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Purchasing a gaming rig within 24 hours

D

damage424

Senior member
So I'm pulling the trigger on a 32 bit Vista OS with the following hardware off of newegg:

CoolerMaster 690 Case

Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive

HIS Hightech H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB

CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16813128344 GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R

Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz

http://www.newegg.com/Product/...x?Item=N82E16820231145 G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000

So what do you guys think? I'm planning to crossfire down the road the new games are calling for it. Price comes out to be $812 and $750 after mail n rebates

I think all is good, but it never hurts to post it and see what others think. I have the budget to buy a 4870 but don't see a need to with my low res. Thanks for the input!
 
Gigabyte EP45-DS3L is also a good choice
G.Skill DDR2-800 is good also but yours is fine. 32 bit vista? :0
 
Originally posted by: smithrwon
4850 is more than fine for your resolution.
Click to expand...

Yea, at first I was going to go with the 4870, but then found it out is absolute overkill for that res. So I opted for a 4850 and upgraded to a mobo with cf enabled. Does the new high end 4850 really make a difference? Like the HIS Highteck ICEQ4? It has a better fan and the dual slot cooler like the 4870 does. I'm thinking if i due get crossfire down the road that the extra cooling solutions would play more of a factor. But it is relatively more expensive then your standard reference 4850.
 
Crossfire is certainly not "called for by new games". A dual-card setup down the line when the card is now mediocre makes less sense than getting a single better card now. Stick with the 4850 and get a new card that'll beat two of them in a year's time, especially at your resolution.

DDR2-800 is good even for a mild overclock.

+1 for the EP43-DS3L.
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Crossfire is certainly not "called for by new games". A dual-card setup down the line when the card is now mediocre makes less sense than getting a single better card now. Stick with the 4850 and get a new card that'll beat two of them in a year's time, especially at your resolution.

DDR2-800 is good even for a mild overclock.

+1 for the EP43-DS3L.
Click to expand...


Makes sense to just stick with one 4850 and upgrade my card down the road later. Now I can stick with my regular GIGABYTE GA-EP45-DS3R and save some more cash!!!

whats the difference between the p45 chip I picked out and your 43? The p45 comes out to be the same price as the p43 when you mail in the mail in rebate for it.

I was thinking about getting a cheaper PSU since I'm not gaming on a crazy graphics card, but then I thought it would probably be good to stick with a the psu I am ordering so that way if I want to upgrade my card I have a sufficient PSU to give it adequate power. (Yes, I am already thinking about DX11 cards coming out next year!)

I was going to get a fancy 4850 like the ICEQ4 for the cooling solution, but since I'm not going crossfire I don't see any need for it and I'll get a reference board to even save more dough!
 
cross fire is for more performance now
not down the line, it doesn't work economically
spend more money on a nicer monitor i guess.
 
Heck, for 1440x900 you'd be fine with an 8800GT/9800GT (pick one with dual-slot cooling) and those are around $100AR.
 
Thanks for the suggestions guys! I'm not looking to spend a lot of loot and trying to save as much as I could, but still get great value in my parts. So far the price stands at $750 without mail-in-rebates! Based off of Intel Core 2 Duo E8400 Wolfdale 3.0GHz, G.SKILL 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 1000, CORSAIR CMPSU-650TX 650W, SAPPHIRE 100245L Radeon HD 4850, Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD6400AAKS 640GB, COOLER MASTER RC-690, SAMSUNG 22X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe. Perhaps one day down the road I will get a new monitor, but I don't see that happening any time soon. The reason I'm getting the DDR2 1000 instead of 800 is because it comes with a combo deal with my cpu. I was thinking I might as well get a e8500 and DDR2 800 ram but it comes out to be a couple of bucks more then my combo deal. I really don't need 640GB. I'm typing this on my macbook and I have tons of movies and music on just a 120GB HD. Is there a good quality hard drive that has maybe 300GBs or so where I can save even more money?

And one last thing also, one of my friends told me I might as well just wait a month for black friday to roll around because all computer hardware goes on sale. It's not a bad thought, but I don't want to wait all that time if my hardware that I picked out isn't going to get a discount on them. Any thoughts or experiences with past black fridays so I can get a better idea on what to expect if I do decide to wait for it? Thanks
 
Great choice with the card, I was about to post to recommend it over a standard reference board as the revised design is shorter, the cooler is way better than the reference one and overall it somehow comes out costing less.
 
Originally posted by: Roguestar
Great choice with the card, I was about to post to recommend it over a standard reference board as the revised design is shorter, the cooler is way better than the reference one and overall it somehow comes out costing less.
Click to expand...

Really? I've been scratching my head the past couple of hours on trying to decide which 4850 to get. I started reading the reviews for the revised Sapphire one and everyone was saying the mail-in-rebate was bogus and it was a difficult process. That and some people were still complaining about the noise it made; so those two factors turned me off (more so about the mail-in-rebate then noise). But yes, I'm indeed terribly confused right now. I'm getting a CM690 so I feel like I shouldn't be to worried with temps (especially since I'm not going to overclock anytime soon). I heard the revised Asus provides good cooling and is relatively silent with their new heatsink they put on the board. Right now I have the HIS Highteck Overclocked edition which comes to be $170 after mail-in-rebate. Not sure on what I should do in my situation... Heat isn't going to be a problem (I think), but a quiet card would be lovely.
 
Can you not read? I'M PURCHASING THIS THING AFTER I GET OFF OF WORK AND ORDERING IT TONIGHT. But thank you so much for your input and thoughts!...
 
I use a Catalyst fan speed profile to turn the fan speed down, and I can't hear it above the other fans in my case and it still cools better than the reference cooler. As long as you've got decent airflow you can turn it down a little and you're grand.
 
Spend the extra $10 to get the ASUS 4850 with aftermarket cooler. If you ever have to RMA to Sapphire they'll charge you a fee (even for a defective card) and it's a hassle. ASUS is much better.
 
It was a great day; another day in the office. And don't worry and don't lose any sleep, because I just ordered it. 🙂
 
Again guys I really do appreciate the comments. Like I said ^^ I just placed my order. I decided to just spend the good money on HIS Highteck ICEQ4 Turbo. I probably should have just got the cheaper card, but hey what the hell the computer is fantastic and is under $800 dollars so a few extra dough on my video card is fine. I just hope I don't see a good deal for a gaming lcd on black friday or else I'm gonna go bankrupt! 🙂
 
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