Another Spec help thread.....

Wildkard

Wildkard

Wildkard

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Joined
8 Jul 2004
Posts
44
Well after a few months looking at specs and pricing stuff up and after just about making my mind up on my new pc I have started having second thoughts!

I was initially going for an SLI board and 7800GT card etc. But after seeing so many threads about the crossfire cards I have started to doubt myself!

Primarily what I am after is a gaming rig! I will be building from scratch (apart from mouse, keyboard and monitor - currently a syncmaster 913N) so I will need a case, psu etc.

What do you guys think I should go for? Are the ATI cards that much better than SLI? Ideally looking to stay under £900. Any real help would be appreciated as I would really like to order it tonight (just so I can get everything by my days off work lol)
 
I went for nvidia even tho ati cards are so cheap they are the best priced but i do lik the nvidia drivers. You do pay more for them tho. I havnt had a problem setting upsli or a problem with the cards at all tho my 2 gtx are great :D
 
If you're not planning on running 2 gfx cards you don't need sli. IMO it's a waste of money anyway, gfx cards are updated so frequently now I think you're better off trying to buy a good one for less than £250 and upgrading in about 9 months and selling the old one.

If you do this then I would recommend somthing like the nF4 Ultra Mobo'slike the DFI Ultra-D
 
Hows about something like this:

CP-152-AM AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£164.95 £164.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.50 £14.50
MY-046-GL GeIL 2GB (2x1GB) PC3200 Value Dual Channel Kit CAS3 (GE2GB3200BDC) (MY-046-GL)
£109.95 £109.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95 £79.95
GX-026-GW Gainward BLISS GeForce 7800 GT "Goes Like Hell" 512MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GWGFFX7647) (GX-026-GW)
£219.95 £219.95
HD-046-WD Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
£60.95 £60.95
CD-026-NE NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£27.95 £27.95
CA-017-TT Thermaltake VB1000BNS Soprano SuperMidi Tower - Black (CA-017-TT)
£39.95 £39.95
CA-025-EN Enermax Liberty 500W ELT500AWT ATX2.2 Modular SLI Compliant PSU (CA-025-EN)
£63.95 £63.95
Subtotal £782.10
VAT £136.87
Total £918.97

You can always swap out the 7800gt in favour of the Connect 3d x1800xt which is exactly the same price if you prefer ATI.
 
Monstermunch said:
If you're not planning on running 2 gfx cards you don't need sli. IMO it's a waste of money anyway, gfx cards are updated so frequently now I think you're better off trying to buy a good one for less than £250 and upgrading in about 9 months and selling the old one.

If you do this then I would recommend somthing like the nF4 Ultra Mobo'slike the DFI Ultra-D
Click to expand...

There 3 reasons i went for sli

1. I have a 24" dell 2405fpw and run at 1920x1200 and no lower

2. Going to last me longer than one so in the feuture i can put the to cards in the other systems i got. Then just buy a new card

3. I had the guts to spend £750 at the time for graphics cards
 
If I stick with the SLI and get one card now for example any 256 card...is it then possible to add a 2nd 512 card at a later date or do they both have to be 256?
 
AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 3800+ (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-152-AM)
£193.82
OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
£158.57
Asus A8R-MVP Crossfire (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-129-AS)
£82.19
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-044-CO)
£234.94
Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD)
£71.62
NEC ND4551 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-026-NE)
£32.84
Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£70.44
Antec SLK3000B Midi Tower Case - No PSU (CA-027-AN)
£35.19
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£17.04

Total inc VAT: £896.65

Can go lower if you want GeIL Value RAM, but OCZ has tighter timings which AMDs love.
 
That looks nice explicit, but I'm being a bit wary about the ATI cards. Ive always been a bit of an nvidia fanboy. Are the cards that much better? And are the crossfire motherboards as good as the sli ones? (futureproof etc)
 
Wildkard said:
If I stick with the SLI and get one card now for example any 256 card...is it then possible to add a 2nd 512 card at a later date or do they both have to be 256?
Click to expand...

If you get the 512 card and mix it with the 256 the 512 will deufalt to 256 mem speed
 
Wildkard said:
That looks nice explicit, but I'm being a bit wary about the ATI cards. Ive always been a bit of an nvidia fanboy. Are the cards that much better? And are the crossfire motherboards as good as the sli ones? (futureproof etc)
Click to expand...

The new crosfire chipsets ment to be better the old ones had few problems. I got to say owning both nvidia and ati id prefre nvidia that why i have 2 gtx in sli :D
 
Wildkard said:
That looks nice explicit, but I'm being a bit wary about the ATI cards. Ive always been a bit of an nvidia fanboy. Are the cards that much better? And are the crossfire motherboards as good as the sli ones? (futureproof etc)
Click to expand...

Well, the X1800XT is no doubt better than the 7800GT, and rivals the GTX version. Costs less than a GTX, so it's bargain and a real solid performer. I'm not sure how a motherboard can be futureproof, but it will give you the option to stick in another X1800XT later on.
 
So what your saying is for the price the XT are better performers? Considering I was originally looking at was a 7800GT you would say the atis are better?
 
Wildkard said:
So what your saying is for the price the XT are better performers? Considering I was originally looking at was a 7800GT you would say the atis are better?
Click to expand...

He basically saying the x1800 at £200+vat are great bang for buck. To say they rival the gtx when the gtx are over £300
 
Wildkard said:
So what your saying is for the price the XT are better performers? Considering I was originally looking at was a 7800GT you would say the atis are better?
Click to expand...

The X1800XT 256MB is buckets and spades better than the 7800GT because it was designed to compete with the 7800GTX. And they have been overclocking very well too. For that price, you really cannot go wrong.
The rival for the 7800GT is the X1800XL, which is only £20 less than the X1800XT so it makes sense to get the XT.

Edit: Yup, what kinggost said
 
Last edited:
Thanks for all your help on this one guys. One last question though as I don't know much about crossfire. If I wanted to add a 2nd card in the future would it have to be an X1800XT as well?
 
Wildkard said:
Cool...after all this I'm tempted to go for the 512MB card lol
Click to expand...

lol, whether or not the 512MB version is worth it depends on what resolution you play games. The 512MB only helps out in higher resolutions like 1600 x 1200
 
I should mention one thing. The entire X1800 series is now discontinued and replaced by the far more superior X1900 series. So, if you wish to crossfire next year or so, you will have to source a second hand X1800 from that famous auction site.
 
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