Best System?

[eXx08]

I am new to building computers this will be my 1st one is ther anything i need to kno that would mess me up if i didnt?

 

[Muscles]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Originally posted by: Muscles
ATI sux imo and would rather spend the extra on the nvidia 6800GT but that's me. Plus I'm all about the quake series which is OpenGL and Nvidia rapes ATI in that category. There are quite a few OPENGL games coming out that are highly anticipated like Quake 4 and Prey that use the Doom 3 engine. So if you're the least bit interested in those games like I am I'd stick to nvidia.

The 6800GT is definitely not worth over $100 more over the X800XL.

Maybe to you it isn't worth it but there's no question it's MORE than worth it to me and some others. I'm a hardcore gamer and videophile so I want the most performance I can get in my favorite games.

 

[eXx08]

i am a big first person shooter fan so in that catagory is ATI or Nvidia better?

 

[KoolDrew]

Ok now i will go back to nvidia and get SLI right now i will only get a 6800Gt but in the future i will purshase another 1. I will get the Asus A8N-SLI

SLI is a waste and the idea of spending an extra $100 just to get an SLI mobo with the idea to add another card later is just stupid. Do you really think 2 6800GT's in SLI would outperform a single card once it comes the time to upgrade? No they definitely would not. Just get a X800XL, a Chaintech VNF4 mobo and save about $200 bucks without losing any performance at all.

Don't waste your money on SLI.

 

[eXx08]

Do you have this motherboard?

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
Do you have this motherboard?

No, but it is a very nice mobo. It is even in Anandtechs buyer guides all the time. Do you really think anandtech would put a crappy mobo in their buyers guide? The Chaintech is a great board at a great price.

 

[eXx08]

I might get that board although dual LAN and firewire would be a nice feature what would be a good board for that

 

[SrGuapo]

The chaintech is an excellent board. The only complaints I've seen were with the earlier models lack of an active chipset cooler and poor OCability. Since you do not plan on OCing, this isn't a problem. The newer models also come with a fan cooled chipset, so no worries.


Edit: Here's what I would get: Chaintech mobo, 3500+ venice (if not OCing), Corsair value, X800XL


If you even do minor OCing, even 400MHz (not difficult, even on stock voltage) I would recommend a 3000+ and OCZ value VX, and the DFI Ultra-D. That RAM will run 2-2-2 at 250 MHz with the voltage that mobo can support. It would probably be qaroin d the same price for the RAM and mobo upgrade since you are dropping the CPU as well.

 

[eXx08]

What about a GIGABYTE GA-K8N Ultra-9 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
I might get that board although dual LAN and firewire would be a nice feature what would be a good board for that

The EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra has firewire and is a good board.

 

[KoolDrew]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
What about a GIGABYTE GA-K8N Ultra-9 Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

:thumbsup:

 

[eXx08]

I take it you like that board?

 

[eXx08]

I take it you like that board?

 

[KoolDrew]

Yes, it is a good board.

 

[Muscles]

Originally posted by: thekillerjks
i am a big first person shooter fan so in that catagory is ATI or Nvidia better?

NVIDIA without a doubt. Nvidia cards, the 6800GT especially outperform ATI cards by quite a big margin in all OpenGL based games. This means any game using the old quake 1-3 engines or the new Doom 3 engine. The 6800GT is about even in performance for d3d games so to answer your question the clear choice at least for me is Nvidia. I've owned a lot of nvidia and ATI cards and I build systems on a regular basis for clients and I really like Nvidia over ATI. While ATI does make great hardware, I still firmly believe their drivers blow in comparison to Nvidia's.

As far as the motherboard is concerned I think you'll do just fine with the chaintech since you're not an overclocker.

 

[The Pentium Guy]

Heh. You guys are confusing the OP .

