PC building help

adamr

adamr

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Ok, might want to buy a new PC (toying with the idea) ... my current spec which i will most prob sell components off

AMD 4800+
2Gig DDR-400
MSI Mobo platinum SLI Nforce4 series
160gig + 80Gig HDD, SATA
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung DVD/CD writer
Antec P180 Chasis
Geforce 8800GTX 768Mb
Silverstone 850W PSU
Viewsonic 19" LCD VX912 ...
X-Fi Elite pro

So i really need advice what to keep what to sell off etc ...

1. What i do want for sure is a Nvidia Geforce 280GTX, or is there something similar for less? always with GPUs if i did not buy the best i always went "i should have went all the way ... "

2. Should i go quad core or dual core and which is a really damn good processor?? give me options, is it worth buying the extreme series, give me the pros and cons

3. Which Mobo to go for, someone told me Asus AI series is really good, how is the X48 bonetrail board from Intel?

4. I want maximum memory for a 32bit Vista OS ... should i go max of 2Gig or 3 gig or 4gig (4gig she dont work in 32 bit OS right?). DDR3 i want but heard someone saying DDR2 outperforms it :confused:

5. LCD, should i keep my 19" Viewsonic, truth is its pretty good and cant complain ... 22" Samsung maybe? i dont mind bigger also, but what always bugs me is native resolution on larger monitors

6. PSU .. i have that 850W silverstone ... its doing great and i dont intend updating it, it is a year old though and i aint gonna be running 10 HDD and 20 optical drives ... its just one GPU, 1 HDD and 2 optical drives

7. I love samsung drives and intend keeping them

8. Keeping my X-fi elite pro sound card also

9. HDD i want to go for 500GB, dont do alot of downloading movies and the like, my current 160Gig and 80gig are more than fine

10. I have a Dinovo keyboard set, how is the Dinovo edge keyboard and which mouse to get?

or in all fairness should i just wait ... and after some time then do an upgrade
 
adamr said:
Ok, might want to buy a new PC (toying with the idea) ... my current spec which i will most prob sell components off

AMD 4800+
2Gig DDR-400
MSI Mobo platinum SLI Nforce4 series
160gig + 80Gig HDD, SATA
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung DVD/CD writer
Antec P180 Chasis
Geforce 8800GTX 768Mb
Silverstone 850W PSU
Viewsonic 19" LCD VX912 ...
X-Fi Elite pro

So i really need advice what to keep what to sell off etc ...

1. What i do want for sure is a Nvidia Geforce 280GTX, or is there something similar for less? always with GPUs if i did not buy the best i always went "i should have went all the way ... "

2. Should i go quad core or dual core and which is a really damn good processor?? give me options, is it worth buying the extreme series, give me the pros and cons

3. Which Mobo to go for, someone told me Asus AI series is really good, how is the X48 bonetrail board from Intel?

4. I want maximum memory for a 32bit Vista OS ... should i go max of 2Gig or 3 gig or 4gig (4gig she dont work in 32 bit OS right?). DDR3 i want but heard someone saying DDR2 outperforms it :confused:

5. LCD, should i keep my 19" Viewsonic, truth is its pretty good and cant complain ... 22" Samsung maybe? i dont mind bigger also, but what always bugs me is native resolution on larger monitors

6. PSU .. i have that 850W silverstone ... its doing great and i dont intend updating it, it is a year old though and i aint gonna be running 10 HDD and 20 optical drives ... its just one GPU, 1 HDD and 2 optical drives

7. I love samsung drives and intend keeping them

8. Keeping my X-fi elite pro sound card also

9. HDD i want to go for 500GB, dont do alot of downloading movies and the like, my current 160Gig and 80gig are more than fine

10. I have a Dinovo keyboard set, how is the Dinovo edge keyboard and which mouse to get?

or in all fairness should i just wait ... and after some time then do an upgrade
Click to expand...

Keep this and sell the rest

160gig
Samsung DVD Writer
Antec P180 Chasis
Geforce 8800GTX 768Mb
Silverstone 850W PSU
Viewsonic 19" LCD VX912 ...
X-Fi Elite pro

Upgrade to quad core on a Gigabyte mobo with 4GB ram anf finally realise the potential of that card;)

/edit
Or the E series as Grimspoon says.
 
