Head will Explode...Help with Spec

Trancer

Trancer

Trancer

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Joined
29 Aug 2003
Posts
174
Location
Wales
Im really going around in cirlces here, so really appreciate some help :(

This is what Ive come up with so Far:

Western Digital Caviar SE16 250GB 2500KS SATA-II 16MB Cache - OEM (HD-046-WD) - £75

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM) - £146

Not sure what graphics card to go for. Something between £150 - £200. ATI 1600 any good? or is Nvidia 7800 a lot beter?!? :confused:

Motherboard, I dont have a clue! I only need SATAII, Easy overclocking, Is it even worth going SATAII? Looking to spend about £60.

Cooling, again, no clue! only wanna spend around £15.

I will be using my existing 1GB PC3200 RAM

Therefore total spend about £450.

Please help me out guys
 
Good choice of HDD & CPU.

As for other bits..

Asus A8V-E SE VIA K8T890 (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-121-AS)
£56.34*Including VAT
Good, stable mobo with all connections you will likely need.

Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£17.57*Including VAT

PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC) £152.69*Including VAT
Best bang per buck card at present, imo.

HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X1600 XT ICEQ Turbo 256MB DDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (RX1600XT-256ICEQT) (GX-051-HT) £129.19*Including VAT
Good card for price. Slower than X850XT though.
 
Thanks! good suggestions. My concern is I want pixel shader 3.0 and the new technologies that the 7000 series has. Do any of the cheaper cards have this? The X850 for example?
 
no, onli the X1000 series from ATI support SM3, if u want a card taht support it got for 6800 or 7800

XFX GeForce 6800 XT Extreme Edition 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT42E-YDP3) (GX-071-XF)
Price: £114.95 (£135.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)
 
Runningkid said:
XFX GeForce 6800 XT Extreme Edition 512MB GDDR3 TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (PVT42E-YDP3) (GX-071-XF)
Price: £114.95 (£135.07 Including VAT at 17.5%)
Click to expand...

You are correct about the SM3 but I'd really recommend not going for the 6800XT, it only has 8pipelines and 512mb Ram is wasted on that card.

The 6800gs costs the same, has 12pipelines, overclocks well and has 256mb Ram which it can use.

If you are willing to go slightly over your budget then either an X1800XL or a 7800gt are worth the extra, both will cost you around £220. I'd probably pick the X1800XL as I think it is marginally the better card but there is really very little in it.
 
Yeah stay away from the 6800xt, as semi says the 6800gs is a nice choice and on this week only till about ... noon i think :D I also think the nforce4 chipset is superior to the via ones and would therefore choose another motherboard. It also doesnt support SATA II.
 
Last edited:
how about..

Gigabyte K8N SLi nForce4 SLi (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-040-GI)
Price: £54.95 (£64.57 Including VAT at 17.5%)
OcUK GeForce 6800 GS 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-034-OK)
Price: £109.95 (£129.19 Including VAT at 17.5%)
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
Price: £14.95 (£17.57 Including VAT at 17.5%)

Leaves you a little cash left over also ;)
 
Try this instead, I know its about £30 over budget but the DFI board is the best for overclocking, freezer 64 great cooler & 7800gt best vfm atm.

CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£124.95 £124.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£84.95 £84.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
GX-069-LT Leadtek GeForce 7800GT 256MB GDDR3 VIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-069-LT)
£184.95 £184.95
Subtotal £409.80
VAT £71.72
Total £481.52
 
Trancer said:
ok, so what does the 7 series have that the 6 doesnt?
Click to expand...

The 7x00 series has more pixel pipelines(20 compared to 12 on the 6800gs), more vertex shaders(7 compared to 6) and generally improved architecture.

The X1800XL has only 16 pixel pipelines but 8 vertex shaders, is faster at stock in most things than the 7800gt and will probably overclock better. AVIVO is also better if the video in or out is important to you.
 
semi-pro waster said:
The 7x00 series has more pixel pipelines(20 compared to 12 on the 6800gs), more vertex shaders(7 compared to 6) and generally improved architecture.

The X1800XL has only 16 pixel pipelines but 8 vertex shaders, is faster at stock in most things than the 7800gt and will probably overclock better. AVIVO is also better if the video in or out is important to you.
Click to expand...

The leadtek 7800gt is vivo aswell! And the x1800's not quicker, I thinks it's a myth. All the benchmark results I have seen for in game performance puts the 7800 ahead in all apart from BF2.

How about this revised spec? Unfortunately for your budget I don't think you'll be able to afford current gen gfx card like the 7800gt or the x1800xl unless you up the budget to about £530ish

CP-150-AM AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego 90nm (Socket 939) - OEM (CP-150-AM)
£124.95 £124.95
FG-000-AR Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket 754/939/940) (FG-000-AR)
£14.95 £14.95
MB-087-AB Abit KN8 Ultra nForce4 Ultra (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-087-AB)
£64.95 £64.95
GX-037-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X850 XT 256MB GDDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-037-PC)
£129.95 £129.95
HD-048-WD Western Digital Caviar Special Edition 200GB 2000JS SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (HD-048-WD)
£54.95 £54.95
Subtotal £389.75
VAT £68.21
Total £457.96
 
Monstermunch said:
The leadtek 7800gt is vivo aswell! And the x1800's not quicker, I thinks it's a myth. All the benchmark results I have seen for in game performance puts the 7800 ahead in all apart from BF2.
Click to expand...

I'm not questioning the fact that the Leadtek has VIVO, its just that the X1800XL has a better implementation in terms of image quality although that is probably subjective :)

Fair enough about the benchmarks, I haven't see that many tests but from what others have said and what I've seen it looks to be the better card although that is marginal as I said. Could you give me a link to the benchmarks please just to save me searching, sorry for being lazy :)
 
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