what Graphics card to get???

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:04

Hi I am looking for a graphics card for my first build

Spec:

asus p5kpl-am epu
cpu (Hopefully it will be a q6600 slacr malay or a standard one)
4gb ram sticks (Hopefully)
1tb hard drive or x2 500gb hard drives
arctic cooling freezer 7 pro rev 2
Psu still deciding

I want to play BF3, WoW, And most latest games, Watching films, internet browsing, youtube,ebay listing items etc

Is it poss to have hdmi, vga, dvi ports? or can i just get a adapter from vga or dvi to hdmi??

cheers Luke

djshauny1 · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:07

whats your budget?

SheepBeast · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:17

5770, 6850, 6870 and GTX460 are all good buys. obviosuly dependent on budget.

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:22

£50-£70'ish???

Would be 2nd hand of the bay?

djshauny1 · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:24

gtx 460

Marine-RX179 · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:25

Any reason why building around the socket 775? How many of the parts listed in your spec you got already?

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:29

I did have the complete components to make one but members told me to get differant parts as it will last me longer, as i got a 700w psu for £20 alpine psu.

I have a card but it's a silent one mostly used for films, and because i wanted to play games as well.

No reason building it around the 775, it's just what the board was?

Any other cards you would suggest, i can probably go to £100 soon. on a graphics card

cheers Luke

Ram will be ddr2 pc2-6400

Scania · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:54

What resolution will you run at? - I'm hoping (but not holding out too much hope tbh) that my GTX260 will cut BF3 @ 1680x1050, I have a 775 rig, Q8300, 4GB RAM etc etc

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 12:58

1028x1028, it's a hp pavilion f1273 monitor.

Instead of buying a monitor seperatley on the bay, i bought a complete pc for £30, and i think i might do the same again so i can get a 19 inch screen not sure on res though

fowler002 · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:02

best bet would be save up and buy a sand bridge/ivy bridge/bulldozer system(ivy bridge and bulldozer should be out by the time you've saved up plus the new gpus from nvidia and amd should be out).

slade · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:06

i dont think a 50/70 pound card would any good for BF3 or WoW

like he said.... save up.

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:23

Tbh i don't want to spend money on a new board and a cpu when i have a board thats not that bad.

linktoinsanity · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:26

luke123 said:
1028x1028, it's a hp pavilion f1273 monitor.

Instead of buying a monitor seperatley on the bay, i bought a complete pc for £30, and i think i might do the same again so i can get a 19 inch screen not sure on res though

Sure it's not 1280x1024? That would maike a lot more sense. My second screen still runs at that res (main one used to as well) and it's a fairly ok res to play on.

I'd go for a more modern spec these days, unless you already have the parts building a Socket 775 is a little pointless now.

Marine-RX179 · 2 Sep 2011 at 13:49

luke123 said:
Tbh i don't want to spend money on a new board and a cpu when i have a board thats not that bad.

Actually the asus p5kpl-am epu is just a cheap budget board...you can tell with it only having 2 ram slots. Also it only has a G31 chipset, which is no good for overclocking a Q6600 (you need either a P35 or a P45 board).

Rather than throwing good money after dated/bad parts, just build a new system based around the Intel i3 2100 CPU. Despite being a dual-core CPU, it deliver better frame rate than Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz when the games use all 4 cores, and it will deliver much better frame rate in games that use 2 cores or less (i.e. WOW). The i3 2100 has the benefit of lower power consumption and less heat. Also 4GB of DDR3 ram cost around £23, whereas 4GB of DDR2 ram cost around £50-£60.

Grab 2x2GB of DDR3 ram, and use the money you save on the ram and put it toward this board:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=MB-355-GI&groupid=701&catid=5&subcat=1965

and then grab a i3 2100 CPU:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CP-367-IN&groupid=701&catid=6&subcat=1671

As for the graphic, it is still depending on the res of your monitor which you gaming at as well as your budget.

As for your PSU, it is a £20 generic 700W PSU...so it is guaranteed to be poor quality and reliablity (and can go pop when under stress). Personally I wouldn't risk going for a graphic card that require external PCI-E power rather than bus-powered. Seriously...going for a generic PSU was a very bad move...but I guess not much can be done since you already bought it.

Seriously, you should just tell us your total budget for the entire PC with the graphic included, so we can give better advice to help you putting a reliable PC together.

SheepBeast · 2 Sep 2011 at 14:11

the spec you listed is solid if you already have the mobo. just add in one of the graphics cards i listed in post #3 - whichever one suits your budget (they are all good cards for their average price).

if you're gonna be buying all the parts and you don't already have the mobo then you'd be better off with an i3 2100 build. it would be a similar price and much more upgradeable in the future.

so basically, what parts do you already have? and what is your total budget to cover all the other parts? if you tell us these things we can be much more helpful

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 16:09

I have the board already i bought this ages ago.

I have not decided on a budget tbh, I just feel what i can afford and which parts etc.

Subliminal Aura · 2 Sep 2011 at 16:25

Marine-RX179 said:
Actually the asus p5kpl-am epu is just a cheap budget board...you can tell with it only having 2 ram slots. Also it only has a G31 chipset, which is no good for overclocking a Q6600 (you need either a P35 or a P45 board).

For your reference read this thread ...

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?p=19978063

Luke is building his first PC on a shoestring budget which has impressed a fair few peeps on here.

You might also find my post amusing too

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=19978036&postcount=233

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 17:07

BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB

What about one of these??

Marine-RX179 · 2 Sep 2011 at 17:32

Subliminal Aura said:
You might also find my post amusing too

http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showpost.php?p=19978036&postcount=233

Not amused. I suggest he could consider getting i3 2100 build around a £50 budget board, not something high-end like 2500K on a £150 board, and with money saved on the memory since 4GB DDR3 ram is half the price of 4GB DDR2 ram. Also, a i3 2100 would be WAY faster than a Q6600 in WOW since the game pretty much only use 1~2cores, and even faster than a Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz with all 4 cores used in games like BF. A stock speed Q6600 at stock speed would deliver horrible performance in WOW. Also with the lower power consumption of the i3 2100, there's lower chance of that £20 700W generic PSU going pop as well.

luke123 said:
BFG NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GT OC 512MB

What about one of these??

Try to find a 9800GT/9800GTX+ or GTS250 for around the same price if you can.

luke123 · 2 Sep 2011 at 18:03

Marine-RX179 said:
Not amused. I suggest he could consider getting i3 2100 build around a £50 budget board, not something high-end like 2500K on a £150 board, and with money saved on the memory since 4GB DDR3 ram is half the price of 4GB DDR2 ram. Also, a i3 2100 would be WAY faster than a Q6600 in WOW since the game pretty much only use 1~2cores, and even faster than a Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz with all 4 cores used in games like BF. A stock speed Q6600 at stock speed would deliver horrible performance in WOW. Also with the lower power consumption of the i3 2100, there's lower chance of that £20 700W generic PSU going pop as well.

Try to find a 9800GT/9800GTX+ or GTS250 for around the same price if you can.

The psu will be replaced with a better unit, did i not mention this?

Yeah but my pc will not just be used for gaming