Will a softmodded 9800SE be enough Power?

[scaryclownsarefun]

I am planning on getting a new system for as little as possible, and so i came up with a list like this:
Athlon 64 2800+
Chaintec VNF3-250
2x 512MB A-DATA PC3200
Antec True 430W PSU (i already have this)
2x 120GB Hitachi SATA drives (RAID 0)

And then of course i was going to get the 9800SE from powercolor (the C3 model) and try and soft mod it to the 9800 Pro/XT.
My question is: will this graphics card when fully overclocked have enough power to play games like Doom 3, Half life 2, and Halo 2?
The other option i was considering would be dual 6600GT cards in SLI but that would rais the cost of my computer very much.

Any suggestions?

 

[MercenaryForHire]

If the softmod takes, yeah. If it doesn't, you're hosed. I'd suggest tossing one of the Hitachis and scraping up enough to buy a 6800.

And your board doesn't have PCIe slots, so that negates the SLI'd 6600GTs.

- M4H

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

i was talking about spending alot more for an SLI board and the two 6600GT's... but thats not really an option. i have heard alot of good news about the 9800SE from power color, they say about 30% have the R350 core (softmoddable to the 9800 pro) and about $70
have the R360 core (flashable to the 9800XT)
what have you heard about that card?

 

[kamranziadar]

I did it check the results in my signature, with VGA Silencer Ver3

 

[Slick5150]

Originally posted by: scaryclownsarefun
i was talking about spending alot more for an SLI board and the two 6600GT's... but thats not really an option. i have heard alot of good news about the 9800SE from power color, they say about 30% have the R350 core (softmoddable to the 9800 pro) and about $70
have the R360 core (flashable to the 9800XT)
what have you heard about that card?

Theoretically. But you only have a 50/50 shot (at best) of the mod working at all. I tried it on two of the Powercolor 9800SE's, and got bad artifacting on both cards when I applied the mod.

 

[kamranziadar]

Well mine is working perfect

 

[IceMole]

ditch a HD or lose 512 of ram. There's a post over around here called "90% of a gaming rig is a video card" it has examples like a 9800 + 3.2ghz P4 = say 70 fps, then 2.4ghz P4 + x800 = 89fps. Basicly unless you NEED the hard drive space, or the gig of ram, get a better card. At least 6800NU for $250 and softmod that. IMO you should get the eVGA Limited Edition off newegg for $325 which is an ultra w/ failed clock speeds (clocked a bit slower).

 

[tungtung]

scaryclownsarefun: I would say I agree with MercenaryForHire and IceMole. Ditch the second Hitachi.

Two reasons:
1. It will save a bit of money.
2. Having a RAID 0 will not give you a very noticable performance.
3. A RAID 0 actually increases the risk of data loss if either drives failed.

My suggestion would be if you need more space then get a larger drive. From most reviews that I have read a larger drive is usually a tad faster than the smaller one (ie. a 200GB drive is usually faster than the 120GB). Also the price per GB for a larger drive is generally cheaper than the smaller one.

If you want to chop some more, then well ... that second 512MB memory may go ... especially since I don't think the Athlon 64 2800+ and the motherboard you choose (Chaintec VNF3-250) can utilize dual channel memory (I might be wrong on this though) ... also other than DOOM 3, I don't think there are that many games that benefit the extra 512MB at this time.

I think at the end of the day you would better get the normal 9800 Pro and overclock it from there rather than going with the 9800 SE ... by the way make sure if you're going with 9800 Pro you get the one with 256-bit version (Lots of people have been tricked into buying a 128-bit version)

 

[Turkey22]

You can play doom 3 and HL2 in single player with those specs. Multiplayer HL2 you should be ok, at least better off than I am and I turned a few things down and it runs fine. I wouldnt expect to be able to turn everything up, but it should be playable. Btw 2000+XP, 512 ddr333, and a 9800 pro on my end. The CS stress test runs great, around 60 (you'd probably get in the 80 range as HL2 is proc intensive), but multiplayer on same settings dips into the 15 fps range until I turned stuff down and then it still does occaisionally. While doom3 is more powerful it runs fine with my specs. No idea on Halo.

 

[dc5]

a better video card will give you better gaming performance over raid 0. so spend the extra money on a better video card.

 

[INGlewood78]

No..because torque is a measure of rotational force. A videocard cannot generate rotational force unless you count the fan, but I doubt that amount is of any significance.

 

[scaryclownsarefun]

i think getting a single 250Gb drive would be a better idea that two 120's, because RAID 0 doesn't improve performance, increasses stability, and having two hard drives generates more heat than just one. I was planning on getting 1GB of ram because then i could turn the paging file off and i heard that to max out the settings on alot of games you need 1GB or ram. so that is all good. the only problem i have is the video card. i am planning on building a watercooling system and i want a really good overclocking video card. i heard that the 9800 pro overclocks really well so i thought getting a 9800SE and saving some more money would be an even better deal. PinwiZ, did you improve your cooling on those cards before you softmodded them? i heard that enabling the exta pipelines heats up the card and can cause artifacts. are there any other good overclocking video cards?

 

[Cawchy87]

Get a cd-writer and 100 cd's. It is cheap storage.

Get a real 9800pro or 6800gt.

 

[dc5]

Originally posted by: INGlewood78
No..because torque is a measure of rotational force. A videocard cannot generate rotational force unless you count the fan, but I doubt that amount is of any significance.

lol, i do agree that 'torque' was a bad descriptive word in this case.

 

[duragezic]

Originally posted by: dc5

Originally posted by: INGlewood78
No..because torque is a measure of rotational force. A videocard cannot generate rotational force unless you count the fan, but I doubt that amount is of any significance.

lol, i do agree that 'torque' was a bad descriptive word in this case.

As if something like power or horsepower would be any better.

 

[MDE]

To anyone considering SLI'd 6600GTs, why? Why not get a 6800GT and then down the road slap another in cheap to blow away SLI'd 6600GTs?