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BFG gone bust and my card broke so I need a new one

lamocuk

lamocuk

lamocuk

Associate
Joined
25 May 2007
Posts
64
Hi all,

As the title says, my graphics card bas gone pop and BFG
, apparently, have done the same!

I need a new card and have no idea what I should consider.

My previous card was a BFG Geforce 8800.

I do use the machine for gaming and generallly play EVE online and Football MAnager.

Oddly enough there was an article in PCGamer this month on graphics cards and they highly recommended the PNY Geforce GTX 460 768MB card for around £140.

OCUK do not sell the PNY brand but have others.

I'd like tomstick with OCUK as their customer care is great.

So.... Is this a good card and should I buy another brand of it? Or are there better cards out there?

My max spend is £200 but would really really not like to spend more than £150 unless spending more represents an oustanding deal!


Thanks in advance! If I have missed any information you need to help me please just ask.

Regards

Lee
 
I take that top on is OCUK own brand?

I've not purchased any of their own brands before. Are they reliable and what sort of warranty do they come with?

Out of interest, how much better is that one than what i currently have?

Is it also safe to assume that it will fit in with my system, working off the fact that the previous one did? Ie... No comparability issues?

Anyone have any experience, with this weather and the proximity of Christmas, on delivery times? I trade fx from home and need this replacement yesterday!

Cheers

Ps... Thanks for the quick reply.
 
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The 5870 would be a heck of an upgrade ...

Check here http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/162?vs=178

For the others you can check here for a comparison between a 460 and a 8800GT. The 6850 is more or less as fast as the 460 so the comparison will also be fair against that.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/180?vs=178

I haven't had any problems but then again there hasn't been as much snow over here as in other parts.

You will have to list your full pc specs in order to check for compatibility :)
 
The 5870 is way way better than the 8800.
The VTX brand is very good so don't let that concern you (2 year warranty).
Yes it will fit in your system unless you have a tiny case.
I would be inclined to clean install with the new card in.
 
Ezyryder said:
The 5870 would be a heck of an upgrade ...

Check here http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/162?vs=178

For the others you can check here for a comparison between a 460 and a 8800GT. The 6850 is more or less as fast as the 460 so the comparison will also be fair against that.

http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/180?vs=178

I haven't had any problems but then again there hasn't been as much snow over here as in other parts.

You will have to list your full pc specs in order to check for compatibility :)
Click to expand...


Thanks.....really appreciate the effort!!!!!

It's gonna be hard to list the spec as i can't start the machine. I do not have an adapter that i can put my monitor to work from the motherboard.

I'll try and take the thing apart again and see if i can see a y labels......
 
gary996 said:
The 5870 is way way better than the 8800.
The VTX brand is very good so don't let that concern you (2 year warranty).
Yes it will fit in your system unless you have a tiny case.
I would be inclined to clean install with the new card in.
Click to expand...

Can I ask what you mean by a clean install?

Regards

Lee
 
Agreed that a fresh install of the OS should not be needed.

Assuming you move from the 8800 to the 5870 then you need to remove the nvidia graphics driver before you install the card (if you do not have a nvidia chipset (motherboard) then you are probably best served by removing all nvidia drivers - if not sure then double check before proceeding!!).

Then install the new Amd/Ati card and then ,as your new to Amd (& to keep it simple) , install the driver and the CCC (Catalyst Control Panel) from the disk that comes with the card.

Once up and running you can download the latest driver from Amd/Ati website.:D
 
All good help here!!!

Thanks

I can not get the machine to turn on, so i am not going to be able to remove the previous drivers. How much an issue is this going to be?

Regards

Lee
 
not much I reckon... you might have to boot up in safe-mode.

One important thing, probably the most important is to check your PSU, you can do that by checking the label. Brand and Model would help :)
 
Don't sweat it really it will boot into windows and will most probably will run peachy. And i would'nt hesitate buying a card with a warrentee backed by ocuk as they pretty awesome when it comes to RMA's and if the card did break within the 2 years there is no fear of not being looked after.
 
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Hey,

This was my original order:

Product Name Price Qty Line Total

Lian-Li PC-7B PLUS II Aluminium Midi-Tower Case - Black (No PSU) £49.99 1 £49.99

Corsair HX 520W ATX Modular SLI Compliant Power Supply (CMPSU-520HXUK) £61.99 1 £61.99

Samsung SH-183LBEBN 18x18 DVD±RW Dual Layer Serial ATA Lightscribe ReWriter (Black) - OEM £16.99 1 £16.99

BFG GeForce 8800 GTS OC2 640MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail £234.99 1 £234.99

Noctua NF-S12 1200RPM 120mm Silent Case Fan - 3 Pin £11.99 2 £23.98

Samsung SpinPoint T 400GB SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD401LJ) £52.99 2 £105.98

Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3P (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard £87.99 1 £87.99

Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (66I-01939) £63.99 1 £63.99

Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 "LGA775 Conroe" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail £125.99 1 £125.99
Arctic Silver 5 Thermal Compound (3.5g) £5.99 1 £5.99

Noctua NH-U12P CPU Cooler (Socket AM2/LGA775) £32.99 1 £32.99

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 PK PC2-6400C4 (2x1GB) CAS4 Dual Channel Kit (F2-6400 £63.99 2 £127.98


You guys think this will all work?

btw, I got worried that my card 'might' actualy be working and it was something else after reading another recent thread about loose cables, but I am getting all sorts of error messages about display etc etc and when I can actualy boot the machine, I am getting a realy corrupt display!

I'm gonna stop trying to get into the machine now as last time I did it, I had a 30 min long checkdisc (and other things) to sit through, I think all this restarting and crashing will acutaly kill more stuff.

If you guys give me the okay on all this I'm gonna get an order through right now.

cheers

ps.... thanks, once again, for the promt and great assistance you have given me!

Lee
 
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The card is quite long but after looking at pics of the inside of the case it looks like ti will fit fine. And if you hav'nt overclocked the CPU it might hold back the new card depending on the res you play at also 2GB of RAM is a little bit low maybe for a games machine. I'd go ahead and buy if i was you.
 
Thanks. I'll get an order in. I think I upgraded the RAM a while back, but was most concerned about the motherboard and PSU being correct.

THanks all for your help..... I really appreciate it!!!

Regards

Lee
 
DIABLO said:
The card is quite long but after looking at pics of the inside of the case it looks like ti will fit fine. And if you hav'nt overclocked the CPU it might hold back the new card depending on the res you play at also 2GB of RAM is a little bit low maybe for a games machine. I'd go ahead and buy if i was you.
Click to expand...

Just out of interest (and you thought I was done ;)).

If I had, say, another £250 to play with, what would you upgrade from the components above, of course assuming I have already purchased the new graphics card?

Just to note, I have 2 x 2gig ram; 4 gig.

Hopefully your recomendations won't be beyond my mobo (unless of course that is your target :))

Regards

Lee
 
I would get a quadcore in the form of a Q6600 which can be found for around 70 quid and overclock it to 3.4 Ghz at least. You could also sell your E6600 in the process to recoup some of the cash.

I would also get Windows 7 and a SSD for boot drive and games. The SSD (OCZ Vertex 2) should be around £90 and Windows 7 no idea but I would get a retail one so you can use it on a different computer if you upgrade everything else in the future.
 
Not at all what I was expecting, but very interesting.

I shall have a look at what you suggested!!!

When you say a SSD for boot and games.... Wouldnt I need a rather large one to include my games (obviously depending on how many games I have) and wouldn't that put me well over the £90 you suggest?

Thanks again,.

Regards

Lee
 
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