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New PC build oppinions.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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6. January 2008 @ 04:27 |
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Im seriously now planning to do a PC upgrade since this Pentium 3 is getting old.
My Budget is low but I have planned out some things which will be within it Ok the Specs of my new computer which I want to build are:
*Intel Pentium Dual Core E2180 2.0GHZ $137.90au
*Intel P35 Chipset (Intel Branded DP35DPM ) $179.00au
*2gb (2x1gb) Corsair Value Select Pc-5300 (667mhz) $69.00au
*XpertVision GF 8500GT PCI-E 512MB Super 128-bit DDR2 $115.00au
*Thermaltake TR2 RX 550W PSU (Already Have it)
*160gb Ultra ATA IDE Segate Barracuda?? 7200rpm HDD (Already Have it)
*Pioneer 112D IDE DVD burner (Already have it)
It Totals to something around 500au Im pretty happy with the Graphics and I dont really mind Ram only being 667mhz since at the moment im using 133mhz ram, But I dont know how CPU is and the P35, I chose intel because this PC has an Intel D815EFV since we got it in 2005 (2nd Hand used in schools beofre) and it has been very very solid since even when pushed to playing moderngames.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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6. January 2008 @ 06:16 |
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Anyone??
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dos1986
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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6. January 2008 @ 11:30 |
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asax
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Senior Member
1 product review
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6. January 2008 @ 21:17 |
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Well I found a Gigabyte one but is it the one you were talking about?
its a :
Gigabyte GA-P35-DS3L
??
I think I might go for it since it says the MB I picked cant even overclock the CPU is this true?
And how is gigabyte?, Quality?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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7. January 2008 @ 13:31 |
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The quality of Gigabyte boards is excellent. Better than mid-range Asus boards and any stock Intel ones.
The Graphics card is appalling in your list. An HD3850 will be 10x better, or at least settle for an 8600GT if you're on a very strict budget.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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8. January 2008 @ 04:35 |
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But then Id have to wait another week
LOL!
I would rather take the 8500GT Super and slowly save up for more ram and better graphics and new screen.
But I really do not want to wait more LOL!, the whole year I have had times where I wanted to buy a pc, and my mind changes or my money goes somewhere else, but now I really want to buy it the Sat After this one.
My cousin has this Graphics card, I dont really mind how it runs, I feel that as long as newer games dont go below 30fps at 1024x768 to me that is fine.
Ive seen it run pro street full quality + Extra Anti Aliasing at 1280x960 at above 30fps.
Ive seen it run Crysis Medium setting 1024x768 at above 25fps.
To me this is all fine LOL for now, Later yes I will upgrade but comming from a pentium 3 this will be an AMAZING improvement to me.
Iam More into racing games so I dont see any of that genre that wouldnt run on high?, I guess I would overclock the CPU to 3ghz buy maybe 1-2gb more ram, and get a graphics card like a HD3850 later.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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8. January 2008 @ 06:18 |
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I just have one more question,
I plab to overclock it abit if I need to (CPU), Its just that I have never done it :S,
With the Specs I have listsed and with the Gigabyte MB instead of intel one, and stock cooling, and cheap ram, would I be able to just Up the FSB to like 266mhz to make it 2.66ghz without changin anything else liek Ram timings and VOlts because I have no clue I just want to do it the simple way :D, and would this ram handle it??
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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8. January 2008 @ 06:25 |
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Test Drive Unlimited at 1280x1024 High approximate frame rate averages:
8500GT: 15fps
8600GT: 35fps
8600GTS: 45fps
X1900XT: 57fps
HD3850: 85fps
8800GTS: 102fps
Crysis at 1024x768 Medium approximate frame rate average:
8500GT: 12fps
8600GT: 25fps
8600GTS: 36fps
X1900XT: 45fps
HD3850: 70fps
8800GTS: 80fps
Think carefully about these figures. You may have been waiting quite a while for a new upgrade, but you have to bear in mind that budget graphics cards are a false economy. That is, although they're half the speed of a faster model, they're more than half the cost, so up to a point, faster cards are better value. The current 'best bang for buck' cards are the 8600GTS and the HD3850.
As for the overclocking, I couldn't say. It might, but if you live in a hot climate you'd need to get a proper heatsink. The RAM should be OK.
This message has been edited since posting. Last time this message was edited on 8. January 2008 @ 06:27
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Senior Member
1 product review
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8. January 2008 @ 06:47 |
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Well LOL! SOrt of in a hot climate, since im IN australia, But how is the E2180 like stock clock?, Can it run modern games like Pro Street at high with just its 2ghz?
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Senior Member
1 product review
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8. January 2008 @ 06:48 |
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And is the ATi Hd2600 any better then the 8500?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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8. January 2008 @ 06:59 |
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The 2180 will cope with modern games fine at stock speed.
HD2600XT:
Test Drive Unlimited 1280x1024High: 38fps
Crysis 1024x768Med: 30fps
I think you can clearly see it's better than the 8500GT.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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8. January 2008 @ 07:43 |
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Yes but what about a HD2600Pro not Xt?
