoteEnd--> </td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'> <!--QuoteEEnd-->
Shameless plug
<a href='http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=81493' target='_blank'>http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/in...showtopic=81493</a>
Make this rig with less than $1000.
<!--QuoteBegin--></div><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td><b>QUOTE</b> </td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'><!--QuoteEBegin-->$192.00 AMD ATHLON XP 3000+ ASUS A7V8X-X MOTHERBOARD CPU COMBO/ $62.00 IBM G76 17" Digital Monitor /
$36.96 Linksys Wireless-B PCI adapter/
$61.00 8x4x8 DVD+RW & 24x10x40 CDRW IDE Drive DVDRW /
$59.00 Brand New Sealed Western Digital 120 GB Hard Drive /
$385.00 ATI Radeon x800 Pro 256MB/
I got a guts feeling that my motherboard is Junk. But oh well.
Total $722.01
And the following from newegg.
CASE LINKWORLD|3131M-C0028U BG/SLV (Grrr... One fan. should have done better reseach)/
SOUND CARD AOPEN|AW850 PCI RTL (Don't care much about sound)/
KB LOGITECH|INTERNET KEYBOARD/
CPU FAN |POLO 735 EXTR 3/1 A2144 RT (Heard some notorious thing about AMD, so I bought the most expensive fan on newegg)/
KINYO PS-193 MLTMEDIA SPEAKERS(Don't care much about sound)/
FD 1.44MB|SAMSUG SFD-321B/LBL1 OEM/
2 DDRAM 512MB ADATA|64Mx64 DDR400/
Total $263.25
Overall. $985.26 for my new PC<!--QuoteEnd--></td></tr></table><div class='postcolor'><!--QuoteEEnd-->
X800XTPE wins at the high end unless all you do is play Doom3
6800GT is the best "midrange" value
9800Pro is still the best AGP card you can get for under $200
/me is worried