Video Card Help!!

[potato28]

I have a budget of $700, and I'm stuck on choosing the video card. The 6600GT is too expensive at almost $175 CDN, so I need something that will run WoW, Civ4, BF2, SWBF&BF2, and Half-Life 2.

 

[mwmorph]

9800pro. how much is $90us in CDN?
beyond that nothing is realyl worth it. 9800pro is stretching it.

 

[Wentelteefje]

To the rescue! Damn, had some advice already... 9800Pro is the least you want to go, but the problem is that this one's still AGP, whereas when picking a new comp, you'd prolly like to take the PCIe route as well...

 

[Wentelteefje]

You could always take a X700Pro... It performs less, but costs $ 150 CAD... What's the rest of your setup like?

EDIT: TigerDirect seems to ship to Canada for $ 19.99 US, maybe that's a solution if prices are lower there...?

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
To the rescue! Damn, had some advice already... 9800Pro is the least you want to go, but the problem is that this one's still AGP, whereas when picking a new comp, you'd prolly like to take the PCIe route as well...

well, a 6600 is rouingly 2/3 as fast as a 6600gt. A x700pro might be up your alley, but finding them around $100usd will be harder, and it will be slightly slower than a 9800pro.

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
You could always take a X700Pro... It performs less, but costs $ 150 CAD... What's the rest of your setup like?

beat me to it by about 10 seconds. damn.

 

[Wentelteefje]

LOL 😛

 

[potato28]

Originally posted by: Wentelteefje
You could always take a X700Pro... It performs less, but costs $ 150 CAD... What's the rest of your setup like?

Rest of setup isnt set in stone yet... this is just a mock-up for the person thats wants a sweet pc. Its a 3200+, Epox NF4 mobo, Corsair value RAM, Samsung SpinPoint HDD, video card, A fortron PSU, and a generic case out of my basement. After a month the owner will probly wanna buy a new case, so I'll move it after that.

 

[Wentelteefje]

You are talking about Socket 939 here, aren't you? What's the cheapest Canadian shop you know of?

 

[potato28]

Im ordering off of Ncix. And yes this is s939. I might drop it down to s754 if needed...

 

[potato28]

I found the X800 GT's a bit cheaper than the 6600GT's... can anyone tell me the difference between the 1 with 128mb of ram and 256mb of ram besides the amount?

 

[Wentelteefje]

Different memory speeds unfortunately... 🙁

128MB has DDR1 @ 700MHz, while the 256MB version sports DDR3 @ 980MHz... Big difference in gaming IMO...

 

[Wentelteefje]

Do you mind overclocking? 😉

 

[potato28]

No Im definitly OCing this system! He wants pretty good graphics with it, so I might add the 1 with 256mb of RAM to the list. Thanks for the help!

 

[Wentelteefje]

What parts does he need? Just the internals + PSU?

 

[potato28]

Yup. I have a old case sitting in the basement gathering dust.

 

[Wentelteefje]

S939:

ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 - $ 97.58
AMD Athlon 64 3200+ - $ 201.28
Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W - $ 47.09
2x Samsung PC3200 512MB DDR400 OEM - $ 97.98
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 160GB SATA - $ 102.70
Sapphire Radeon X700Pro 128MB PCIe - $ 150.65

$ 697.28 CAD

S754:

DFI nF4x Infinity - $ 103.03
AMD Sempron 64 2800+ - $ 100.07
Thermaltake TR2 W0070 430W - $ 47.09
2x Samsung PC3200 512MB DDR400 OEM - $ 97.98
Maxtor DiamondMax 10 160GB SATA - $ 102.70
eVGA GeForce 6800GS PCIe - $ 259.92

$ 710.79

Has already an optical drive or not? Overclock the Sempron to the max and it will be a helluva performer, much better than the more expensive S939 rig... What this one makes up for processor power, loses it when looking at the graphics cards...

 

[Wentelteefje]

You could take a Connect3D X800GTO for some bucks less than the 6800GS, but seeing that its unlocking isn't as guaranteed as it used to be + the lack of SM3.0, I would personally pick the GS...

With the DFI and Sempron, you can easily hit 2.4GHz or more... 2.6GHz should even be possible... At that speed, it's roughly equal to an Athlon 64 3800+... Best value IMO...

BTW I took the ThermalTake PSU instead of the Fortron, because it has sleeved cables all the way, and it has (probably passive) PFC as well... (whereas the Fortron has none)

EDIT: D*mn, how silly... Only 18A on the single 12V rail... I expected it to have two... Take the Fortron then...