What Motherboard and CPU to buy?

If you decide to go with a next gen card (like the geforce 8800 or radeon X2900) or an sli setup you will need to upgrade the PSU. That being said it should be ok for now. While HEC is by no means the worst PSU manufacture they are not the best either. When you replace it look for a PSU from onr of the following; Antec(avoid smart power 2.0 series), Enermax, FSP, PC Power & Cooling, Seasonic.

Here are some recomendations:

systems with next gen non sli cards:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104022
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194001
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104014
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341002
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104023
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817104033
http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=S61EPS

Recomendations for a system whit two next gen video cards (sli or crossfire[crossfire would require a new motherboard]):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817341006
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817194019
http://www.pcpower.com/products/viewproduct.php?show=T1KWSR

the high end next generation cards (8800GTX and X2900XTX) suck down about 300w each so If you have two of them you will need alot of power (remember you need enough left over to power your other system devices aswell).

hey thanks for that list, im gonna just upgrade my graphics card to a temp for now, and ill upgrade my Mobo, CPU,PSU and Graphics card later this year

im going for a BFG 7950 GT OC as a temp, do you recommend i take of the fan that comes with it, and change it to something better? becuase iv read on a review, the standard fan on that card is loud, all though my whole pc is loud, so doubt it'll make much of a difference.

I'm running a 7950 gt oc, hate to think. I'm running a temp. Not gonna but g80 gtx, especially when 9 series cards are in the making

Connect3D Radeon X1900 XTX

hey, just bought a new graphics card, a Connect3D Radeon X1900 XTX 512MB, but its a OEM, just wondering, what i need to get it working for when it arrives, and where to get it from?
will option 1 from here have all the drivers i need?
http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonx-xp.html

or do i also need option 3 from here

http://ati.amd.com/support/drivers/xp/radeonxip-xp.html

thanks

Option 1 will do the trick. But you will also need to download the .NET Framework package from here. Also, have you bought a new PSU as well? That will be needed for the card.

I would suggest keep your current system, until AMD/ATI releases their R600 GPU's, and if you really want the "BEST" system, money can buy, if money's not an option, than I would suggest you to wait until AMD releases there new CPU's later this year, thats if they don't delay them again. But having a very fast Quad Core processor, and maybe two high end R600 GPU's, with atleast 2-4GB or RAM, you are looking at some serious power. It will even make the Xbox360 and PS3 look like a commodore 64.

But if your in a hurry, than i suppose you could get a core 2 duo, and two G80 GPU's. But I would say patience is worth it at the end.

He already bought it, so no point in giving advice then methinks.

so my current power supply will not be enough for this card then?

the 320mb 8800gts is a very nice card for ~$310 US so if your willing to spend that much then i'd go for it.

Ur current PSU is good enough methinks but I'd get a good-quality one to be on the safe side. This PSU is a good one.

hey, out of the folling PSUs which is the best?

http://www.corsairmicro.com/corsair/HX_power_supply.html

http://www.thermaltake.com/product/Power/ToughPower/W0131/w0131.asp

thanks

The stock fan on BFG 7950GT OC is painfully loud when you start anything remotely 3d (even Xfire usually triggers mine). I'd say if you are going to have the card for more than 3 months, get an aftermarket cooler. Best one would probably be an Arctic Cooling NV Silencer 5, followed by Zalman VF900 cu.

Oh whoops I just saw that you bought a X1900XTX I guess this post is unneeded.

The best PSU of those is the Corsair. Corsair makes high quality everything. Basically if somethings from Corsair you can expect it to last.

lol thanks anyways, what do you think of the x1900xtx im getting as a temp, will it let me play all my games at 1440x900 at max settings?
isnt that card basically a X1950XTX but with GDDR3 ram instead of the GDDR4 ram?

Yes the X1900XTX will be able to do that just fine. I have two of them, and they rip through any game at 1280x1024 without any problems.

so i would need two of them to play games maxed out at even 1280x1024?

LOL no one card can do it quite well on it's own. I was just giving you an example of the performance you can expect. Check out TS's own review of the card here. It pretty much wipes the floor with the competition.

lol thanks, getting worried there, do i need to connect this directly to my PSU or will it take the power from the PCI-E slot?

and wow, Rage_3K_Moiz, took a look at your profile,and your system kicks ***, big time, nice

Yes it needs two 4-pin connectors (the ones that give power to the HDDs etc) with a 6-pin PCI-E adapter for additional juice from the PSU if it doesn't have a PCI-E connector. For a PSU that does, just plug-in the 6-pin connector and all is well. And about the system, thanks, it's taken a lot of cash and hard work to build.

yeah think i can spare two of those, if not, ill just unplug one of the HDD(80GB) which isnt used for anything.
yeah i imagine it would cost a bundle, when i get a job, i hope to scrape together enough cash to build a monster pc like that, but im not sure about watercooling, never used one before, so dont know how id get it all working, and i dont have any room for a mess up, as water and pc components dont go together all that well.
how about i just shove an air conditioning unit over the case?

300W each my ***. They go just a shade past 225W each (the threshold for needing 2 PCI-E power connectors, since each one provides 75W and the PCI-E slot provides 75W) under absolutely 100% load, which almost never happens for extended periods of time. They usually stay at about 95% when playing very intensive games.

Wow, I never noticed your system before... hell 4GB RAM :stickout: you crazy guy