My Next PC (Any Suggestions?)

[Shockwave]

Ok, heres my opinion...Thats all it is, take it for what its worth. The GeForce 2 Ultra is sweet. And 64 meg makes a huge difference in fps. But! Unless you drop some serious buckage on a monitor, your wastin cash..Ex. Why buy a sweet vid card to then have your bottleneck be monitor. You wouldnt be using 1024x768 on a 15". So, buy spending 500 on a vid card, you almost ensure you'll be spending AT LEAST that n a monitor just top use all that power of the vid card. i use a ATI Radeon 32 DDR. Man, I love this card. It looks amazing and @ 200, was a steal.

(Note to above post: If you dont like the Radeon, dont tell me. I dont care. If your having problems its because YOU dont know what your doing, so dont tell me "blah blah , the card doesnt work...blah blah blah&quot

Anyways, if your looking for that high end of a card, i would recommend the Radoen 64, NOT because I like ATI so much, but because of features. Ok, the ATI features 3 texel mapping, on 2 pipelines. The GeForce does 2 texel mapping on 4 pipelines. So, right now the GeForce posts better FPS because it has more *raw* power. But, if (and I think they will) games start to use 3 texel shading instead of the current 2, the Radeon is going to %way% blow the GeForce out of the water. Also, the Radoen uses a good compression algprythm to use its bandwidth better, not stronger. Either way, both are good cards. Look at it like this (I read this somewhere, sounded good) the Radeon is like a prsche, the GeForce like a Viper. Both go way way fast and look way way cool. One does it with brute force, one does it with style.....

Disclaimer: The reason I say dont tell me about your crap hardware not working is not because I'm an ass. Its because someone assumes because he / she cant get their hardware to work that suddenly its crap and they bash it up and down. If you have a *question* why it doesnt work, I will help you solve it. If your saying "dont get x because it sucks! It doesnt work..." Well, then anybody who really knows computers will know that the problem probably isnt the hardware is it?....

 

[Terrapin]

That's an intereting thought about the Radeon Shockwave. Given that, perhaps getting the previous generation of Vid Card for $150 that has 32mb and a core of 170mz is the way to go. I would still have plenty of Vid Card speed and in 3-6 months see what there is to upgrade to and what makes the most sense. Perhaps the Ultra is "overkill" at this point and if your correct, would be a bit of a mistake.

btw: My monitor is a Sony Multiscan 500PS 21" so I feel I can take advantage of the higher ressolution settings.

Thank you,

Terrapin

 

[Shockwave]

21' ! Ya, you could definitely push a video card... Anyways, the only game which at this point uses texture swapping with your system ram is Unreal Tournament, and thats only at higher res. So, the 64 meg cards do have a real life application, because they dont need to textuer swap due to the ungodly amouint of ram on the board. But, I still think at this point a 32 meg DDR card is a better option for your money. I would prefer the ATI Radeon All In Wonder (I wish I would have gotten that!) I only have the Radoen 32 DDR. The All In Wonder has alot of really cool features, like tv out, tv in, ect ect. I'm not saying dont look at other cards, but I for sure would avoid the 64 meg cards. There just too pricey right now.

 

[NaughtyusMaximus]

Another thing to take into consideration is your 2d quality. With a 21" Monitor, you're probably not running at low resolutions normally. If you run at 1600x1200, then I would definetly stay away from the GeForce, and run to the Radeon; it just gives better 2d quality at high resolutions.

 

[kwill]

Terrapin, I just finished order my system last week and am still waiting for it to come in. I did a LOT of research on this so let me share some of my viewpoints...

My system:
AMD Tbird 1Ghz - Like you, I would rather buy a good system now and not upgrade for a long time
Asus A7V - ATA 100 and easy overclocking in case I decide to try that out. All reviews show this as being the fastest Socket-A mb
Corsair 256MB PC133 CAS2 - great performance and a good price
IBM Deskstar 75GXP 45GB - Fastest drive. Going from 30GB to 45GB was a pretty small increase in price.
Elsa Gladiac Geforce2 GTS - The Ultra's are just way too expensive. You could buy a Playstation2 or a good CD burner for the extra money you are spending on a video card.
Soundblaster Live Value - Sound card that competes with the best on the market for a fraction of the price.
Klipsch Promedia V.2-400 - Best speakers on the market. No 5.1 support, but I don't watch DVDs on my computer.
Pioneer 115 16X DVD - Best performance, not any more expensive than anything else.
Colorcase USB w/Enermax 330 PS - Great looking case, decent cooling, quiet, perfect # of bays for me.
KDS AV-195TF 19" Monitor - No sense saving $100 bucks on a monitor if it is going to cost you your eye-sight.
Epson Stylus Color 777 - Cheap and good enough for casual printing.

Final price came to around $2200 including shipping, taxes, etc...

I think that is it. This is all from memory. If you want more information like where I bought each part from (I also did a lot of searching for good prices) let me know and I can get it at work tomorrow morning.

 

[Shockwave]

kwill, not bad!! Not bad at all!!
Lemme put in my 2 cents worth......

Good choice on cpu, especially considering the price is right! Memory is good too, Crucial, Corsair, Micron or Infineon are all very good brands of memory. As for the hd, its what I use, but I've heard some problems with their reliability. Nothing out of the ordinary I dont think, but I'm still checking. I would definitely still recommend them however. But since I have heard a few complaints i am looking into it. Your hd is the #1 most important part of your pc. If it goes, you lose everything. If your cpu burns out, get a new one. RAM died? So what, replace it. hd goes, youve lost months or years worth of work and data. Video card? Well, we have some disagreements there. I still have to give the crown to Radeon. The GeForce is good, dont get me wrong. But I like finess to brute force, and future expansion to meeting current trends. Otherwise, you got a damned nice pc!

 

[Shockwave]

Terrapin, glad to be of help! By what you've been looking at, whatever you get would be fine I think. I just want you to maybe see it in a different light and maybe, hopefully, make a better educated choice. Dont get me wrong, if I had 500 layin around and nothing to do, i would probably get a 64 DDR Radeon, but man! thats almost half the price of my entire system, so i just cant justify it. And besides, who knows whats coming up in the future? Personally, I still think the path is going to be 3 texel mapping, in which case the Radeon is gonna seriously put the hurt down on the GeForce. At least until NVidia goes to 3 texel shading on their cards too.....