Is this a good deal on a P4 system?

[amol]

Originally posted by: Sc4freak
Wouldn't an X850XT PE be much better than the 6800Ultra if its for Half-Life 2 and CS:S?

yeah, but if Doom3 is in the pic, 6800ultra is the way to go

personally, i wouldnt get a 6800U, but a 6800GT . . . save some $$

 

[housecat]

yeah i like HL2/CSS best. but honesty, looking at the benchmarks, the 6800s are the way to go, you get shader model 3.0 (whether its useless or not), and you get killer Doom3 ENGINE performance (Quake 4 baby!)
and you get really really really good HL2/cSS performance.

and i'm only worried about good CSS FPS, cuz its competitive.. and its much easier on a video card than HL2 anyway.

i run DX7 mode in CSS to get max performance. and prob will on this machine. i cant have ANY drops at all, and only care about killing faces. that is all.

 

[amol]

hmm, well the thing is, i dont play D3 and i wont play Q4, so the engine doesn't matter to me . . .

thats why i'm sort of leaning to the X800XL

 

[housecat]

either way, cant go wrong.

i just want shader model 3.0 as unreal engine 3.0 is supposed to REQUIRE it.. !!
whether thats true or not, i want to be ready.


and the doom3 engine performance is phenomenal.. i'll have q4 on launch day for sure.

 

[amol]

all that matters to me is that the card last me until 2007 or 2008

 

[housecat]

in all honesty then, i'd go with the geforce.

i prefer geforce anyway for other reasons.. but you'll want SM3.0

esp with that unreal 3.0 engine news.


im like you, i hardly upgrade ever... once in a great while. i'm going from a 1700+ to a 3000+ A64


BTW, I am also doing my purchasing right now.
We will have to compare 3000+ overclocks.

I'm getting the SLI setup too..

all for under $1500(!)

phenomenal when you think about it.

hehe and most is video cards. sad at the same time.

but i hope to pull fx55 or near speeds out of this 3000+, if it dies oh well, cheap to replace. and once dual core is here in '06.. again there wasnt much initial investment in the processor.

 

[scruffles]

pentium has it's downsides but don't forget when comparing that pentium could be overclocked pretty well too. I'm running a 3.2E in a shuttle with the stock ICE cooling system and i'm running at 3.606ghz off of value ram. It is nice to have that pentium also when your ripping and encoding dvd or other movie formats. The Pentium handle it like a pro.

One thing that may be swaying my judgement is that it's currently about 65 degrees outside and I jsut like it for the heat.

: )

 

[stevty2889]

I'd go with the AMD sytem and 6800GT. I have a 3.4ghz prescott running at 3.8Ghz, and it runs at a toasty 70-72c under load, with a Thermalright XP-120 and artic silver 5, so anything less and it would very likely be throttling. Plus the 6800GTO in the dell, is not a real 6800GT.

 

[housecat]

i thank everyone for their input.. im goign with the a64 3000 rig with sli GTs.

i'll be sure to be posting pics/benchmarks in the near future.