Opinions please.....

[Source]

First of all I would like to say hi to the people on the boards (I'm new), HI!!

I have been doing research for parts for my next PC and found this forum quite by accident, but seems like the people here pretty much know their sh*t So I joined.....

As I was saying, I'm building a new PC (spec. for my old PC is in my sig) and wanted opinions. I am getting £900.00 for my old setup (about $1590.00) and plan to spend another 700.00 (about $1235.00). I have a £300.00 contingency budget also (about $530.00, incase I just gotta have something else lol) My proposed set up is as follows:-

Thermaltake Shark Case (Black)
OCZ Powerstream 520 (Keeping my old one)
Asus A8R-MVP Mobo
AMD Athlon 64 4000+ 2.4Ghz (Seems to have the right price/performance balance I'm looking for)
2Gb Corsair TwinX XMS3200XL 2-2-2-5 DDR RAM (4x512, again keeping my old mem.)ATI Sapphire X1800XT 512Mb Graphics (my old 9800 is a bit dated I know:S, been struggling with decision to go to either NVidia or stick with ATI)
Keeping old soundcard. Creative Audigy 2.
1x WD Raptor 74Gb (OS)
1x WD Caviar 250Gb (Files, etc.)
Sony HS95P/R 19" TFT Monitor (Black)
+ other small bits here and there......

So... Any other recommendations either for or against what I am planning?


Cheers guys

 

[westrock2000]

Well since no one replied, and this is probably a big deal to you I'll throw in my 2 cents.

I'd say if your going to invest that much money in a video card and your looking at the X1800XT and 7800GTX, then you
should do your self a favor and get a monitor that will allow you to enjoy it.

Those video cards are awsome, but they really don't show their true colors at 1280x1024. There are several lower high
end cards that will give no percetable performance loss at those resolutions. However the 7800GTX and X1800XT really
shine at 1600x1200 and above.

So, in my opinion, I would look at finding a 21" monitor that supports at least 1600x1200, so that you can really enjoy
those games. I don't know what your selection is like over there, but a 21+" monitor is in the $700-$1300 range here in
the US. Most every 19" monitor is just a stretched 17". So the picture is a little bigger, but you don't gain any real estate
from it. And of course the extra real estate will help in other daily tasks as well.

As far as the 1800 vs 7800 choice, there isn't much that makes it easy either way. In testing we have seen the 7800GTX
with 512mb is a beast...the problem is of course finding one and the extra cost. Newegg over here has one GTX 512
which they are out of and its $750. The X1800XT go for about $500, so for only $250 over the cost of the GTX 512, you
could add a second X1800XT which will be better than a single 7800GTX 512 in many cases. But then of course you would
probably compare 2 GTX 256 at the same price point, which is a real toss up. A single X1800XT and a single GTX 256
aren't that far apart though in terms of performance. Click <here> for some comparisions of single X1800 & GTX versus
dual in high resolution situations.

Maybe also do some research (in case you haven't) and see how much poeple actually notice a difference with the Raptor
in daily usage. You may be better off just buying that single big guy for the sake of saving money.

Then overlcock the Athlon64 a bit just to clear up any bottlenecks.

 

[Source]

Thanks for the feedback dude

For the monitor, I am slightly conscious that running a game such as F.E.A.R. on 1600x1200 with all the effects AA/AF etc, would be unplayable from what I've read in the graphics card benchmarks. I think I would prefer to run at a lower resolution, with all effects, rather than a higher resolution with no effects... I'm not sure as to whether I would gain more by doing either one or the other though.

I could always run F.E.A.R. on a Dell 2405FPW (example, another monitor that I was considering that would keep me in my budget - just) on a lower resolution ie:- 1280x960, but would that look weird on such a large monitor? Also, I really like the XBrite screen on the Sony monitor I saw in PCWorld (not that I would ever seriously consider buying from that place mind )

No doubt the extra desktop space would be an advantage though, as I do quite alot of design work on my PC too, and could run 2 windows side by side instead of flicking from one to the other....

Why is it never easy???