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8800ULTRA

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Originally posted by: woolfe9999
So I'd save some cash on the CPU and go for a middle of the line C2D, then grab a quad core Penryn next year, when a lot more games will support it.
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You know, that's a pretty good idea if he's willing to do that. I sort of assumed that he wouldn't want to upgrade so soon after he bought his computer, but if he doesn't mind waiting then he could indeed get a fast Core 2 Duo for $150 or so and then upgrade to Penryn in a few months.
 
Seriously, That X-fi is junk for the price, go with the X-Fi gamer, save the money, SERIOUSLY GET THE BETTER MONITOR. Samsung 24 inch is SWEET.

You and I have almost the same build, We should really trade emails or something and talk about what we are doing, i will send you a Private message in this forums.

As for the CPU, its tops for the price, you don't need anything more. Get the GTX, be happy with it and then buy a better one in about 6-8 months and be happy with that. you monitor is where most of your gaming pleasure is going to come from. I have the Samsung 244t and about to buy the Sharp 32 inch 1080p hi def LCD for duel monitor. That sound card is truly junk atm. Dont waste the money on that, get a phat monitor. Your onboard sound is just fine, unless you are an audiophile like me, then you need to go to a pro sound card for about 400-500 US dollars.

now, about the motherboard. You basically have 3 choices at that level. The one you have listed, The ABIT P35, or the Asus P5K Wifi.
Gigibyte is very nice and kinda of for the serious overclocker. Its kinda of a tough board for the novice OCer
The Abit is simple and effective and the cheapest of the three, with less thrills, but really does a great job, OCing is a charm on this board
The Asus is in the middle of those two but has Wifi and is a tad more expensive.

These are only my impressions from TONS of research.
 
Originally posted by: MarcVenice
One last thing, state the site you are getting your stuff from?
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Everything I listed is from this site:

http://www.itestate.com.au/

I have found a few others where certain items are cheaper, but would prob end up spending more on petrol just driving to the different places than what I would save shopping at the one store (damn fuel prices).

As to buying a few cheaper parts (CPU etc.) and upgrading in a few months, I would like to do that but I really want to just get all at once and buy a new PC in about 10-12 months time (by then I will need a 3rd PC so it wont hurt getting something ok now and buying new then). If I was going to upgrade I would just upgrade the machine I am currently using and save a bundle....
P4 3.2gig
1g DDR
6600 standard
some POS Motherboard (PT880-pro-A or something)
Antec True 480w
Antec PlusView II (could be.... atleast thats exactly what it looks like, cant remember the name)

I would just upgrade the ram and vid card on that system if I wanted to save a bit, but I am looking for something that I will notice a difference with.

I might look at getting a nice 24" LCD the only problem is most seem around the $850+ mark which is more than what I want to spend.
 
http://www.itestate.com.au/

QX6600 $320
Gigabyte P35 DS3 $154
2x 500GB 16MB Samsung sata $143.00 (these drives are quite) or get Western Digital or Hitachi's 1TB for speed
Gaming CASE Antec Nine Hundred (200mm fan/no PSU) $170
2900XT 512MB XpertVision $489 or 8800GTS 640MB Sparkle (500/1600GHz) $495.00
LITE-ON LH-20A1P 20x Dual Layer $38

For keyboard and Mouse i suggest :

logitech mx518 (best logitech USB gaming mouse)
MX1000 (best wireless gaming logitech mouse)
Death adder (best Razor USB gaming mouse)

... also if your going why isn't G5 on the list because its crap :! i have own about 15 mouse gaming ;*( an addiction that has destroyed my gaming life.

Keyboard :
I use Microsoft Multimedia keyboard $20 : l love its because its keys are big and comfy but you logitech G15 is also good but don't like the keys size. Also don't fall for the LCD crap , LCD is good but you want a keyboard you can type with.


Ram :
Crucial Ballistix DDR2-1066 PC2-8500 MICRON 2GB

Get this 🙂 if your going to oc :! got the 2nd best micron chip you can get :! oC beast
http://www.extremepc.com.au/pr...b6734098b56e1f0e687b2c

If your not OCing then get any good ram ; )

Get a good PSU :! i don't which one is best because ain't looked at PSU for months but i think
http://www.extremepc.com.au/index.php?cPath=34_83
Enermax makes good psu :! but ask some one else for that !

Also don't get QX6800 or 8800U just because you have the cash unless you earn like 120K and have no responsibility then go ahead otherwise save the cash for future upgrade. Don't blow your 3K at once :! be a smart gamer not a dumb one :!

I am speaking from years of experience. IF you do end up buying a 8800U then be ready to be said in late October when G92 comes out and does some major whooping. They would a high end mid range 9800GT for $600AUD that would destroy your a 8800U :!
 
