Help Me decide Graphics Card

[PraveenB]

Hi All,

I am trying to build my Desktop. This is first time for me. I am not a gamer. I am not planning to overclock. My primary use is for software development.

I bought ASUS P5k-E WI-AP, C2D 6600, OCZ 6400 4GB RAM and 500 GB Maxtor and Vista Ultimate. I bought some case from frys' which I don't even remember. It has 380 watts power so I belileve that would be enough. I use lot's of virutal machines so I am planning to install vista 64 on it with 8gb of RAM eventually. My questions are

1) What graphics card I should use? (Aero compatible is enough. Ofcouse 64 bit vista support. Guys I forgot to tell you. I am on really tight budget. I don't think I can spend more than a 100 on graphics card. )
2) Do I need to use any special cooling hardware?
(I would like my system to be silent. )
3) I heard that there are some graphics cards with native/passive cooling? What does it mean?
4) I saw some EVGA GEforce 7100 at frys' for $40. How do you rate it?

5) ONce the system is installed, how do I benchmark it? I will I know that the system I built is giving respectable performance?



Your help is greatly appreciated.

 

[o1die]

Passive cooled means no fan. Usually reserved for low end graphic cards. The 7100 will work fine, but I would go for a 7600gs or 1600pro if you can swing it. They run about $80-90. Your 380w power supply should be ok if it's an antec. Some of the other brands don't work so well. You'll just have to try it. For a quiet system, I use 120 and 140mm fans, and an rpm adjuster for the cpu heatsink fan. They cost about $7 at Fry's (Zalman fan mate II).

 

[The_Abyss]

Hi All,

I am trying to build my Desktop. This is first time for me. I am not a gamer. I am not planning to overclock. My primary use is for software development.

I bought ASUS P5k-E WI-AP, C2D 6600, OCZ 6400 4GB RAM and 500 GB Maxtor and Vista Ultimate. I bought some case from frys' which I don't even remember. It has 380 watts power so I belileve that would be enough. I use lot's of virutal machines so I am planning to install vista 64 on it with 8gb of RAM eventually. My questions are

1) What graphics card I should use? (Aero compatible is enough. Ofcouse 64 bit vista support )
2) Do I need to use any special cooling hardware?
(I would like my system to be silent. )
3) I heard that there are some graphics cards with native/passive cooling? What does it mean?
4) I saw some EVGA GEforce 7100 at frys' for $40. How do you rate it?

5) ONce the system is installed, how do I benchmark it? I will I know that the system I built is giving respectable performance?



Your help is greatly appreciated.

the 7100 isn't going to cut it for desktop in Vista with Aero. Get a passively cooled 8500 or 8600 if you are not bothered about gaming. Passive cooling means no active solution, i.e. fans which cause noise.

 

[The_Abyss]

Oh, and once again, this is the wrong forum btw.

 

[PraveenB]

Thanks for your prompt reply. My question is, since I don't play games, is there any vista 64 compatible passive cooling card which I can use in my sytem?

 

[The_Abyss]

Thanks for your prompt reply. My question is, since I don't play games, is there any vista 64 compatible passive cooling card which I can use in my sytem?

Nvidia 8500 / some 8600.

 

[PraveenB]

Seems to be expensive. Anything less than 100?

 

[The_Abyss]

There are plenty of 8500s under $100 in the US

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?Submit=ENE&DEPA=0&Description=8500

Pity us poor Brits who would be forced to pay out nearly twice that.

 

[enewmen]

I don't suggest passive cooling.
There are too many other fans in the case. The PSU fan, the CPU fan, etc.
So, I don't think you will even notice if a normal mid-range card is in there.
Just avoid 'Vacuum Cleaner' type video cards. Like the nV FX5900.

8 Gigs is a LOT of RAM. I run Vista Ultimate 64 with 2 gigs. I play Oblivion very smoothly and VM-Ware is no problem.
I might upgrade to 4 gigs for Crysis.

If you build a 100% slient PC, that's totally radical.

 

[PraveenB]

Thanks guys. You seems to have answered mostly on graphics card part. How about performance? Is there any tool which can check my system's health? How do I know whether the system I built is responsive with respect to the specs?


Any suggestions?

 

[enewmen]

Thanks guys. You seems to have answered mostly on graphics card part. How about performance? Is there any tool which can check my system's health? How do I know whether the system I built is responsive with respect to the specs?


Any suggestions?

Your requirements are very modest.
To get "Aero". Any 6600 GT, 7600 GT, x800 XT, x1900 Pro, etc with 256+ megs RAM is more than good enough. The 8600 GT falls in this category, has DX10 and HD video, but gets clobbered by other DX 10 cards.
Any of these cards on sale will serve you well.
That's the performance.

If you buy an Asus motherboard (for example), it comes with a PC monitor software that checks your hardware. The health checks has more to do with FSB clock speeds and various temperatures and speed RPMs.
If your case has good ventilation, free of dust, and you're not overclocking, correctly applied thermal paste, then you should never need to worry about your system temperatures.

As far as specs go, lets put this in perspective.
The requirements for Office 2003 is about a Pentium "1" @ 233 Mhz (MEGAHERTZ) and 256 megs RAM on Windows XP.
I think industrial strength UNIX System V version 4 requires only 8 megs.
So, ANY Conroe/X2 CPU with 2 gigs (2,000 megs) RAM and one of the above video-cards is MORE than enough for Vista Ultimate 64 and Aero and most kinds of software development (Visual Studio 2005, Flash SDK, SQL Server, etc).
This system described will serve you well for years.

 

[Naw-yi]

try Newegg and their "FireGL" lines, the offer multi-monitor output alone with memory interfaces from 128bit the 512bit. the other cards that you've been getting suggestion for are gaming cards.

 

[aevm]

Thanks for your prompt reply. My question is, since I don't play games, is there any vista 64 compatible passive cooling card which I can use in my sytem?

Nvidia 8500 / some 8600.

OK, you don't play games, but how about watching the occasional DVD, maybe high-def too?