Still better thena 8500GT or?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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8. January 2008 @ 09:04 |
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dos1986
Suspended due to non-functional email address
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8. January 2008 @ 09:35 |
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Agree with everything Sammorris has said so far,dont skimp on the graphics,a HD3850 is minimum in todays games with Crysis etc titles coming....Gigabyte ds3l is an awesome board,great overclocker....
Main thing with a gaming system is an awesome graphics card,a cheap cpu can be overclocked to a very good level and ram is very cheap nowadays....
My advice get a
Intel Pentium E2160 (1.8GHz) overclock it as much as you can (you dont have to overclock its fine at 1.8ghz for the moment)....
Gigabyte mobo like a ds3l...
HD3850
2gb 800mhz or 667 mhz ram depending on budget....
asax
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Senior Member
1 product review
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8. January 2008 @ 23:58 |
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But would a HD2600Pro match a Xpert Vision 512mb GT Super?, because its a better 8500 not the plain one.
And does 256 and 512mb matter that much in the 2600?
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Senior Member
1 product review
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9. January 2008 @ 00:06 |
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But Maybe I might end up going for a Xpertvision 256mb HD2600XT but is 256mb vs 512mb a big diff?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. January 2008 @ 07:21 |
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Pre-overclocked graphics cards are bugger all different to the standard ones for gaming, you're looking at 5 or 6% faster at the most. Besides, you can overclock the card yourself anyway. Pre-overclocked cards won't overclock any further than normal ones. Contrary to what you might expect, they're not 'special' samples with higher potential OCs. You're just paying more to have the default clock speeds changed, and potentially get a slightly better cooler. (I've yet to see any graphics card come with a cooler anywhere near as good as something by Thermalright)
As for the memory, yes it's important. 512MB is the difference between being able to run games and them crashing at certain resolutions. At the moment this only typically happens for higher resolutions such as 1680x1050, but in time that will change. it all depends how much more the 512MB version is. Because the 2600 isn't a naturally fast card, the benefits of having more memory on one may not be that obvious.
Above all though, make sure you get the 2600XT and not the Pro. New games will run pretty poorly on the Pro, the XT will be able to hold out a bit longer.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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9. January 2008 @ 07:35 |
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I have found one with 256mb GDDR3 and one with 512mb GDDR2 I guess its a loss one way or the other but which is less noticable?, I wont run games above 1024x768 or 1280x960 anyway.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. January 2008 @ 07:46 |
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GDDR2 memory is a lot slower, so in your case I'd say go with the 256MB version.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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9. January 2008 @ 07:48 |
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And just one more thing, Is there a site you get those FPS for games using those cards from?, or is it just from experience?, because id want to have a look on a site like that :D.
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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9. January 2008 @ 08:02 |
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I used the word approximately because the benchmark tests for late games like Crysis aren't fully comprehensive. However, what I do is I work out roughly how good the cards all are compared to each other here (say I find out the 2600XT is 0.83x as fast as an 8600GTS)
http://www23.tomshardware.com/graphics_2007.html
then use those figures to calculate roughly how fast the card will perform in recent games by using this article:
http://www.tomshardware.com/2007/12/12/geforce_8800_gts_512_mb/
So even though the 2600XT doesn't feature in this benchmark suite, I can say with a reasonable degree of certainty that the 2600XT will perform 0.8-0.85 as well as the 8600GTS in those tests.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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11. January 2008 @ 09:22 |
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Just found this card looks Ok as you said its good, its within my budget not the best but is it any good , ? Xpertvision 256MB Geforce 8600GT GDDR-3 128bit PCI-E 16x?
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AfterDawn Addict
4 product reviews
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11. January 2008 @ 11:15 |
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Get the 2600XT, it's better.
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Senior Member
1 product review
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13. January 2008 @ 05:14 |
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Well Im finalising now and I have chosen to go with the 8500GT Super 512mb card, the thing that brought me back to it is my monitor right now is only 15" CRT and i will use it until I save up for an LCD so thinking there is no need for running high resolutions which will give better framerate, all of the other cards like 8600 and Hd2600 are all average cards too so why should I waste 50-60au more when I could have this 8500GT a bit slower but in a few weeks get something like a Hd3870 :D, and one thing that took me to this card is that I have seen it in action and I dont mind with what I saw like those numbers might be lower then others but..., run a game like Pro Street at 1024x768 everything on high it should run smooth because ive seen it run Pro Street at 2 resolutions above 1280x960 I think, with a couple of hick ups but as soon as he lowered it down one (One above 1024x768) it ran practically smooth, Yes I do belive you 100% with EVERY single thing you said and I have listened to one of the Motherboards one of you recommended me the Gigabyte, but with the GPU im happy with what I have seen and I will sort of belive that more then what FPS counts tell me.
But buying this card now instead of wasting 60au for a few extra frames could get me a HD3870 eariler.
But Big Thanks and I will reply as soon as I get it to tell you what I think, who knows I might like it less then my old Pentium 3 :P
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AfterDawn Addict
2 product reviews
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13. January 2008 @ 07:14 |
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No don't get it. I'm sure you can get a X1650 pro for cheaper and that performs better. Save your self some money.
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