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milkinc13 · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:34

i'm planning on getting the "MSI K9N Platinum nForce 570" can someone give me an idea of a good card in the sub £175 price bracket. I will be using it for some gaming, but the most taxing game I currently have in NFS most wanted, and watching DVD's.
Any hadvise would be appreciated

Thanks
Phil

locutus12 · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:37

X1800XT @ £130
X1900XT @ £170

your choice but they are the best bang for buck at present.

semi-pro waster · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:41

Do you already have an AM2 CPU? If not then you might be as well considering an Intel Conroe CPU as they offer better performance and prices than AMDs offerings right now.

locutus12 is right about the graphics cards(nb the X1900XT is a 256mb version, not that it affects it much) so nothing really to add beyond asking if your PSU is good quality also?

milkinc13 · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:43

about to buy a new PSU, so am looking at around a 400w one which should offer enought power for what I want

locutus12 · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:43

stick with AMD, youl go to heaven and puppy`s will lick your face. if you go with Intel youl make baby Jesus cry.

if you want a good PSU, look at the akasa 400 watt pax power. im powering all sorts off it here including an X1900XT Xfire master 512mb.

milkinc13 · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:45

locutus12 said:
stick with AMD, youl go to heaven and puppy`s will lick your face. if you go with Intel youl make baby Jesus cry.

lol I am sticking with AMD, currently have an AMD system, and very happy with it, only problem is that it's sck 939 which is slowly dying out

BillytheImpaler · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:45

locutus12 said:
stick with AMD, youl go to heaven and puppy`s will lick your face. if you go with Intel youl make baby Jesus cry.

Jesus will cry because you just pwned him with your quicker framerate and decreased lag.

locutus12 · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:49

milkinc13 said:
lol I am sticking with AMD, currently have an AMD system, and very happy with it, only problem is that it's sck 939 which is slowly dying out

nah, not dying out, true production is stopping/ has stopped. but the scope of CPU`s available makes the platform viable for at least the next 12 to 18 months.

so far ive gone from an Athlon 3000+ 939, opteron 146, opteron 148. next cpu will be in 4 months, going for an X2 4400 or an opty 165.

all these silly people scrapping perfectly good rigs to get 5 frames more in games and complete a superPi 1mb calculation in under 22 seconds... :rolleyes:

milkinc13 · 18 Sep 2006 at 16:57

i'm not doing it to get better games results, i'm doing this as the card I currently have is AGP. i've had this system for 3 years and staring to show it's age, by the time I spend out on a faster HDD,(currenty using IDE and going up to SATA) and with everything else it's cheaper for me to start again from scratch, which is what i am doing

semi-pro waster · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:03

locutus12 said:
all these silly people scrapping perfectly good rigs to get 5 frames more in games and complete a superPi 1mb calculation in under 22 seconds...

Or because there is a very limited upgrade path(FX60 is as fast as it will ever get) so in some cases it makes sense to change to something with a greater potential to upgrade. What about the silly people who keep changing their CPU for a fairly minor and incremental speed boost(A64 3000, 146, 148 etc) rather than the relative jumps available changing socket - Mr Pot meet Mr Kettle

Anyway what if I don't want to go to heaven and have mutts licking my face?

I did think about putting a caveat in my first post to the effect that you wouldn't agree that Conroe was a good idea but basically since you need to change to DDR2 to for to AM2 unless you have a special reason for choosing AMD then it is difficult to justify, especially given a Conroe 6400 will equal or beat an X2 5000 in almost everything. I'm not a fan of Intel, particularly in regard to their business practices but I'm also pragmatic enough to accept that sometimes they will be the best option, I've got no intention of upgrading in the near future unless I come into money or start gaming seriously again but hopefully by that time AMD will be competing on a par again.

locutus12 · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:09

semi-pro waster said:
What about the silly people who keep changing their CPU for a fairly minor and incremental speed boost(A64 3000, 146, 148 etc) rather than the relative jumps available changing socket - Mr Pot meet Mr Kettle

the difference being it didnt cost me a penny to upgrade those... i made more off the venice 3000 than i paid for the opty 146, and the opty 148 cost me £5