Last edited:
adamr said:
Ok, might want to buy a new PC (toying with the idea) ... my current spec which i will most prob sell components off

AMD 4800+
2Gig DDR-400
MSI Mobo platinum SLI Nforce4 series
160gig + 80Gig HDD, SATA
Samsung DVD Writer
Samsung DVD/CD writer
Antec P180 Chasis
Geforce 8800GTX 768Mb
Silverstone 850W PSU
Viewsonic 19" LCD VX912 ...
X-Fi Elite pro

So i really need advice what to keep what to sell off etc ...

1. What i do want for sure is a Nvidia Geforce 280GTX, or is there something similar for less? always with GPUs if i did not buy the best i always went "i should have went all the way ... "

2. Should i go quad core or dual core and which is a really damn good processor?? give me options, is it worth buying the extreme series, give me the pros and cons

3. Which Mobo to go for, someone told me Asus AI series is really good, how is the X48 bonetrail board from Intel?

4. I want maximum memory for a 32bit Vista OS ... should i go max of 2Gig or 3 gig or 4gig (4gig she dont work in 32 bit OS right?). DDR3 i want but heard someone saying DDR2 outperforms it :confused:

5. LCD, should i keep my 19" Viewsonic, truth is its pretty good and cant complain ... 22" Samsung maybe? i dont mind bigger also, but what always bugs me is native resolution on larger monitors

6. PSU .. i have that 850W silverstone ... its doing great and i dont intend updating it, it is a year old though and i aint gonna be running 10 HDD and 20 optical drives ... its just one GPU, 1 HDD and 2 optical drives

7. I love samsung drives and intend keeping them

8. Keeping my X-fi elite pro sound card also

9. HDD i want to go for 500GB, dont do alot of downloading movies and the like, my current 160Gig and 80gig are more than fine

10. I have a Dinovo keyboard set, how is the Dinovo edge keyboard and which mouse to get?

or in all fairness should i just wait ... and after some time then do an upgrade
Click to expand...

I would upgrade to:

22" Monitor
1 TB HDD
4 GIG DDR 800
Asus Sli Board (dunno what model)
Core 2 Duo E8500 3.1Ghz

That would rock your gaming world no doubt!
 
I say you don't need an upgrade. You could maybe get a x9850 black edition and a new board.

Get a 750gig hard drive.

Oh and if you put 4gigs of ram in a 32bit os only 3.2gigs gets used. Get 4gigs anyway so that when you get a 64bit os it's there.

DDR2 low latency ram does indeed outperform DDR3. You could even get some 1066ram.
 
Why not buy another 8800gtx sli it with your current one and get a core 2 cpu?

2 x 8800gtx will beat anything nvidia, not even ati would be able to come close :) until their new x2 is out
 
killadoob said:
Why not buy another 8800gtx sli it with your current one and get a core 2 cpu?

2 x 8800gtx will beat anything nvidia, not even ati would be able to come close :) until their new x2 is out
Click to expand...

That would be awesome
 
I reckon you should delay the upgrade a bit....cause I doubt anything is lagging with that setup. But yeah:

adamr said:
2. Should i go quad core or dual core and which is a really damn good processor?? give me options, is it worth buying the extreme series, give me the pros and cons
Click to expand...
I'd go with a high-end quad. High-end duals might outperform them atm (esp if O/Cin)...but I reckon the game architecture will shift soon in favour of quads.

adamr said:
4. I want maximum memory for a 32bit Vista OS ... should i go max of 2Gig or 3 gig or 4gig (4gig she dont work in 32 bit OS right?). DDR3 i want but heard someone saying DDR2 outperforms it :confused:
Click to expand...
I'd suggest 4gigs of something like Kingston ValueRam. DDR3 and high-end brandnames fail heavily on the bang/buck front....esp if not O/Cing.

adamr said:
5. LCD, should i keep my 19" Viewsonic, truth is its pretty good and cant complain ... 22" Samsung maybe? i dont mind bigger also, but what always bugs me is native resolution on larger monitors
Click to expand...
If you're buying a high-end GFX then this shouldn't be a problem.

adamr said:
6. PSU .. i have that 850W silverstone ... its doing great and i dont intend updating it, it is a year old though and i aint gonna be running 10 HDD and 20 optical drives ... its just one GPU, 1 HDD and 2 optical drives
Click to expand...
Perfectly fine.

adamr said:
9. HDD i want to go for 500GB, dont do alot of downloading movies and the like, my current 160Gig and 80gig are more than fine
Click to expand...
If size isn't an issue then maybe invest in a small-ish raptor drive even an SSD depending on what you do on the PC.
 
