little advise is needed

[KaerMorhen]

I'm about buying new PC and I'm almost convicted about whole thing but....
I've got problem to chose the graphic card, at first I thought about one of the new GF8800's but latter on I realised that might be a waste of money right now and turned my eyes on GF7950 GX2 - less costs but tough enough so far.
The 'HQ' of my new ring will be:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz 1066FSB 4MB
- Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680i SLI DualDDR2-800
- Patriot DDR2-800 CL5 2x2GB elk

what do you think about it as I posted any advises/critisizm are welcome.

[DukeofSerbia]

I'm about buying new PC and I'm almost convicted about whole thing but....
I've got problem to chose the graphic card, at first I thought about one of the new GF8800's but latter on I realised that might be a waste of money right now and turned my eyes on GF7950 GX2 - less costs but tough enough so far.

GF 8800 is not waste of money. GF7950 GX2 is waste of money as need more power and is ONLY DX9.0c and 8800 is DX10 + nVidia doesn't any more produce them (abondoned product). GF7950 GX2 will be completely useless in the new DX10 games which will flood market in 2nd half of year. Just think on Crisis, Company of Heroes 2, and similar. All will be in DX10. Just buy GF8800 or wait a bit for new Radeon DX10 cards to come in market...

EDIT

Just checked - even 8800GTS is faster than GF7950 GX2, not to mention 8800GTX.

The 'HQ' of my new ring will be:
- Intel Core 2 Duo E6700 2.66GHz 1066FSB 4MB
- Asus Striker Extreme nForce 680i SLI DualDDR2-800
- Patriot DDR2-800 CL5 2x2GB elk

what do you think about it as I posted any advises/critisizm are welcome.

I would never buy anyhing faster than E6420 as can be easily o/c. Actually; I would buy E4300 which is the best Intel o/c CPU after legendary Celeron 300A.

And I prefer Corsair memories.

[KaerMorhen]

Just checked - even 8800GTS is faster than GF7950 GX2, not to mention 8800GTX.

so only 8800GTX looks reasonable even if it isn't cheap, on the other hand I've never been admirer of Radeons

I would never buy anyhing faster than E6420

what is the average price of it, roughly?

And I prefer Corsair memories.

in fact I'm complete noob if it comes to memory cores but many advised me to check GEIL products.

anyways thx for help friend!

[DukeofSerbia]

so only 8800GTX looks reasonable even if it isn't cheap, on the other hand I've never been admirer of Radeons

Do I speak 'Tarzan English' or I wrote even 8800GTS is faster than GF7950 GX2. 8800GTS is faster than GF7950 GX2. So buy 8800GTS and you will be very pleased. Don't waste money on GTX version.

In Serbia 8800GTS 320MB costs ~320 euros and GTX 768MB ~600 euros.

what is the average price of it, roughly?

In USA $187.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16819115016
But that is newegg.
In Serbia so far can be rare found (~200 euros).

Do you know anything about o/c?

in fact I'm complete noob if it comes to memory cores but many advised me to check GEIL products.

Not cores, modules . Geil was superb in DDR time, but in DDR2 they are average.
Corsair XMS is superb memory.

[Erik]

so only 8800GTX looks reasonable even if it isn't cheap

If it's too expensive you can also choose the GTS version.

on the other hand I've never been admirer of Radeons

Why not?

If you want HDR and AA (and you do, games look so much better with both HDR and AA enabled) then you need either a Radeon or a GF8xxx series card.
The quality of nVidia's AA was also very poor on the GF7xxx series, but has hugely improved in the GF8xxx series.
But then you're not an admirer of Radeons so I guess you don;t care about image quality

[KaerMorhen]

In Serbia 8800GTS 320MB costs ~320 euros and GTX 768MB ~600 euros.

I guess in Poland prices will be similar

Do you know anything about o/c?

my knowledge and abilities are next to zero in this matter but I've got friends who love that kind of 'acivities'

[/QUOTE]If you want HDR and AA (and you do, games look so much better with both HDR and AA enabled) then you need either a Radeon or a GF8xxx series card.
The quality of nVidia's AA was also very poor on the GF7xxx series, but has hugely improved in the GF8xxx series.
But then you're not an admirer of Radeons so I guess you don;t care about image quality[/QUOTE]

my opinion is based on experiences of people who had/have Radeons - mostly they complained about problems with gaming and lack of drivers. They mention even catalyst or something doesn't solve the problem either but as I said my knowledge about tech specs is rather pathetic.

