Hardware Bargains

[Re83L]

I actually meant that rather than spending R3300 on a 9800GTX or 2x9600GT's, you could just buy one 8800GT for R2000, better price/performance

 

[-Uriziel-]

Is the 8800GT better because of more steam processors?? Other then that, its core/memory/shader mhz is below that of the 9600GT. Forgive me if I don't know to much about gfx card stats and for what to look out for in the stats... thanks for the help

 

[Re83L]

Yes indeed..

2x9600's or a 9800GTX should be 5-20% odd faster than a single 8800GT, but they're 150% more expensive. (And keep in mind the extra power requirements when running 2 cards)

The 8800GT is certainly the best bang-for-buck middle-high end card available at the moment, so unless you've got money to throw around it seems like the best choice out there

 

[-Uriziel-]

Thanks for the reply Frag.

I'm actually willing to spend nothing more then +/-R4000 on my gfx card(s) for my rig build. On that note, what's the best bang for buck?

 

[-Uriziel-]

Also, is the Antec 900 a very loud case? All those fans makes me wonder. Is it a good case for balancing cooling vs. noise?

Thanks

 

[Re83L]

I would'nt actually advise spending above R3000 on graphics, because for instance : A R6000 9800GX2 is only about 20-40% faster than the 8800GT which is three times cheaper! (You need to run REALLY high resolutions to notice significant differences anyway)

But for that price, it would be smartest to wait till the GTX 2#0 is launched in a month or two's time.

Till then I'd just buy an 8800GT and sell it for 80% of what I paid for it in when the new cards are launched

The Antec 900 is surprisingly quiet.. I think Antec uses very high-quality ball-bearing fans. (At least for the top 20cm fan.)
The case I have ATM (Aerocool Zero Degree) has got 3x12cm fans, a 25cm fan and the Zalman 9700CNPS CPU cooler, and I'm still impressed with its quietness.
I think the fan on the graphics-card is louder than all the rest combined (when it gets too hot) , so having all the other fans is actually nice as it keeps the GPU cool too.

 

[-Uriziel-]

That GTX 280 is sure gonna be an expensive one thats for sure... most probably above R6000! But the good news will be cheaper 8800GTX's or 9-series maby?? Isn't the GTX 280 releasing in 2 weeks?

 

[Re83L]

Not sure hey... Was it June or July? (Not feeling like googling now)
Anyway, there's a GTX260 too, which would probably be R4-5k

 

[-Uriziel-]

Ag it's ok I will stick to at the R3500 range gfx cards.

Another thing that i'm thinking about is to OC for the first time... what's the expected lifetime of an OC'd Q9450 @ 3.6Ghz? I want an OC that will give me a total system lifetime of @least 7-8 years (because i can't afford a new pc every 3-4 years)

 

[Re83L]

Well, when considering what you're looking at buying, it seems you want to spend about R15000 on your PC?

I'd say, rather than a Q9450, get a Q9300, Rather than spending R3500 on a GPU, spend R2000.

Just by doing this you've already saved another R2500. (and have taken a performance hit of at most 10%)

Keep this somewhere safe and upgrade in 18months' time again. (You'll get a performance gain of 100% in 18months with your R2500)
It'll be much better than trying to build one pc that lasts 7 years! (Dinosaur of all PC's by that time )

 

[ld13]

Isn't the GTX 280 releasing in 2 weeks?

ATI will launch its Radeon 4850 and Radeon HD 4870 cards on the 25th of June. It is the last week of June ... Nvidia should be launching on Tuesday, the 17th of June, assuming the retail availability of both Geforce GTX 280 and Geforce GTX 260.

 

[Ghost02]

Anyone know of a good deal for a 22" lcd monitor compatible with both pc and xbox360. I would prefer HD

 

[Crusader]

Don't know if this is that great a bargain, but Kalahari.net has the Transcend 4GB Flash Drives for R149.95 on 24 hour delivery. It's great for those of us with eBucks to spare.

I got myself one last week using eBucks and a R60 voucher Kalahari sent me. So basically it's almost free

 

[hj2k_x]

Don't know if this is that great a bargain, but Kalahari.net has the Transcend 4GB Flash Drives for R149.95 on 24 hour delivery. It's great for those of us with eBucks to spare.

I got myself one last week using eBucks and a R60 voucher Kalahari sent me. So basically it's almost free

Where did you earn the eBucks? Credit card?

 

[Crusader]

Where did you earn the eBucks? Credit card?

Nope. From the purchases I did at Kalahari.net over the last 2 years or so. I'd love to have a FNB credit card, but it's a bit of a hassle without a local FNB branch. A 200 km round trip to the bank isn't very appealing.

 

[hj2k_x]

Nope. From the purchases I did at Kalahari.net over the last 2 years or so. I'd love to have a FNB credit card, but it's a bit of a hassle without a local FNB branch. A 200 km round trip to the bank isn't very appealing.

OIC, that is not a bad idea. Kalahari have some pretty decent specials from time to time, and some products that no one else has, like those awesome monitor mounting arms that I would love if only my damn 2232GW would have mounting holes...

 

[Crusader]

The only downside is that you can only earn eBucks when purchasing books, music, DVDs, games, software, toys & hobbies and Verimark products, not from any electronic goods. Still it works out nicely, and if you are an avid collector of any of the above, you should be able to earn quite a few eBucks in a year. You get 4 ebucks for every R10 you spend.

 

[hj2k_x]

The only downside is that you can only earn eBucks when purchasing books, music, DVDs, games, software, toys & hobbies and Verimark products, not from any electronic goods. Still it works out nicely, and if you are an avid collector of any of the above, you should be able to earn quite a few eBucks in a year. You get 4 ebucks for every R10 you spend.

Hmm, that is the downside then I guess. Not much of the above that would interest me, but 4 bucks for every 10 is pretty damn good. Does one eBuck = R1? That is if you spend R1000 you get R400 in ebucks back?

 

[Crusader]

Hmm, that is the downside then I guess. Not much of the above that would interest me, but 4 bucks for every 10 is pretty damn good. Does one eBuck = R1? That is if you spend R1000 you get R400 in ebucks back?

Sadly not. 10 eBucks = R1, so you get R0.40 for every R10 (4%). Not that bad if you consider that you wouldn't have gotten anything otherwise.

 

[hj2k_x]

Sadly not. 10 eBucks = R1, so you get R0.40 for every R10 (4%). Not that bad if you consider that you wouldn't have gotten anything otherwise.

Hehe, I thought that was a bit too good to be true

Still not bad though