GPU Questions

His budget is in Canadian dollars mate, and stuff there is far more expensive than in the US. A Core i7 920, a decent mobo and a good DDR3 6GB kit will eat up half of his budget easily.

i7 is also overkill for gaming. Games depend far more on a powerful GPU, and will continue to do so.

Indeed. Looking at the prices for those parts, most of them much more expensive from the newegg.ca website. The system looks really impresive, though. Thanks Klepto for the suggestions.

I'm curious, though. As far as gaming is concerned, is there a large performance difference between the phenom x4 and the intel quad core? Or will the GPU make most of the difference?

Also, regarding the motherboard that Rage posted, I'm looking at the specs and I'm not sure if I'm understanding it correctly. I'm under the impression that it comes with onboard sound and networking ;; am i correct?

The vista to win7 ugprade looks like it's only available to American residents, but that's fine. I'll see if I can get a copy from my University. *crosses fingers*

I'll keep an eye on these parts from different retailers. I'm tempted to just buy everything now (since the parts have discounts that end in august) but I'm not quite ready to dish out $1000 right away -_- would be kind of... too quick for me.

Thanks again everyone! You guys are awesome.

As I stated before, gaming is far more dependent on the GPU than the CPU. That Phenom II is no weakling either. I could have suggested a faster CPU like the X4 955, but that would have eaten into your GPU budget, which would have made for a far weaker gaming system.

You are correct. An overwhelming majority of motherboards come with those two options as standard nowadays.

I don't think that's true. Look here on how to order your copy of Windows 7. Canada is in the list, so I'm sure you can get yours. I don't see why NCIX would list it on their site otherwise.

Oh and BTW, you can buy the parts from NCIX's stores as well, if you have any near you.

Hm. Unfortunately, all the NCIX stores aren't in town for me =(

So I'm browsing around other sites for the GTX275. I never realized that the same card can come with differnet brands til recently. So much info.

I found the MSI GTX275 at Canada Computers, and it seems to be a good $30 bucks cheaper (and I can get their by car, so no shipping).

here are the links

Original XFX GTX275: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150387
MSI GTX275 @ newegg.ca: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127429&Tpk=MSI GTX 275
MSI GTX275 @ CC: http://www.canadacomputers.com/index.php?do=ShowProduct&cmd=pd&pid=023160&cid=999.243.390

The various sites I browsed mostly point to the lifetime warranty being the biggest factor for getting the XFX. Is the MSI product worth it? Will it break in less than 4 years -_-?

i wouldnt trust the msi cards man noy worth it imo just get an xfx or evga card

HI Klepto,
i have heard that a few times, what is it with the MSI cards?

I would avoid MSI mainly for the warranty. Build quality is okay, just a notch below that from XFX, eVGA and BFG, all of which provide lifetime warranties upon registration. XFX is unique for providing warranty coverage that covers the owner of the card and any person he\she sells it to.

You know, I guess I've been lucky, I've owned two MSI, two EVGA, two BFG and a Sparkle video card and never had the first bit of trouble from any of them. Same for motherboards, MSI, ABIT, and Asus, not problems. Come to think of it, I've never kept any of them for four years though.

Just bought a Sapphire video card, hope I have good luck with it as well.

Hey hey. Thanks guys, for the info. I think I might start picking up some of these items that have expiring promotions / mail-in-rebates. For the rest, I'll keep waiting . I managed to find most of them at local stores at comparable prices to newegg and ncix. Sweet!

@olefarte, Sapphire is a great choice. I doubt you will have problems. They, along with HIS, Visiontek and XFX (yet again!) are the best choices for ATI cards, especially since there are some ATI cards that Visiontek and XFX (both of which offer lifetime warranties) produce in very limited quantities (or not at all) like the HD 4670, making the Sapphire and HIS cards the only good choices in that case.

Their custom-cooler cards are especially fantastic; I personally prefer the HIS ICEQ cards over the Sapphire Toxic ones, but that is just me.

aha, very good, thanks Moiz

O.o, ICEQ card look like a normal card with a blue fan.

The ICEQ has dual heat pipes. The fan/heatsink cover does look the same though.

http://www.hisdigital.com/UserFiles/product/4870_iceq4pg_3_1600.jpg

the iceQ series does cool better than stock cards by like 10c so thats pretty nice imo

But with all the memory gremlins, and "non-futureproofness" of the Core i7 platform, I would go AM3.

(eh, reviving an old thread)

I have a question here regarding the CPU.

Rage recommended the Phenom II X4 810 2.6Ghz 95W processor. Does this mean that the processor takes up 95 of the 750W made available through the PSU?

I found a promotion for the Phenom II X4 945 3.0Ghz 125W processor for only a marignally higher cost. Would this other processor be compatible with the parts Rage suggested?

Thanks!

Hi matchu,
the Phenom II X4 945 will work with the GIGABYTE GA-MA770T-UD3P and will be quite a performance boost. and yes the wattage rating of the CPU is what you need you plan on when selecting a PSU. you will not have to up the PSU if you get the X4 945 if thats what your asking.