buying a stupid-good rig...ideas?

[Juicy]

I've got the following system lined up:

BU-027-OK (Bundle) £510.95
GX-009-BG (Geforce 7800 GTX 256) £346.57
HD-089-MD (HDD - maxtor 300Gb) £88.07

Basically, I'm not too interested in opinions in what I should get differently. I've done my research and I will be pretty happy with the resulting system.

My only question is one of compatability. The bundle should take care of 80% of the worry, but my last Geforce was so incompatable it hurt. Any thoughts on this?

cheers

 

[trojan698]

Go for the radeon x1900, you won't regret it

 

[benjo]

I've got the following system lined up:

BU-027-OK (Bundle) £510.95
GX-009-BG (Geforce 7800 GTX 256) £346.57
HD-089-MD (HDD - maxtor 300Gb) £88.07

Basically, I'm not too interested in opinions in what I should get differently. I've done my research and I will be pretty happy with the resulting system.

My only question is one of compatability. The bundle should take care of 80% of the worry, but my last Geforce was so incompatable it hurt. Any thoughts on this?

cheers

That card should fit nicely

I accept that you've done your research but a radeon x1900xt-x would be a fair bit faster for a tiny bit more cash. But if its Geforce for you then maybe hold fire until the next offering from nvidia comes out, next month iirc

 

[StarShock]

yeah the BFG GeForce 7800 GTX OC 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-009-BG) and Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 10 NCQ 300GB 6V300F0 SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-089-MD) should work fine with the
AMD Athlon 64 4000 Retail / Asus A8N-SLi Premium / 2GB Corsair XMS PC3200 Dual Channel Kit - Bundle (BU-027-OK)

you're not interested in opinions, so I won't tell you what improvents can be made to this system but you're right its a good sytem, if a little expensive

 

[Juicy]

Thanks for the ideas. Not to be completely set in stone, I will of course check out the potential of the x1900. My allegence is not to any particular vendor. Yet.

My main concern is this is going to explode my credit card. It is a LOT of money, which is why I'm trying to make sure it'll all work (as much as you can, anyway)...

The benefit of the bundle being 'proven' is, I guess, why I'm paying up in that respect. Too many mistakes made with the old compatability.

Again, thanks for your thoughts

 

[badbob]

If you want a reliable HD ditch the Maxtor.
Also if you're doing a lot of multi-tasking change CPU to dual core. I take it you have the rest of the gear and you're upgrading a system?
What PSU do you have?

 

[semi-pro waster]

It should all be compatible although as mentioned you are probably paying slightly over the odds for it to be a bundle and the X1900XT-X is the better card by far, if you can't afford that then either an X1800XT or X1900XT is well worth the money.

Also do you have a suitable PSU for the system? i.e. ATX 2.0 compliant and 450w+ preferably.

 

[Juicy]

Think the (GX-113-SP) -
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1900 XT-X 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express)

Would cut the mustard, so to speak?
Again, interested in known compatability really.

 

[DaveBennett]

If you want to save a little, dont buy it as a bundle, just buy all the same things on its own. You dont save much but you might aswell.

 

[Webzta]

3700+ is a much better choice, if you are overclocking, you will easily be able to goto 4000+ speeds and far above, as the recent steppings have been awesome. I Dont think the 4000+ is worth the extra money, it's near on £100 more....

 

[benjo]

If you want to save a little, dont buy it as a bundle, just buy all the same things on its own. You dont save much but you might aswell.

lol, i checked that and they come to the same price

 

[Juicy]

hehe, yeah, I did the same maths. I was surprised actually since bundles normally save a little.
I guess it's just so you know they'll work together for hardware 'noobs' like me

 

[ACESHIGH]

I've got the following system lined up:

BU-027-OK (Bundle) £510.95
GX-009-BG (Geforce 7800 GTX 256) £346.57
HD-089-MD (HDD - maxtor 300Gb) £88.07

Basically, I'm not too interested in opinions in what I should get differently. I've done my research and I will be pretty happy with the resulting system.

My only question is one of compatability. The bundle should take care of 80% of the worry, but my last Geforce was so incompatable it hurt. Any thoughts on this?

cheers

The bundle is good & the HDD is fine, but the X1800XT is generally quicker than the 7800GTX & right now a fair bit cheaper too ...

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) £276.07*Including VAT


If you want to keep the same price then get the even quicker ....
Connect3D ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (3056) (GX-047-CO) £346.57*Including VA

Either card will work fine with the rest of your gear.

IMO Nvidia cards are overpriced considering their lower performance at present.

 

[Juicy]

I did some reasearch into the x1900. I'm quite impressed.
Although the see-saw will always swing back and forth, I am content to spend the extra £20 or so for the x1900 XTX. (special offer, woot!)

So that's the order placed. I'll post my 3dmark scores when I get the rig sorted if anyone's interested.

 

[Juicy]

As promised.

3dmark 05: 10352

Not bad

 

[ACESHIGH]

Very nice score !!