Importance of Direct X10ness & Other Questions

petmitt

petmitt

petmitt

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Joined
4 Jan 2007
Posts
2
Hulloes folks,

I haven't properly upgraded my PC in a long time - probably four years! However, my GF4 died a few months ago and I've been running on a 'classic' TNT2 Ultra since then!

From reading these boards I was thinking of doing a build from scratch (just keeping my case and optical drive) and purchasing a Core2 6300 with the Gigabyte DS3 as the mobo.

However, I could save myself a few quid and buy an ASROCK instead:

this

What are people's experiences with that board? I know the Gigabyte is the one to use for overclocking, but is it reliable? There seems to be quite a few people having issues with them.

Next issue is the graphics. I hands down cannot afford the new GF8800 series, but was considering:

a) ATI 1950

or

b) BFG GF7900

What would be the best out of the two? ATI card seems to have a lot more pixel shader processors. Does that make it the better card?

I'm also wondering whether it would be a good time to upgrade. Direct X10 is coming out, so if I bought one of the above cards, would I find it obsolete within a year? I could wait a few more months I suppose.

Finally, does anyone local to Stoke-on-Trent know of a good place to sell electrical stuff? I bought a XBOX 360 1.5 months ago, but I need to raise funds for new PC. The local paper 'The Sentinel' charges a fortune to list stuff and I don't really like Ebay because I would like someone to view it in person - removes a lot of hassle.

Thanks in advance,

Petmitt
 
I will basically say this:

Asrock boards are GREAT BUT, and a BIG but, they aren't so great when overclocking, and don't offer quite the performance as say the DS3.

You could if wanted to save around 12 pounds, get the S3 (also by gigabyte) which is basically the same as DS3 but without solid state Compacitors.

As for the GPU, the X1950 is better.

Moving on about DX10, I am personally buying a X1950 now, and then when DX10 is more known and vista is more standard (by march or april) I will consider the new DX10 cards.
 
I have a DS3 and I must say its a brilliant board. I don't know much about the ASRock apart from the fact that it is a good board but is NOT good for clocking. I am assuming that with you buying an E6300 you are going to want to clock it nicely, you wont be able to do this as well if you chose the ASRock over the DS3.

With regards to DX10 I agree with Dark_Angel, I'm not personally going to get a dx10 GFX card until vista becomes more popular and more dx10 releases are available, and alos the x1950 is better value than the 7900 as far as Im aware, although the 7900GS is also a good budget card. I currently have a 7600GT but then again I'm only running in 1024x768 resolution so it's more than adequate for my needs :)

Also if you are a gamer, then give this a read :)

http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/2007/01/05/the_best_gaming_video_cards_for_the_money_uk/

Kiz
 
Thanks for the quick responses guys.

Will Direct X10 only be available for the Vista OS?

I use Vista at work, and I'm not very fond of it. Give me XP or 2000 anyday over it. To be honest, I prefer an OS to be as simple and straightforward to use as possible. I don't desire it to have fancy graphics and I certainly don't want it to be a memory whore heheh!
 
Not at all DX10 GFX cards are available now, the main thing with DX10 is the fact that Vista supports DX10 and many of the new games coming out in the future e.g. UT2007, Crysis are all going to use DX10 :)
 
Yes DX10 will only work with Vista. Basically, the entire Kernel had to be written from the ground up just for VIsta.

DX9 will work with Vista though, so if you have a DX9 card there is no need to be concerned.
 
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