New system, need help picking a Video Card

G

Gnu314

Limp Gawd
Joined
Oct 12, 2004
Messages
343
I'ed like to start out by saying thanks for taking a look at this thread and helping me out here.

Ok so anyway, this is my first attempt ever at building a new system. I know more than enough to put the thing together and get it running but I know nothing about OCing or anything particularly advanced. As such I won't be doing anything like that this time around, just simple plug and go. I was planning on just getting a cheap ($200) Radeon 9800 Pro 256 but after doing some reading and looking at bench marks it seems like a 6800 might be a much better choice for me. I've included my projected system specs. I was shooting for $750, but I'm a over that atm, which is fine. $50 more for the performance that the 6800 would give seems to be a really solid investment. (http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4082672/)

Asus K8V-X VIA K8T800
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
CORSAIR 512MB PC3200 VALUE SELECT x2
MAXTOR 120GB 7200RPM SERIAL ATA HARD DRIVE
Samsung Black 52X32X52X16 DVD/CD-RW Combo
Random Black floppy drive

The second question I have probably dosn't belong in this forum but I don't know where to put it. I don't know what to do about case/PSU. This is the most popular case on New Egg but I don't know if I should be looking at a case without a PSU and buying one afterwards or what, that also adds quite a bit to the price.
Aspire X-Dreamer II (Black) ATX Mid-Tower Case w/ 350W Power Supply

If anyone has suggestions on that or anything else it would be greatly appreciated. Thanks again.
 
I'd go with the 6800 non-ultra as you suspected, its faster and will last a lot longer than a 9800 and has more features, and bfg is one of the best brand 6800 cards to get.
 
I say get the 6800 NU from outpost and use rivatuner to unlock the extra 4 pipes and vertex shader :) some will perform very close to the 6800GT's minus the 128mb ram :p .

SaViOr
 
I'm not sure about the power consumption of the 6800 NU, but my GT takes quite a bit. I have a 350 W psu with 12 A on the 12V rail...which isnt a whole lot. I think my crappy PSU is causing some of the problems I'm having with graphics stuttering, since I've reinstalled all sorts of drivers and even my OS...

Just a heads up...I'd go with 400 or more. If you go with like 450, you wont need to upgrade your PSU for a while, either :) Also, take a look at the FAQ and read reviews about the PSU you get...you dont want to fry your system (you never know).
 
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