Buying new pc - spec opinion

[Crazy_Jonny]

In my humble opinion, if money is an issue then video card is the thing you should downgrade. Top of the line cards are way over priced compared to a small downgrade.

Also, especially for a technical newbie like me, video cards are the easiest hardware to upgrade yourself in a couple years.

I was thining that too, I was gonna say geforce 8800gts(512) would be the way to go. You can find em for under $100, and definately outperform the 9600gt. But for the money, Id would be fine with the machine the way it is.

[spychi]

This may be a bit nit-picky, but I don't feel that nVidia cards are "much much weaker" than ATi cards. While you will get more bang for your buck with ATi cards, the nVidia cards usually have higher performance or comparable performance at a higher price tag. It's mostly stability that comes into question that causes the difference in price.

I haven't really been caught up on the benchmarks for the past 6-7 months, but I think your statement is a bit harsh on the nVidia vs ATi debate, that's all.

well look at the 9800GT it supposed to have the same power as the 4850 cause it's price is the same but in tests the ATI 4850 is beating the 9800GT.
Look at the GTX260 216core rev2, it costs more than a 4870 1GB but the performance is the same.

I was thining that too, I was gonna say geforce 8800gts(512) would be the way to go. You can find em for under $100, and definately outperform the 9600gt. But for the money, Id would be fine with the machine the way it is.

well the results are almost equal

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...gt,1780-1.html

[Gifted]

Depending on $$$ - see if you can upgrade the 9600 vid card to a 9800. Shouldn't cost a LOT more...but you'll get HUGE graphics improvements.

I greatly suggest/support this. The issue is the 9500 and 9600 have issues with certain operating systems creating a black screen at random times.

I expirience it on Vista and it can be a major pain. The 9800 has no such issues. Besides, it is a significant upgrade for a minimal price (Comparitively)

[EvilGenius]

First of all don't buy the nvidia cards nowadays those are more expensive and some of those like 9600GT or 9800GT are much much weaker than ATI's one.
Forget about e7600 CPU comparing it with a Q6600 it takes a beating.

4770 HD GPU or 4850 HD
I had dual 9600GT in SLI mode it was great but the single card can't do much
instead of that mobo buy yourself a P5Q Pro or Gigabyte DQ6 x48 chipset, also the HDD - buy the 640GB Samsung with 16mb Cache
the minimum for RAM clocking is 800MHz nowadays - Kingston, OCZ, Corsair whatever you want
600W PSU OCZ

If you want to go higher resolutions - 1920x1200 or 1600x1200 the 9600GT will be your worst decision.
4870 1GB, 4850 or 4770 nothing else ATI has now the best graphic cards if you consider quality, overclocking and price



no problem, if you can play Down of War 2 on ultra than rest assured that there will be no issues with frame rates in SC2 on highest settings

I have a Q6600 OC'ed, 4870 1GB, 4GB DDR2 800MHz, right now the only thing I will change soon is my mobo, cause I have a P5N-D old 750SLI chipset and I'm changing it probably on a x48 chipset - or Asus Rampage 2 or the gigabyte DQ6

This should be in the Offtopic-lounge btw

I wouldn't say EVERY nvidia card is more expensive - i got a 9600 GSO for $35 after rebates (also came with CoD 5) from newegg.com. If they were still on sale i'd say pop in 2 of those suckers in SLI.

I usually check slickdeals.net for cheap cards. I almost bought a 4850 there...

[spychi]

9600GSO is really "low end" and going SLI with those wouldn't be a good idea.
Remember that one GPU is always better than two if the performance is the same, thats why I changed those two 9600GT on one 4870 1GB, with lower power consumption, heat and increased performance I am happy.

[Gritten]

The ATI / NVidia debate is a long long one with no real winner IMHO.

One will always do better and something while the other will do better at something else. Personally, I'm not an ATI fan due to past experience with driver issues and just the company themselves. NVidia has yet to fail me. Again, please note these are personal opinions. Others have the opposite experience.

The 9800 is a rebranded 8800. Slightly different core, slightly higher RAM, and clock speeds.

The reason I suggested this is because if you're getting a pre-build system for 500....to upgrade from a 9600 to a 9800 may only increase the price of the system by 25-50 bucks depending on the retailer. If keeping the system cheap is a goal, this *may* be the way to go. A dual core 3ghz system is definately going to due you fine for some time still. As long as your video card can keep up. THe other thing is - RAM amount vs RAM speed. you won't need 4-8gig of RAM for sc2. but if you're looking at ram at 800mhz vs 1066+ you'll get a serious performance increase from the RAM. But I'm rambling now.

[spychi]

but if you're looking at ram at 800mhz vs 1066+ you'll get a serious performance increase from the RAM. But I'm rambling now.

well I don't see the diffrence, I mounted 1066MHz from my friend's rig and it didn't increase the frame rate one bit, the only thing I've noticed it was the faster boot-up nothing else

[Maul]

IMO buy the graphics right before SC2 comes out. CPU/RAM is fine. Same cards today will be cheaper tomorrow and will have biggest impact on performance. Blizz will make this so any modern computer can handle it at some level and higher res != advantage, just eye candy. If you want best details you need $$$

[Gritten]

well I don't see the diffrence, I mounted 1066MHz from my friend's rig and it didn't increase the frame rate one bit, the only thing I've noticed it was the faster boot-up nothing else

Really depends on what you're doing and playing.
If you have 4 gig of ram available, and a game effectively stores and swaps 1 gig worth of data in and out of memory there's always 3 gig available so the system doesn't have to wait for memory to become available again before reallocating it.

If you're playing something that's eating up your entire 4 gig, and it needs to wait for memory to become accessible, you'll start to notice a different. I doubt 800vs1066 isn't going to have a huge affect on whether or not SC2 can be played @ max setting...but when puchasing a computer, lets be realistic, is the ONLY thing that computer is ever going to be used for is SC2?

[Maul]

but when puchasing a computer, lets be realistic, is the ONLY thing that computer is ever going to be used for is SC2?

Let's be realistic, he sounds like a student that wants to play gamez. Most people won't notice any difference in RAM speed, typically, and those that will would get the better option anyway.

Edit: Comment looks arrogant, not the intention.