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My first build - choice of two cards...

dgowenlock

dgowenlock

dgowenlock

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Joined
16 Sep 2007
Posts
36
Just finished choosing all the bits for my first serious build, as shown below:

ocukbo6.jpg


The only bit left is the graphics card, and after loads of research, I’m completely torn between these two:

£80 - OcUK x1950 Pro 512MB
(Saves me money and still be a lot better than my current Radeon 9800pro)

£176 - OcUK GeForce 8800GTS 320MB
(Much better performance and more future proof)

I am running a resolution of 1680x1050 on XP, and will want to be playing CS:S as well as other new-ish games. This will all be powered by a Seasonic 430W PSU. That gonna be enough power?

What do you guys reckon? 8800GTS going to be enough for Crysis or just save my £££ and get a better DX10 card later?

Thanks in advance!
 
I'd get the 8800GTS 320MB since the 2900Pro is likely to use quite a lot of power still and the Seasonic only outputs 280w over the 12v rails which is only just enough for a 8800GTS 640MB.

power%20consumpt.png
 
ACESHIGH said:
Preorder the 2900PRo. Looks like an awesome card & you get the HL2 black box as well.
Click to expand...

Never pre-order anything. They take your money now (including the charge for a next-day delivery) and don't send you a card for ages. I've never seen a (r)etailer yet that gets the launch dates right.

And I would wait for some proper reviews before buying anything new.

If you must buy now, get the 8800GTS as it's a known quantity and it's at least twice as fast as the 1950Pro. It has some chance of playing the new games next year.
 
Thank you for all your comments, I can't afford a new PSU right now so that puts the 2900 pro out of the question. If I have enough money after everything else I'll go for the 8800GTS, if not, the x1950pro.

I can then upgrade to better GFX and PSU when I get Vista, and DX10 games are more common.

Cheers everyone :D
 
dgowenlock said:
Thank you for all your comments, I can't afford a new PSU right now so that puts the 2900 pro out of the question. If I have enough money after everything else I'll go for the 8800GTS, if not, the x1950pro.

I can then upgrade to better GFX and PSU when I get Vista, and DX10 games are more common.

Cheers everyone :D
Click to expand...

What make of PSU do you have just now?. You'll need about 26amps on the 12v rails just for the x1950pro.
 
dgowenlock said:
The Seasonic S12-430W I have delivers 29A over the two 12V rails. (link below)

http://www.seasonic.com/pdf/datasheet/01PC/S12.pdf

The X1950Pro recommends 30A on 12V (link below)

http://ati.amd.com/products/radeonx1950/radeonx1950pro/specs.html

This should be OK right?
Click to expand...

Aye, that should be fine.

My X1900XT overclocked runs with my overclocked CPU and RAM, my 2x SataII HD's, my X-Fi sound card, my DVD burners, my 2x 120mm fans and 3x 80mm fans on this PSU http://www.xoxide.com/purepower.html. :D Oh, and 2 UV lights too.

I can even push it further, as well as my RAM but my air cooling isn't up to holding this CPU at load over 2.8Ghz.
 
Ended up going for:

Gigabyte DS3R
Intel E6600 2.4Ghz 1066FSB
2x1GB PC6400 Geil Ultra Low latency Ram
OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS
SATA hard drive and DVD drive

Boy I can’t wait for the parcel to arrive! :D
Thanks again everyone
 
I wish you well in your new system and the overclocking of these beasts :D.

Is this on next day delivery?.
 
All arrived and built, but damn it doesn't work.

On boot I get just a blank black screen - no post, no nothing.

Any ideas anyone? Tried all the usual (removed everything thats not needed and trie with only 1 ram stick)
 
What sort of nothing? Do the power led and fans come on?

I'm not familiar with gigabyte motherboards, but it'll either have a little LED display that shows a hex error code or it'll beep on startup. Look up your motherboard manual for details of what those codes/beeps mean.
 
Last edited:
Power LED, PSU fan and CPU fan all on, but nothing on the display. No beeps unless I remove graphics card and then one long beep (which is expected as it means graphics error.)

Both Oc and Gigabyte has suggested its a dead board, so RMA it is :(
 
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