A3000+ would clock to 2.5Ghz max
opty 146 would do 2.65 max
opty 148 is now doing 2.95Ghz, which gives me the power i need to get the most from my X1900XT<--- freebie from OCUK

semi-pro waster said:
Anyway what if I don't want to go to heaven and have mutts licking my face? I did think about putting a caveat in my first post to the effect that you wouldn't agree that Conroe was a good idea but basically since you need to change to DDR2 to for to AM2 unless you have a special reason for choosing AMD then it is difficult to justify, especially given a Conroe 6400 will equal or beat an X2 5000 in almost everything. I'm not a fan of Intel particularly in regard to their business practices but I'm also pragmatic enough to accept that sometimes they will be the best option, I've got no intention of upgrading in the near future unless I come into money or start gaming seriously again but hopefully by that time AMD will be competing on a par again.

as ive said too, intel chips, there good chips, its just a pity the company uses business tactics akin to that of Mr Murdoch.

semi-pro waster · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:22

locutus12 said:
as ive said too, intel chips, there good chips, its just a pity the company uses business tactics akin to that of Mr Murdoch.

I know you agree the chips are good but I suspect we will never agree that they are worth buying, my level of pragmatism tells me that if/when I come to upgrade my PC again that if Intel offer the best (by more than a couple of % anyway) I will buy them because in this regard at least my dislike for the companies business practices is not strong to make me disregard them as a potential option. You can call it not having firm enough principles if you like, it won't affect me sleeping at night

I was mainly joking about the CPU upgrades although I am surprised it cost you so little, interesting to hear your views on what happens when you purchase Intel again anyway

locutus12 · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:28

semi-pro waster said:
I was mainly joking about the CPU upgrades although I am surprised it cost you so little, interesting to hear your views on what happens when you purchase Intel again anyway

im running out of orgininal ways to warn people of the evils of intel... :rolleyes:

but just so you know, its not just intel I dislike, there are a few huge companys out there that just do terrible terrible things to get their own way and in some cases are single handedly responsible for destroying and costing people their lives, Intels not quite that bad lol, but i do not like how they conduct themselves and so i dont buy Intel, ive never sold an Intel based pc to any one in the last 10 years

milkinc13 · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:36

looks like i've started an argument, sorry guys

semi-pro waster · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:38

milkinc13 said:
looks like i've started an argument, sorry guys

Nah, don't worry about it for a second, this is more or less a running joke between us. I don't take it seriously and I doubt very much that locutus12 does either

locutus12 · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:45

semi-pro waster said:
Nah, don't worry about it for a second, this is more or less a running joke between us. I don't take it seriously and I doubt very much that locutus12 does either

bah! i hate you! die!

please dont, i will feel guilty as sin lol...

milkinc13 · 18 Sep 2006 at 17:56

that's a gd sence of releif then. sorry to be aquard, about this, me current card is Nvidia 6200 256, which I no isn't powerful but it's a lot better than the card which came with the system which was an ATi 9200SE, it was so rubbish I couldn't run NASA windworld, and that isn't very graphics intensive.

locutus12 · 18 Sep 2006 at 18:05

p.s.

semi-pro waster, just in case you were curious,

sold the A3000+ for £70 3 months ago, bought opty 146 from MM for £60, sold opty 146 2 weeks ago for £60, bought opty 148 for £65

so i guess technically its cost me nothing to upgrade from A3000+ to opty 148

will stick here for a couple of months then move a little further up and continue to do so untill K8L comes out for AMD... they should have gone with K9

semi-pro waster · 18 Sep 2006 at 18:15

milkinc13 said:
that's a gd sence of releif then. sorry to be aquard, about this, me current card is Nvidia 6200 256, which I no isn't powerful but it's a lot better than the card which came with the system which was an ATi 9200SE, it was so rubbish I couldn't run NASA windworld, and that isn't very graphics intensive.

You aren't being awkward at all, if you want to go for AM2 then someone can help but I'm just pointing out that Conroe is faster in most cases and as cheap or cheaper. Anything would be a huge jump for you though so go with whatever you want.

Cheers, locutus12, you appear to have done pretty well out of your upgrades since you have effectively made £5 profit changing up through the CPUs

milkinc13 · 18 Sep 2006 at 18:26

after looking at cards i've chosen the "Connect3D ATI Radeon X1800 XT 256MB" all I need to do is not lost the VGA to DVI connector as i'm still using a CRT

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