Need help with a choice that is driving me nuts!

[Dark_Angel]

Insane levels are rising fast here in my head!

Ok here is what I want to buy:

OCuk 2GB 6400 RAM £146
Asrock 40
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro £127
Akasa 400W 24pin £40
Conroe C2D E6300 £115
DVD writter £20

(prices are rough, I am getting a few bits from competitors too, simply because I need some things now, like the DVD writter as mine has died )

Not bad right? a few rough bits here and there, but not bad. But, wait, whats this. The shiny new 8800GTS giving me the eye and saying to Me "come on, you know you want to buy me, think of the shiny new features and rip roaring FPS!

So, here is what I am thinking, I roughly have a budget of 600 pounds at the moment, but am thinking of keeping my current X800XT and grabbing a 8800GTS in a few weeks after I buy the rest of my system, and saying sod the x1950 Pro.

Here are my reasons (I want people to be brutal here, am I just finding reasons to buy the card, or am I giving good/decent reasons?)

1. I ahve a 20" widescreen monitor, and like playing at 1680x1050 with AA/AF. I HATE turning down details in games, and it would virtually break my heart to turn down details on a game when I just brought a 150 pounds GPU.

2. It's more future proof. Well kind of, its DX10 for a start, ignoring that though, its around twice the spped as the x1950 Pro, so that means it will last me a bit longer? (till maybe the R600???)

3. I have had a 9800 Pro and a X800XT and been very happy with ATI, but I fancy a bit of a change, I currently own AMD, and moving to intel, it would be nice to try the dark side (or the light side, depending on your perspective).

4. Quite simply, I love new stuff, though the x1950 is not "old" tech, its certainly older than the 8800GTS.

So there you go, what do people think? save up longer and just grab the 8800GTS or be more conservitive and grab the x1950 Pro?

I will be getting the parts around the 15 of Jan, though obviously it will be more like feb for the 8800TS if I decide to wait and buy that, My X800XT isnt that bad at the moment, I am playing thru some games (like never winter nights 2 and a few others) at decent resolutions (1366x768) but really want to max everything...

Thanks for all that read all of this post, and may you impart some knowledge upon my confused brain

 

[thefishdude]

ok normally i would say get the pro get the pro you dont need any more its a waste. BUT you are using a bigger screen and as you like max detail i think you going to need some more horse power. the GTS will deffinatly give you that. also you mentioned will be feb before you save up for gts. well the new ati 600 will be pretty close to release then lol sorry dint mean to give you more questions in ya head lol. but with your monitor you will need the faster gfx option out of the two you mentioned.

 

[Lolcb]

If you are planning to get a GTS, I would get a beefier psu.

Btw, I do recommend you getting GTS if your budget allows it.

 

[thefishdude]

If you are planning to get a GTS, I would get a beefier psu.

Btw, I do recommend you getting GTS if your budget allows it.

good point dint notice the rest of his spec. yep worth getting bigger psu for the bigger gfx.

 

[Dark_Angel]

good point dint notice the rest of his spec. yep worth getting bigger psu for the bigger gfx.

I havent purchased any of the stuff mentioned above yet, so really its all up in the air so to speak.

Currently running an Venice @ 2.7GHZ, 1GB 3200 RAM, and a nforce 3 AGP motherboard.

What do people think of grabbing Conroe, PSU, Ram, M/B now, then in feb kind of time, upgrading the GPU? surely there will be some previews of the R600 then, so maybe the 8800GTS will go down?

All these choices, makes me want to stick to the 360... no wait... it dont

*EDIT*

What kind of PSU do I require for the 8800GTS

 

[Lolcb]

500W from a good reliable brand is all you need. But I would go for 550-600.

 

[thefishdude]

i think that could be a good idea. the gts may go down a bit in price. or the new ati may tempt you lol.

besides you can allways build *** rest and then if you fed up waiting stick in a new gfx,

as for the psu if you arnt going to be running 2 gfx in sli at any time then a corsair 520 shoudl do ya.

 

[EffBee]

You can't go far wrong if you get the mobo, processor, processor cooling, memory and power supply(too high rather than too low). Build it up. Get the OS and system config working. Video and audio can be slotted in later at any time with minimal disruption. Just be sure you know whether you want sli, crossfire, ide, legacy ports (Parallel, serial) before you buy the mobo.

For what its worth I just built a new system for my eldest lad - Using a (very quiet) HIS graphics card 1950xt "silent" version for £200. He can easily play games like oblivion at 1024x768 with everthing maxed out. (Green with envy!) Half life 2 stress tests run at 150 fps and more. The 8800 cards are probably more than twice as powerful as this little HIS card. But they cost more than twice as much too. DX10 is irrelevant for now. Its all about gameplay not tech stats.

I'm starting to question the drive to ever bigger displays. Given a choice between all eye candy turned on (Smaller screen) vs massively expensive graphics card and larger screen vs less eye candy and not so expensive graphics card and larger screen ... which way to go?

 

[Nutbusta]

You can't go far wrong if you get the mobo, processor, processor cooling, memory and power supply(too high rather than too low). Build it up. Get the OS and system config working. Video and audio can be slotted in later at any time with minimal disruption. Just be sure you know whether you want sli, crossfire, ide, legacy ports (Parallel, serial) before you buy the mobo.

For what its worth I just built a new system for my eldest lad - Using a (very quiet) HIS graphics card 1950xt "silent" version for £200. He can easily play games like oblivion at 1024x768 with everthing maxed out. (Green with envy!) Half life 2 stress tests run at 150 fps and more. The 8800 cards are probably more than twice as powerful as this little HIS card. But they cost more than twice as much too. DX10 is irrelevant for now. Its all about gameplay not tech stats.

I'm starting to question the drive to ever bigger displays. Given a choice between all eye candy turned on (Smaller screen) vs massively expensive graphics card and larger screen vs less eye candy and not so expensive graphics card and larger screen ... which way to go?

Both. Deffo max detail as it's playing the game the way it was meant to be played (my words, not NVidia's), I've just tried a demo of a games called comdemned or something and when I turned round, my shadow extended it's gun arm and scared my gusset brown

Bigger screens just amplify this effect and make it more immersive. High res is important as "jaggies" are harsh on the eye, cause distraction and drag you out of the game world.

Proud owner of an old but gold Mitsubishi 22" monitor (cost £567 from OcUK)

Put it this way. I couldn't play Doom3 with volume up and lights down. I'm just far too much of a mincer