Building New PC.

[jmc]

Friend asked me to assist him, on building a new gaming PC. $2,000 max price range, so can go for some serious things here.

We already come through with some stuff he wants to do, including dual-8800 in SLI.

So here are some devices he is going to purchase shortly.

Case: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6811129021

Video Card: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6814130318
(2 of these, better suggestions?)

Processor: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819115043
(I told him, most programs wont use the quad core...but he wants a quad core.)

Memory: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6820227267
(Wants x64 version of windows....so wants to order 2 of these for 8 GB of memory)

Hard Drive 1(Primary): http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6822136012

Hard Drive 2: http://www.newegg.com/product/product.a ... 6822136151

Power Supply: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6817182097



Anyone have any advice on a Mobo for this? Something that supports SLI, and supports 8 GB of ram would be nice.

Any other advice on different things to replace would also be very helpful.

Thanks

[Cephius]

Looks good, but you could probably back down on the power supply a bit. 950W is overkill, you could get away with a 750 most likely.

[Vertabreaker]

Yeah, looks nice. Just like mentioned above lose the 950 and go with a 750. A 750 will push that no problem.

[jmc]

anyone got a good idea for a Mobo?

[Vaplade]

I don't pay much attention to what's going on w/ Intel motherboards, but my guess would be one of the nForce 700 series boards, if he can fit that into his budget.

[mootsfox]

If you haven't bought it yet, I'd wait another week for the GTX260/280 and the HD48 series to be reviewed. They are supposed to be 30-50% faster than the current stuff. Even if it isn't, the prices on the 8800GTs will drop within the week.

[Snowknight26]

Hold off for about a week then get the new Radeon HD 4850 instead of the 8800.

[Skyylya]

screw radeon, get the new gtx 280 or 260 when it comes out as it will be the top of the market by a longshot and not all that much more expensive or like he said. It'll reduce the prices of other stuff before long.

[mootsfox]

screw radeon, get the new gtx 280 or 260 when it comes out as it will be the top of the market by a longshot and not all that much more expensive or like he said. It'll reduce the prices of other stuff before long.

Yeah because buying a $700 GTX280 for 30% more performance than a $200 HD4850 makes a lot of sense...

Nvidia is losing this round, unless they can lower prices, which they probably won't be able to much (GTX280 is said to cost ~$200 for nvidia to make)

[Cephius]

Honestly unless you have a Nvidia or ATI board and are deadset on doing SLI or Crossfire, there's no reason to swear off one brand. Both have ups and downs. Be smart and evaluate cards based on their performance not the brand!

[Skyylya]

screw radeon, get the new gtx 280 or 260 when it comes out as it will be the top of the market by a longshot and not all that much more expensive or like he said. It'll reduce the prices of other stuff before long.

Yeah because buying a $700 GTX280 for 30% more performance than a $200 HD4850 makes a lot of sense...

Nvidia is losing this round, unless they can lower prices, which they probably won't be able to much (GTX280 is said to cost ~$200 for nvidia to make)

Wait, I typed that up before reading who even wrote the first post...

So at first you say to buy the gtx260/280 when it comes out, and when i agree with you, you disagree with me?

Way to make sense.

Sure 2 cards for $500 to get near a single card solution that costs $600 (Probably will drop fast) and sometimes beats it isn't a bad idea. Of course you have to have a more expensive motherboardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard with Crossfire support, you also need a more powerful power supply to handle the additional cards. Your computer will then draw more power, costing you more money on your electricity. Your case will also run hotter, possibly hurting and OCing performance on your CPU or GPUs.


So actually you are going to spend just as much money on your Crossfire solution when a single card solution is just simpler. For an extra $50 get a good aftermarket cooler on your single card solution and OC it.


And once these cards launch and nVidia sees that the ATI cards are pretty close to the GT200 cards, they prices will fall accordingly.

pulled this off toms hardware and it's pretty right on. The gtx 280 is > than the 4800 as it takes 2 x 4800 to get the same performance. Granted the 4800 is cheaper but the fact that you need to run it crossfire to get the same performance and all the other stuff you need to run crossfire you're not really saving any money in the long run.

So yeah imo one 650$ card is better than 2 cards for 500$ which cost more to run.

[Vertabreaker]

anyone got a good idea for a Mobo?

This is what I use with my quad core and I love it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6813188024

[mootsfox]

screw radeon, get the new gtx 280 or 260 when it comes out as it will be the top of the market by a longshot and not all that much more expensive or like he said. It'll reduce the prices of other stuff before long.

Yeah because buying a $700 GTX280 for 30% more performance than a $200 HD4850 makes a lot of sense...

Nvidia is losing this round, unless they can lower prices, which they probably won't be able to much (GTX280 is said to cost ~$200 for nvidia to make)

Wait, I typed that up before reading who even wrote the first post...

So at first you say to buy the gtx260/280 when it comes out, and when i agree with you, you disagree with me?

Way to make sense.

Sure 2 cards for $500 to get near a single card solution that costs $600 (Probably will drop fast) and sometimes beats it isn't a bad idea. Of course you have to have a more expensive motherboardhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motherboard with Crossfire support, you also need a more powerful power supply to handle the additional cards. Your computer will then draw more power, costing you more money on your electricity. Your case will also run hotter, possibly hurting and OCing performance on your CPU or GPUs.