Splurge the extra $100 on the 6800GT if you can afford it, but if you can't the X800 is defiantely the way to go, similar performance for a lesser price. The chaintech is a good budget motherboard if you're not overclocking. If you've got a grudge against Chaintech for whatever reason, the ASUS A8N-E is a good choice (but you gotta get Firewire), as well as the Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 (but there's only 1 IDE, 1 SATA, and 1 floppy cable included)

 

[KoolDrew]

Splurge the extra $100 on the 6800GT if you can afford it, but if you can't the X800 is defiantely the way to go, similar performance for a lesser price.

You even said yourself "similair performance for a lesser price." So spending $100 more for basically no performance gain at all (except in some games) makes no sense at all.

 

[fstime]

Stick with the Asus motherboard.

I'm not a fan of the chaintech anyways.


Get the OCZ 520 Powersteam, its a 24 pin psu which is a MUST for the NF4 motherboards.

I would also get the GT.

Its faster in OGL, and offers SM3 and softshadows.

If your buying the current gen, there is no point in getting a SM3 card.

Get the DX9C 6800GT, and OCZ 520 PS.

 

[t3h l337 n3wb]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew
SLI is a waste of money, get Corsair Value Select, get a NEC burner and I would get the X800XL since it performs similair to the 6800GT yet is $100 cheaper.

 

[KoolDrew]

Stick with the Asus motherboard.

And why is this? The ASUS he chose is an SLI mobo which is just a complete waste of money.

Get the OCZ 520 Powersteam, its a 24 pin psu which is a MUST for the NF4 motherboards.

And this is just completely incorrect.

I would also get the GT.

Its faster in OGL, and offers SM3 and softshadows.

Why does everybody bring up feuture sets such as SM3? Feutures like that do not justify an extra $100 cost. Especially when they make no difference at all.

If your buying the current gen, there is no point in getting a SM3 card.

Good job contradicting yourself...

 

[fstime]

And why is this? The ASUS he chose is an SLI mobo which is just a complete waste of money.

Thats your opinion, i'd rather have the option to be able to SLI in the future then not to be able to SLI.

It may be a waste of money to you but isnt to someone else.

Who the hell are you to tell someone its a waste of money,

Can you play at 1600x 4aa/8af or 1920x smoothly?

SLI will give you a 50% boost in performance if it is not cpu bottlenecked.

quote:

Get the OCZ 520 Powersteam, its a 24 pin psu which is a MUST for the NF4 motherboards.



And this is just completely incorrect.

Well maybe it is on the Asus motherboard but on my Ultra-D it is true.

I may be wrong on this but cards without an external power connector such as the XL draw their power from those last 4 pins.

Why does everybody bring up feuture sets such as SM3? Feutures like that do not justify an extra $100 cost. Especially when they make no difference at all.

Ok, go out and buy an ATI card that has a 2003 feature set.

NV cards have DX9C support, ATI cards dont.

Do ati cards give you soft shadows or HDR?

If you buying a card this late, I would get somthing that would run better in the long run.

But hey, you can go buy your SM2 card and watch the Nvidia cards take off once games start using SM3.

Quake 4 should also run nice on the NV cards, same with all Doom3/OGL based games.

If your buying the current gen, there is no point in getting a SM3 card.



Good job contradicting yourself...

Well, im sorry, it was a typo.

 

[KoolDrew]

Thats your opinion, i'd rather have the option to be able to SLI in the future then not to be able to SLI.

Ya, because 2 6800GT's in SLI would really outperform a single card when it comes the time to upgrade :roll:

 

[fstime]

Originally posted by: KoolDrew

Thats your opinion, i'd rather have the option to be able to SLI in the future then not to be able to SLI.

Ya, because 2 6800GT's in SLI would really outperform a single card when it comes the time to upgrade :roll:

SLI is not meant to be future proof.

If the OP wants to SLI 2 cards in the future he can..

Currently SLI will give you the best performance,

I dont think you can argue against that..

 

[eXx08]

I do think i will be doing SLI because you are right about upgrading in the future. I will also now go with the Asus A8N-SLI. This board has many features that will come in handy in the long run including Dual 10/100/1000 Lan. Also it includes firewire and a ton a features that I may not use but still will be nice.

 

[eXx08]

I also will go with a Nvidia 6800GT Card.