I agree with Havoc with the above,
However, you are wasting your gfx card if you only get a 22". If you want the full power of the gfx card and your money's worth I would certainly invest in a 26"-30" LCD monitor. At higher res you can push the 280GTX with its 1GB of RAM at 1920x1200 and above resolutions.
If you really plan on getting a 22incher I suggest maybe going for the cheaper 260GTX because the most you can get with your 22inch is 1680x1050 resolution.
 
It all depends on what you want to spend. I think the most pertinent upgrade is the CPU (which means new mobo and RAM of course) as well as the monitor. I'd suggest a good P45 based Gigabyte mobo, 4GB of standard DDR2-800 and an Intel E8400 and then look at getting a 22" Samsung monitor. Then if you still want to spend money, I'd look at getting a 4870 or GTX260 or even just another 8800GTX, which you could possibly find cheaper second hand...
 
Adam....

I'm the guy that bought one of your 7800GTX cards last year, in the mean time I've been catching up to recent specs quite well...

I'd say :
*You yourself choose between going GTX280 or getting a second 8800GTX..
*Get a decent new 45nm quad as your current processor is bottlenecking your GPU.. Q9300 or Q9450, the QX9650 doesnt justify it's price tag as it's only THAT good for pure OC'ing like 3Dmark, and not 3D performance in games.
*If you get a second 8800GTX, get a 780i,
*If you choose to go GTX280, get a decent X48 mobo. (DFI is best.. (check landmarkpc.co.za))
*Get 4GB Ram and Vista x64... PM me...( :D )
*Get a new Samsung 22" or 24" if you can afford another R2000... (Better panel...)
*Keep your awesome soundcard (or sell it to me :) )
*Keep your PSU
*Get a new 500GB, 750GB or 1TB HDD (Seagate or WD if you can, from experience)
*Keep your DVD-RW
*Keep your awesome Antec case..

As for a mouse : People have been getting problems with the new Razer Lachesis, so I'd advise going Logitech G9, or G5SE (Check my sig.. :D )
The Microsoft Habu is also a popular mouse (more popular than the Micosoft Sidewinder), but dynax.co.za also have the new Steelseries mouse that have been getting great reviews, but is'nt that popular in SA yet, due to being less well-known.
 
Last edited:
I'd also advise you to buy a better CPU (Intel Core2 series), another motherboard (ASUS, Gigabyte, XFX, etc), more RAM (about 4GB DDR2-800 should do) and another 8800GTX. As for the monitor, I'd advise a 22" Samsung (2232GW or similar).
 
Hello

I would also like some help please.I just want to make sure that if i go with AMD CPU and Board will i get the Full performance from my GTX 280?
Or will there be issues?

Thank you
 
AMD is not a good choice in their current state. Intel is your only choice really, unless you are a die-hard.

GTX280 is top-end...anything AMD has to offer at the moment is hardly considered to be top-end.

Still your choice ofc ;)
 
Maybe start a new thread?

If you have a GTX280, go with intel, otherwise, wait for the new Phenom II cpus.
 
AcidF said:
Hello

I would also like some help please.I just want to make sure that if i go with AMD CPU and Board will i get the Full performance from my GTX 280?
Or will there be issues?

Thank you
Click to expand...


The phenome IIs are getting getting released January. 4Ghz overclock on air cooling, stock cooler.
 
zanyboy said:
AMD is not a good choice in their current state. Intel is your only choice really, unless you are a die-hard.

GTX280 is top-end...anything AMD has to offer at the moment is hardly considered to be top-end.

Still your choice ofc ;)
Click to expand...

4870 or 4870x2 (rated top card at the moment) not top end whahahahaha
 
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