New System / DX10 in mind / Please advise / Best for the $$

[vitiris71]

Hi Guys I am a avid WoW fan and play alot but I am sure that other games will come around that really hit my system hardcore with requirements. I play Fear also.

I have been bouncing off many systems and cant make up my mind, I see the reviews on Toms and have a hard time not trying to restrain to get a Geforce 8X with DX10. Can someone explain is there hardware requirements with the Geforce 8X's? Is there mobo's that dont support DX10? or is it useless to go with a GF8X with anything less than X processor etc?

Basically what I am looking to do is put a pretty decent kick a@# system together for a good price and be happy with it for a 2-3 years. I am trying to keep my system good and will even consider for now the GF7X series because its a great improvement over my 6600gt AGP that I have now on a p4 3.2 800fsb.

I am looking at good system with a 6300+ core 2, a decent MOBO, I dont need anything really good just a solid system built on xppro, with a good CPU / good memory / Best bang for the $$ graphics card.

Please help, I have been bouncing off barebones systems to lan machines, like shuttle / biostar etc...

My budget not to exceed 800-900$

Thanks

 

[rodney_ws]

Well, your budget makes it next to impossible to get an 8800 as either card would blow over half your budget... because you have an AGP system it's safe to say that you won't be re-using your memory so you'll need that and of course a new PSU to drive the 8800... so I think you need to either give up on that idea or expand your budget.

About the small form factor PCs... no way in hell an 8800 card would fit into one of those... and that's probably for the best because a card with that kind of heat output would instantly turn one of those little cubes into an oven.

 

[vitiris71]

Ya based on the prices It seems 500-600$ for a GF8X is about right, So with that in mind I am sure I could pickup a really good 7800gs or something PCIX to go with a new system that would probably be really good for a couple years.

I know the GF8X is totally worth the money, but I just cant right now spend 500$ on a single graphics card, maybe ill wait and upgrade to one down the road.

unfortunately with my last system I put together a good AGP 8x, and like 2 months later PCIX came out any chance Ill put together a PCIX 16 system and a new standard of PCIX will come out? pcix 32? or something new that will once again make my entire machine obsolete?

So with that said,

How about a REALLY good system with the best graphics not completely going crazy with a 7800x/7900X serious GF? I am sure that would keep me satistified for atleast a year or so.

Thanks for your replies.
Chris

 

[rodney_ws]

Don't dare consider a 7800 series card... the 7900 series is better and is almost always cheaper. Hop over to www.newegg.com or www.zipzoomfly.com and check 'em out... the 7900GS, 7900GT and maybe even the 7950GT could fit within your budget. And don't limit yourself to NVidia... ATI has that 1950 that everyone here seems to rave about... so you've got plenty of good options to get you going.

 

[yas]

This is what I would recomend:

intel core 2 duo E6300 - $180
gigabyte DS3 - $130
1 gigabyte 667mhz DDR2 ram - $130
Antec Sonata 2 (with PSU) - $100
ATI 1950 pro - $200

That brings you to $730 but I dont know whether you have a: PSU, case, HDD and OS. Definately go with the 1950 pro, it is much better than the 7900GS. You may want to go with the E6400 to get higher clock speeds.

 

[rodney_ws]

Since this guy still has you under-budget... consider a 2nd GB of RAM if you're really into gaming.

 

[vitiris71]

Can you please explain the clock speed difference of the 6300 / 6400? is that a multiplier? difference? or a FSB diff?

Also, I have heard alot about not having enough power, for some Graphics cards, right now my case is 420 W thermaltake, but I am starting to think its not going to cut it.

What would min power for a ATI 1950 be?

If i want to consider going to a GF8X in the future, what would the minimum power be?

Thx
Chris

 

[yas]

The E6400 has a multiplier of 8 while the E6300 has a multiplier of 7 which means you can reach higher final clock speeds with a lower FSB.

 

[vitiris71]

Anyone know the power requirements for a

ATI 1950 or a GF8000X?

 

[yas]

Use this site to calculate how much power you will need:

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

 

[vitiris71]

Ok, So iam gonna completely blow my budget, merry christmas to myself early present.

I bought a new case, and a 700W OCZ PSU,

Now I am going to buy a C2D 6400,

But I am not sure which MOBO i want to go with.

I was thinking that I might want SLI for future growth but I am probably gonna go with a 8000X so a 8000X in SLI would own all.

My confusions is the different types of SLI standards

570SLI, 4SLI, 6SLI.

This was the original recommendation to stay under budget.

intel core 2 duo E6300 - $180
gigabyte DS3 - $130
1 gigabyte 667mhz DDR2 ram - $130
Antec Sonata 2 (with PSU) - $100
ATI 1950 pro - $200

I was curious about the Mobo choices out there, why a Gigabyte was chosen.

What about Intel based boards? or a Asus board.

I found so really good deals on newegg. and wanted opinions on them.

1. ASUS P5NSLI Socket T (LGA 775) NVIDIA nForce 570 SLI Intel Edition ATX Intel Motherboard - OEM