Building a new computer... looking for opinions.

[nick1985]

Originally posted by: Literati

Originally posted by: nick1985

Originally posted by: hans030390

Trust me, I dont have the link, but an article on SM3 clearly said "at this time there's no sense in buying an ati card." They just dont have Sm3, so don't be fooled by their nice price.

:roll: sounds like a BS article.

I was kind of put off by the lack of citation in that too.

Anyways, I apparently opened pandora's box looking for information on wether sm3 is actually relevent enough to persuade a purchasing decision.

Boy, I wish I knew what I was getting into before I got knee deep in this stuff.

Anyways, looks like I will be up on an all nighter completely analyzing what I should choose and why.

*puts on a pot of coffee*

Starting here...

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview...atid=31&threadid=1547736&enterthread=y

[edit]

Also I wanted to go with an all MSI/nVidia system in the first place.

MSI has been nothing but absolutely superb to me, and I've had more than enough problems with my ATI 9800 256 pro, to make me faithfully admire nvidias neighborhood for some time.

Let's see what comes of this.

you are only shooting yourself in the foot by only buying from certain brands

 

[Literati]

In general, I agree.

But, unless you can somehow convince me that I am making a bad decision, I will remain convinced through personal experience, that I am not missing out on too much by sticking with MSI.

 

[n7]

Don't be deceived by fanbois like hans030390.
If you look in video, 90% of his posts consist of "Don't get an ATi card; get an nVidia card cause it has SM 3.0" :roll:
Pure BS, since 99% of games don't need SM 3.0 right now, & it's gonna be a few yrs. before most games need SM 3.0.

BTW, i had a SM 3.0 card, the 6800GT, before i switched to my current X850XT PE, & nope, i don't feel like i'm missing out cause i don't have SM 3.0.

Also, you cannot run 3x512 MB of RAM on a s939 platform.

You can run 1 dimm, 2 dimms, or 4 dimms.

If your budget is tight now, get a single GB dimm now, & add a second GB dimm later 🙂

 

[Literati]

Originally posted by: n7
Don't be deceived by fanbois like hans030390.
If you look in video, 90% of his posts consist of "Don't get an ATi card; get an nVidia card cause it has SM 3.0" :roll:
Pure BS, since 99% of games don't need SM 3.0 right now, & it's gonna be a few yrs. before most games need SM 3.0.

BTW, i had a SM 3.0 card, the6800GT, before i switched to my current X850XT PE, & nope, i don't feel like i'm missing out cause i don't have SM 3.0.

As far as I can tell right now... SM3 seems to be the future, although the x800 xl seems to currently beat out the 6800gt in tests.

But I assume I'll have a tight budget in the future, so I'm not so sure I can make a yearly upgrade, and although taking a small performance hit now, might enable me to continue playing games on the same setup for a little longer.

Originally posted by: n7Also, you cannot run 3x512 MB of RAM on a s939 platform.

You can run 1 dimm, 2 dimms, or 4 dimms.

If your budget is tight now, get a single GB dimm now, & add a second GB dimm later 🙂

Nice catch!

It's been years since I upgraded anything, and because of that, out of spite, I refused to care about the developements of new computer technology.

Cut off my nose to spite my face, and now I just look funny! 😛

 

[ElFenix]

didn't i read something that said sm3 performance is so slow that its faster to emulate all the effects using sm2?

 

[Literati]

Ok, I've settled, or maybe my brain just fizzled, but I'm going to go with the 6800GT I think.

I'll take a slight performance hit to increase my chances of future compatibility since I don't see myself hitting the lotto and being able to do yearly upgrades any sooner than now.

 

[Literati]

Originally posted by: ElFenix
didn't i read something that said sm3 performance is so slow that its faster to emulate all the effects using sm2?

Possibly, who the hell knows.

People act like 1 fps and the shine on a beatles back from 4907234 yards away will make or break a games playability.

I'm gonna go 6800GT because it makes me feel warm inside.

 

[n7]

Get the Leadtek Winfast 6800GT since you are going that route.

Simply awesome HSF 😉

 

[Literati]

That thing does look impressive!

Hey thanks for your input on this.

 

[Literati]

It's gonna be go time soon enough, so get in your suggestions, pot shots, neffing or trolling while you can!

 

[Literati]

So yea, I had my new setup for awhile now.

It's pretty l33t!

Thanks for the input noobs.

 

[Gadzookie]

Antec LifeStyle SONATA II Piano Black Steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case
450Watt SmartPower 2.0 ATX 12V V2.0 Power Supply - Retail 109.00

AMD Athlon 64 3200+ Venice 1GHz FSB Socket 939 Processor 190.00
EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard 95.00
CORSAIR ValueSelect 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) System Memory 106.00
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6L200S0 200GB 7200 RPM 16MB SATA Hard Drive 91.00
NEC Black 1.44MB 3.5" Internal Floppy Drive 8.49
NEC Black IDE DVD Burner Model ND-3540A 39.99
Leadtek PX6800GT TDH Geforce 6800GT 256MB GDDR3 PCI-E Video Card 295.00

Total 934.48

thats all you need 🙂 i went with one 1 gig stick of ram so it will be easier for you to upgrade later 2 gigs
it will be slower then running two sticks of 512 mb ram in dual channel mode but you wont notice a difference 😛

 

[l Xes l]

x800xl is much better bang for the buck than 6800gt... and dont buy WD harddrive... i just lost all of my data.. 🙁