Motherboard-Video card, recommendations for the Athlon 64 X2 3800

[kuba]

Going to get an Athlon 64 dual-core 3800.
Recommendations for a mobo with a video card.
Gaming, not so hardcore but I play Delta Force and probably BF2 in the future.
Image editing/video editing - fairly heavy, especially photoshop.

What do you guys recommend.
Someone told me an all-in-wonder x1900
But I never really thought highly of them, so not sure here, thanks.

 

[drum]

ok need info. budget? what gaming resolution? never thought highly of what, x1xx series, ATI, AIW?

 

[kuba]

budget $900
Gaming resolution, no idea what you mean.
I never gave much thought to AIW series, I just thought they are/were video cards, for a broad spectrum of things and not specific to one thing. (make sense? lol)
I like ATI, but heard nVidia is good.
Was told to go PCI express and not sure if i wanna go the SLI route.

Thanks

 

[BloodTravis]

Go pci express but dont sli. it givs you onley a small percentege boost in video profrmince

 

[BloodTravis]

 

[jeffjones66]

I'd recommend the Gigabyte K8N-SLI and evga 7900 GT video card. The motherboard is only $93 at ZipZoomFly, and you can find a 7900GT for around $300 to $320. I have this combo along with an AMD64 3700+ and it's really powerful.

 

[BloodTravis]

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard - $92.99

eVGA 256-P2-N519-AX Geforce 7800GT CO 256MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - $349.00

On Newegg

 

[kuba]

what about this video card?
http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?sku=17948&manufacture=eVGA&promoid=1006

 

[Oyeve]

I recently went AMD and got the ASRock 939SLI32-eSATA2 with the X2 3800 and an eVga 7800GT. All for less than $650. System kicks a$$ and I can SLI with another eVga 7800GT and get even better performance. The mobo rocks and is very cheap pricewise.

 

[1N0V471V]

Motherboard: DFI LANPARTY nF4 SLI-DR

Video Card: eVGA GeForce 7900GT or 7900GTX

 

[kuba]

what is the difference between a 128-bit and 256-bit video card.

also, i don't know if i want to spend $300 for a video card.
http://www.newegg.com/ProductSort/Brand.asp?Brand=1402
buying the best on the market at the moment, always means top dollar.
what was considered the "best" 6months ago for evga, i'm sure the price has dropped somewhat.

 

[Jjoshua2]

You could pick up a refurbished X800Xl (X800XT isn't much more) or similar card from Newegg for one of the cheapest somewhat high-end card.

 

[kuba]

Id rather not do a refurb....just bad vibes getting those.
Thanks for the suggestion though.

 

[Jjoshua2]

I've gotten two X800xl refurbs from Newegg, and both are fine. Newegg is a company you can trust. Also gotten a 9800 pro IceQ a while ago refurb from newegg. It had some trouble, but newegg replaced it no problem.

 

[kuba]

well my thing is, im in canada, i get my buddy to buy the stuff from newegg...so i dont want the extra hassle sending stuff back and forth lol

 

[kenrippy]

ASUS A8N-E Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard

XFX PVT42GUAD3 Geforce 6800GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail

 

[kuba]

ken, will that board support standard ide hd's?
I'm not lookin to buy a new hd, since i have 2 that work fine and would rather spend the money into the cpu or video card
thanks.

 

[kenrippy]

Originally posted by: kuba
ken, will that board support standard ide hd's?
I'm not lookin to buy a new hd, since i have 2 that work fine and would rather spend the money into the cpu or video card
thanks.

yes it will support up to 4 standard ide drives.

 

[redbone75]

Why not go with an ATI X850XT:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102688

Kicking card for the price asand stands up more than well enough to the 6800GS, but if you want the 6800GS:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130267

Spending $200US you might as well get the 7600GT.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814122245

Since you don't game heavily, any of these cards will do you justice. Also, I don't really recommend SLI because you don't game a lot. Even so, spending the money for two of the same cards will get you about the same or less performance of a single higher end part. Go with DFI only if you know what you're doing or have a buddy around that can assist you since they are generally picky boards. Asus and Gigabyte usually are bit more user friendly in the BIOS dept. while offering excellent overclocking if you want to get into that.

 

[Mem]

Another favourite motherboard around here is also the Epox EP-9NPA+Ultra.

 

[kuba]

you guys are killin me, the video card selections are insane.
lol

 

[Bobthelost]

Highend is currently $500 for a single card. $1000+ for a SLI/Crossfire, that's just the graphics cards of course. You stick up a budget of $900 and expect us not to use it?

 

[kuba]

Bob you're right, i asked for it =P lol
Got it narrowed down to these 3...

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102688#DetailSpecs
SAPPHIRE 100106L Radeon X850XT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814150132
XFX PVT42GUAD3 Geforce 6800GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130267
eVGA 256-P2-N386-AX Geforce 6800GS 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

now i gotta look for a case and power supply
http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=27&threadid=1832716

 

[RussianSensation]

I'd go with X850XT since it's the cheapest and the fastest out of those 3 cards. Keep in mind that it doesn't have SM3.0 support (essentially you wont get some image quality in the latest games). The problem is that as soon as SM3.0 is not used for performance increases when games are coded and instead is used for image enhancement, 6800 series cards slow down significantly. It might be a good idea to play games at SM2.0 at high framerates. But if you plan on playing at 1024x768 resolution (ie. 17 inch monitor), then 6800GS will be fine for speed and extra image quality in the year when more SM3.0 games show up.

6800GS vs. X850XT

For motherboard, if you are not overclocking, any good quality brands like Abit, Asus, Epox, DFI or MSI will do.

Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 - $76
MSI K8N Neo4-F - $80
ASUS A8N-E - $92

For overclocking:
EPoX EP-9NPA+Ultra - $105
DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D - $123

 

[kuba]

sm3.0, sm2.0, it's all language i don't understand, gotta keep it simple for a newb like me
lol