What Motherboard and CPU to buy?

[_FAKE_]

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.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

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

 

[deeps1987]

....Also, have you bought a new PSU as well? That will be needed for the card.

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

 

[HPCE_Larry]

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.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

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.

 

[deeps1987]

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

 

[MetalX]

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.

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.

 

[deeps1987]

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?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

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.

 

[deeps1987]

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?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

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.

 

[deeps1987]

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

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

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.

 

[deeps1987]

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?

 

[MetalX]

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 enoug left over to power your other system devices aswell).

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.

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.

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

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Yeah I kinda wanted to make it future-proof. Now if only the X2800XTX were to come out.....

 

[CMH]

those are true power hogs.....

I think I'll just sit back and enjoy the soon-to-be-mine X1950Pro...

 

[deeps1987]

hey guys, i got my X1900XTX and it is amazing, massive compared to my X1600pro but it easily fits into my case so it doesnt matter.
It takes up two slots on my case, which is also fine as im not using any other PCI-E slot.

I was playing FarCry at a res of 1440x900 with anti-alising at X6 and anistropic filtering at X16 no problem, never jerked or missed a frame, i was blown away by the performance of the card......but after 4 hours, oh my did it get hot. The extra case fan came on, its never needed to come on before, and the back, where the GPU fan slot is, it was emitting alot of heat....im getting worried.

My case has
X1 Fans (one over CPU heatsink and fan, chucking the air out of the side)
X1 at the back (the one iv never heard come on before, its 120mm i think)

and then the usuals

X1 GPU chipset fan
X1 Heatsink and Fan over CPU
X2 on stock PSU (im upgrading it now anyway, even though it seems to take the card pretty well,i dont trust it)
X1 on motherboard chipset

i dont want to go to water cooling if i need more cooling....help guys any ideas?
thanks

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

Get a new heatsink instead of watercooling, coz if you install it improperly then ur PC is liable to go down the drain (literally! ). The Arctic Cooling Accelero X2 is your best bet methinks.

 

[daddystabz]

A VERY nice upgrade would be to an Asus Striker Extreme motherboard with an Intel E6600 Core 2 Duo processor. This will of course require new RAM of the DDR 2 kind. This is an awesome gaming setup when paired with a single 8800 or with dual 8800s in SLI mode.

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

The Striker Extreme is not worth it IMO. [H]ardOCP has said here that the performance it provides is not worth the price and that other 680i-based boards perform a lot better for far lower prices. The same opinion was echoed here by X-bit labs. The E6600 and 8800GTS/GTX are good upgrades but need a lot of $$$, which not everyone is ready to spend. And dual 8800s are so much overkill it's not even funny. Not a rebuttal or anything to the above post, just my 2 cents.

 

[deeps1987]

thanks for the advice Rage_3K_Moiz, but im going to use an air conditioning unit to cool the whole case instead hope it works lol

another thing about my X1900XTX, i checked the clock speeds, and they say its 550 Core and 500 Memory? whats going? i overclocked it to normal speeds, and it works fine.....any ideas why it isnt stock speed?
thanks

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

It may be because the card is overheating. So the GPU automatically slows down to prevent any damage. And an A/C unit will cause more problems that it's worth IMO, since it will blow dust along with cool air into the case which might build up over time. But if u wanna take the chance, go ahead. The Accelero X2 is only $33 and provides excellent and quiet cooling without any attached problems, which is why I recommended it.

 

[deeps1987]

i just read some somehwere that the X1900XTX is designed to run at 110*c.
the GPU and memory speeds are like that even from boot up, cold. the card is fine for general use, it only heats up when playings games maxed out.
ever heard of this happening before?

 

[Rage_3K_Moiz]

You're seeing the clock speeds it uses in 2D mode to save power. The second you run a 3D app, the faster clock speeds will kick in. You can see for yourself by using any OCing app like RivaTuner or ATi Tray Tools and using any monitoring graphs they have. (I personally don't use them so I don't know but I'm sure they have some form of graph monitor(s). Feel free to google around ) Run a game for a while and then go back to the OCing app and check the logs. You should be able to see the difference for yourself.