Enermax LIBERTY DXX 620 SLI is a good option for a PSU.

And nezzy, it isn't about going cheap or buying a few months later, it's about buying SMART. You can get ripped of so easily, buying so called 'performance' parts that cost twice the money, but barely give any extra performance. Especially when new parts are showing up in 2 months, for the most expensive part in your PC, the videocard. If it were 6 months ago, it's a no brainer, buy a gtx, now it's 2 months to go till new cards hit the market though.

If you can get a 2900xt for 495$ instead of a 8800gtx for 770$ then I would go for the 2900xt for sure.
 
I agree that 2-3 months doesn't seem like a long time but will a 2900xt hold me out on good quality, high performance gaming for 12 months, because even though I will be saving $280 in the short run, I will be paying around $1300 or more for 2 video cards that will last me x amount of time (I'm guessing 12 months before games come out that max settings will not be possible on a 8800GTX), for me at the moment its more about how long it will last.. if I end up spending $1300 on video cards within a 3 month period and they only last 12 months then I really should just go with my original of a 8800ULTRA, I really don't want to be changing parts within 3 months only to find out it will last me 9 months more before new games that cant run on max settings.

In other words I can spend $1300 that will last me 12 months or I can spend $770 that will last me 12 months and after that period I will be buying a newer PC then anyway.... I really don't know how long a GTX overclocked will last me but I'm guessing if Nvidia release once every year 2nd best, 2nd gen should last 12 months and by then I can wait 2 months for a new release... as it is the machine I am currently using has more than outlasted its usefulness according to the needs of most computer games... CSS runs too slow for my reaction speed and I am rather interested in the new game "Bioshock". 🙁
 
Hence I asked if you can use the stepup program from EVGA in aussieland. If you can, you can buy whatever the f you like, and upgrade to the next gen cards for little money. Price difference between an ultra and a 9800gtx shouldn't be that high, and the 9800gtx will surely last 2 years, whereas the 8800gtx or ultra is allready a year old.

One other option, that I personaly like best, is buying a 8800gts 320mb. Then sell it when the next gen cards hit the market and spend the big bucks. But spending big bucks now on a high-end card when it's going to be replaced by next gen cards seems like a big waste of money to me.

And you don't seem to understand how pricing, performance and such work. Cards costing three or four times the money of a other card don't perform three to four times better. It's called bragging rights. You pay exponentially more whilst the performance doesn't increase exponentially. The best bang for buck right now is around a 1950xt, or a 8800gts 320mb. It's better to buy 1 of those cards right now, and buy anoter similar priced card in a year. Since the 8800's are allready a year old, but their prices have stayed really high, we will see them decrease in value really fast when the 9800gtx comes out, as well as whatever ATI is releasing next. That's how it works.

It's like paying either 250$ for a q6600 at 2.4ghz, or pay 1000$ for a qx6850 or whatever at 3.0ghz. As you can see there is a 25% performance increase, but the price increase is 400% !!! Do you get it now ?
 
Originally posted by: Nezzy
I agree that 2-3 months doesn't seem like a long time but will a 2900xt hold me out on good quality, high performance gaming for 12 months, because even though I will be saving $280 in the short run, I will be paying around $1300 or more for 2 video cards that will last me x amount of time (I'm guessing 12 months before games come out that max settings will not be possible on a 8800GTX), for me at the moment its more about how long it will last.. if I end up spending $1300 on video cards within a 3 month period and they only last 12 months then I really should just go with my original of a 8800ULTRA, I really don't want to be changing parts within 3 months only to find out it will last me 9 months more before new games that cant run on max settings.

In other words I can spend $1300 that will last me 12 months or I can spend $770 that will last me 12 months and after that period I will be buying a newer PC then anyway.... I really don't know how long a GTX overclocked will last me but I'm guessing if Nvidia release once every year 2nd best, 2nd gen should last 12 months and by then I can wait 2 months for a new release... as it is the machine I am currently using has more than outlasted its usefulness according to the needs of most computer games... CSS runs too slow for my reaction speed and I am rather interested in the new game "Bioshock". 🙁
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You should know ATI cards always had a longer life than its Nvidia counterpart. the x1900xt is still able to play all the new games. Also if you run Bioshock in windows xp , the 2900XT is faster than 8800GTX since bioshock is a shader intensive game. ATI always comes out been seen as the slow card : X800XT , X1800XT , 2900XT ect but later on it becomes faster than its nvidia counterpart when driver tweaking starts to happen. Also ATI always supports it cards for a long time since they take for ever to release the next Update. So the 2900XT will be getting tweaked till R700 comes out and that will be Q2 2008. The people that suffer the most are the power 7950gx owner ;( because their driver support is shocking.
 
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