Please precheck my order

Scottie2004 · 12 Feb 2006 at 19:01

Hi, going to order this lot, would appreciate it if you could take a look over it and make sure I'm getting best bang for buck on all fronts. Open to suggestions on specific gcards etc. Going to be used mostly for gaming, needs to look good on the desk as well. Needs to be a complete system.

Thanks in advance;

COMPONENTS

Antec Sonata II Piano Black Quiet Case - 450W £82.19
AMD Athlon 64 3500+ Venice 90nm £133.89
Asus A8N-E nForce4 Ultra £72.79
OcUK Value 1GB (2x512MB) PC3200 £52.82
Zalman CNPS7000B-ALCU Ultra-Quiet £16.39
6800 GS £129.19
Samsung SpinPoint P HD160JJ 160GB £58.69
Samsung SM-913N £199.69
Logitech Cordless Optical Desktop £35.19
JBL Creature II 2.1 Speakers £59.34

Total £840.18

BigDom · 12 Feb 2006 at 19:04

Go for the SD 3700+ Proccessor.

Graphics go for an X850XT rather than the 6800GS.

Other than that looks decent enough.

Defcon5 · 12 Feb 2006 at 19:11

You may want a different mobo if your gonna be clocking.

Nice monitor, same as mine!

Larok · 12 Feb 2006 at 21:09

be wothwhile getting the OCUK 7800 gt, you could go down to the 3200 venice to keep the cost neutral.

Larok · 12 Feb 2006 at 21:11

perhaps get a single 1gb stick of crucil memory and run it single channel and upgrade to 2gig later if you want it.

ACESHIGH · 13 Feb 2006 at 06:14

BigDom said:
Go for the SD 3700+ Proccessor.

Graphics go for an X850XT rather than the 6800GS.

Other than that looks decent enough.

seconded

Scottie2004 · 13 Feb 2006 at 09:01

Larok said:
be wothwhile getting the OCUK 7800 gt, you could go down to the 3200 venice to keep the cost neutral.

How does dropping to the 3200 venice and saving around £10 keep the cost neutral, am I missing something on the pricings?

Scottie2004 · 13 Feb 2006 at 09:02

BigDom said:
Go for the SD 3700+ Proccessor.

Graphics go for an X850XT rather than the 6800GS.

Other than that looks decent enough.

Is the X850XT gauranteed to clock at the X850 PE Levels and does it support HDR?

Apatche64 · 13 Feb 2006 at 09:10

best bang for buck is the 7800gt atm, and the 3700+ a64. i'd also say look at the 2gb geil value ram, just be a lot better for games.

BigDom · 13 Feb 2006 at 09:13

Apatche64 said:
best bang for buck is the 7800gt atm, and the 3700+ a64. i'd also say look at the 2gb geil value ram, just be a lot better for games.

Actually that's debateable... the X1800XL matches it for speed ( if anything marginally faster) and is more overclockable... won't even go into the real bang for buck cards up in the £300+ range

Scottie2004 · 13 Feb 2006 at 12:42

I'm trying to keep a budget of aroun £850 so I need good value on the components. If the 7800 GT is such a good buy then should I sacrifice other components such as not puchasing the speakers?

Defcon5 · 13 Feb 2006 at 13:02

Scottie2004 said:
I'm trying to keep a budget of aroun £850 so I need good value on the components. If the 7800 GT is such a good buy then should I sacrifice other components such as not puchasing the speakers?

Whats the point of a higher frame rate if theres no sound to go with it?

Scottie2004 · 13 Feb 2006 at 13:41

Defcon5 said:
Whats the point of a higher frame rate if theres no sound to go with it?

Could easily get a cheap temporary pair of speakers for now or just use my 5.1 headphones if the 7800 Gt makes such a big difference.

One question about the X850XT, does the lack of shader model 3 make a big difference to latest games visual quality? Does it support HDR in HL Source?

ACESHIGH · 14 Feb 2006 at 04:22

Scottie2004 said:
One question about the X850XT, does the lack of shader model 3 make a big difference to latest games visual quality? Does it support HDR in HL Source?

The X850XT will in all likelyhood clock past X850XT PE levels, most do.

SM3 is not a big deal at all imo, not used extensively & there are always fallbacks for other cards.

From guru3d
"Is SM 3.0 technology a huge visual advantage over 2.0? Nope, not even the slightest bit."

Yes the X850XT does support HDR in HL Source.

BigDom · 14 Feb 2006 at 09:11

ACESHIGH said:
The X850XT will in all likelyhood clock past X850XT PE levels, most do.

SM3 is not a big deal at all imo, not used extensively & there are always fallbacks for other cards.

From guru3d
"Is SM 3.0 technology a huge visual advantage over 2.0? Nope, not even the slightest bit."

Yes the X850XT does support HDR in HL Source.

In fact the 850 works very well in HalfLife. If you going to raise the graphics level I'd go X1800XL over a 7800GT personally.