So actually you are going to spend just as much money on your Crossfire solution when a single card solution is just simpler. For an extra $50 get a good aftermarket cooler on your single card solution and OC it.


And once these cards launch and nVidia sees that the ATI cards are pretty close to the GT200 cards, they prices will fall accordingly.

pulled this off toms hardware and it's pretty right on. The gtx 280 is > than the 4800 as it takes 2 x 4800 to get the same performance. Granted the 4800 is cheaper but the fact that you need to run it crossfire to get the same performance and all the other stuff you need to run crossfire you're not really saving any money in the long run.

So yeah imo one 650$ card is better than 2 cards for 500$ which cost more to run.

Well, I just said to wait for them to be reviewed, and the GTX280 showed that it's overpriced crap.

The HD4850 is $190 to $200, so it would be $400, not $500. I believe two of them would also use less power than the monster that is the GTX280. Every P35 board can run crossfire (although in 16/4 or 8/8) and X38 boards are in the $175 range now. Since you'd probably spend $250 for a 780/790i with that GTX280 anyways, I think Crossfire would be cheaper.

I dunno if you've seen some of the TDP figures for the GTX280, they are downright scary. The performance of a next/current gen card for the price just sucks with the GTX280. $650 does not justify it getting the same frames as a GX2.

I didn't mean to sound like a jackass and I kinda talked myself in circles with those posts, sorry. Based on the latest week of information (as this stuff changes daily), I'd say to go with either two HD4850's or wait for the HD4870x2 and hope that the GTX260 doesn't suck for it's $400.

[mootsfox]

And then there are still issues like Nvidia refusing to support DX10.1, while ATI has a card out for what, six months now that can do it. Nvidia pays a lot to work with game developers to make their cards run better in certain games. Even with that Nvidia is having trouble keeping up with ATI in any price/performance categories.

It's charts like this one that make me think of the GTX280 as a POS:

http://media.bestofmicro.com/G/M/110...l/image004.png

If your flagship card is bested by the flagship of your previous generation I'd say you did something wrong. Not to mention that the HD3870X2 is $300 and beats it half the time.

[Skyylya]

And then there are still issues like Nvidia refusing to support DX10.1, while ATI has a card out for what, six months now that can do it. Nvidia pays a lot to work with game developers to make their cards run better in certain games. Even with that Nvidia is having trouble keeping up with ATI in any price/performance categories.

It's charts like this one that make me think of the GTX280 as a POS:

http://media.bestofmicro.com/G/M/110...l/image004.png

If your flagship card is bested by the flagship of your previous generation I'd say you did something wrong. Not to mention that the HD3870X2 is $300 and beats it half the time.

See I guess my problem is that i'm not one of those price/performance folks that adhere's to the fact that a couple hundred dollars (while it's a lot of money) makes one card 'better' than another.

My point is that it takes 2 ATI cards to equal the performance of 1 Nvidia card. Cost aside you cannot say that ATI has a better card than Nvidia.

The 9800 is not better than the gtx280, or 260 for that matter cause it still takes 2 of them.

If you're going price/performance than sure the ATI might be a better deal for you but also keep in mind that speed is not everything when it comes to visual's on the GPU. That one gtx280 still runs better on high resolutions than your two ATI's as the ATI is more of a low-end budget type card. Where-as Nvidia makes a higher cost, higher end card that performs better.

Run the two cards side by side, 1 vs. 1 or if you're going to do crossfire, do is vs. an SLI setup, not 1 vs. 2 and say that the 2 cards barely eeking out the 1 card is better.

Price/performance =/ superiority of card.

Edit: Also note that the ATI only beats it running low settings on the higher resolution (and only by .2 mind you) But when you put on the AA and run at high settings the gtx280 demolishes the ATI.

[Snowknight26]

Those are old cards. The new batch based on the RV700 is either about to be released or will be soon.
The 4850, 4870, and 4870X2 will just completely own NVIDIA's latest cards (GTX 260 and 280).

[Skyylya]

I think i've read that even the newer ones when run 1 v 1 aren't as good, you still need 2 cards to beat the gtx280.

I'll try to find it and put it on here. Most of the reviews i've read are saying that while the ATI chip can be faster it's only at lower settings where-as the GTX chip runs high settings better.

[Snowknight26]

The 4850 is faster than the GTX 280 at low resolutions, but the GTX 280 is way better at higher resolutions/when AA is on.

However, with that said, wait till the 4870 and 4870X2 are released.

[mootsfox]

ATI has been known to have better image quality then nvidia since the Raedon 9xxx series. Games like Assassin's Creed with DX10.1 support look noticeably better when using an ATI card over an Nvidia one.

You can't take cost out of the picture unless you are building a PC with no budget and don't care at all about the price. The HD4850 may not be as fast as the GTX280, but it's also 1/3 of the cost! To the majority of hardware buyers, price/performance is a much more important factor when buying then outright performance. Just look at how well the 8800GT sold (and is still selling). It's far from the top in terms of performance, but the price/performance of it beats nearly everything at the moment.

tl:dr - Yes the GTX280 is currently the fastest. No, you shouldn't buy it unless you have $5k for a computer.

[mootsfox]

Sorry to double post (again) but I just found this article.

http://techreport.com/articles.x/14967/1

Remember that the HD4850 is still the weakest of the HD48xx series. The HD4870X2 is going to do some rapage.