[Erik]

my opinion is based on experiences of people who had/have Radeons - mostly they complained about problems with gaming and lack of drivers. They mention even catalyst or something doesn't solve the problem either but as I said my knowledge about tech specs is rather pathetic.

I have used both ATi and nVidia cards.
Currently I have a GF8800 GTS, but until two months ago I had a Radeon 9600 Pro.
I also owned a GF2 MX before that.

I think the problem you describe dates to many years ago.
ATi used to receive many complaints about their lack of driver updates in the 1990's, but they totally turned that around by committing to resealing a new driver every month.
From my personal experience ATi's driver support is currently slightly better than nVidia's, but both are more than adequate.
Old reputations are hard to kill sometimes.

[DukeofSerbia]

I guess in Poland prices will be similar

I guess too.

my knowledge and abilities are next to zero in this matter but I've got friends who love that kind of 'acivities'

If you won't o/c then E6600 will be enough as E6700 doesn't worth that money.

I think the problem you describe dates to many years ago.
ATi used to receive many complaints about their lack of driver updates in the 1990's, but they totally turned that around by committing to resealing a new driver every month.

I agree. Problem was that many game publishers had exclusive agreements with nVidia, and that caused havoc among games played on ATI. By the time things changed.

From my personal experience ATi's driver support is currently slightly better than nVidia's, but both are more than adequate.
Old reputations are hard to kill sometimes.

Well, there are already jokes in Serbian computer magazines that nVidia employed former ATI driver's programmers. [as they become crap in newer versions]

[KaerMorhen]

let say I choose GF8800GTX but... what is Radeons equal/better pick up??? I've heard about 2900 series or something, maybe do you know the site where I can find some test of both and summary after all?

[DukeofSerbia]

let say I choose GF8800GTX but...

Are you crazy to spend 600 euros on graphics?

There are also 8800GTS models with 640MB and they are ~400 euros.

Better build RAID hdd system.

what is Radeons equal/better pick up??? I've heard about 2900 series or something, maybe do you know the site where I can find some test of both and summary after all?

I don't know. There are preliminary tests.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2988 This is the best hardware site. Next month in paper magazines will be published tests (which is for three days). I am ATI/AMD fan, but not sure how the new ones are good enough.

[KaerMorhen]

Better build RAID hdd system.

care to explain what it is exactly cause you have to remember that probably talking to the wall will be more effective than to me

I don't know. There are preliminary tests.
http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2988 This is the best hardware site. Next month in paper magazines will be published tests (which is for three days). I am ATI/AMD fan, but not sure how the new ones are good enough.

I'm going to check it out, btw nowdays 'rivalries' between ATI/AMD fans from one side and Intel/nVidia addicts from another reminds me the 'good old times' when 'war' between Atari and Commodore owners lasted

[Erik]

care to explain what it is exactly cause you have to remember that probably talking to the wall will be more effective than to me

RAID stand for Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks (some people say Independent in stead of Inexpensive)

It's a technique of combining several cheap/independent harddisks to form a single logical disks to get better performance and (usually) better data protection.

There are (IIRC) seven ways to create a RAID, called "RAID levels"
-RAID level 0 (aka "striping") has no data protection but best performance (usually more than twice as fast as non-RAID)
-RAID level 1 (aka "mirror") makes two identical copies of all your data, so if one harddisk fails you'll still have a working copy on another disk. Because it makes two copies you'll also loose half your storage capacity. RAID 1 has slightly slower write speeds than non-RAID, but read speeds are almost as fast as with RAID 0.
-RAID level 5 (one of the "parity" RAID levels) needs at least three disks. It stores parity data and can recover from one failed disk. You'll loose one disk (so at most 1/3rd) of storage space and performance is slower than RAID 1 but better than non-RAID.

It's also possible to combine multiple RAID's.
For example: with four disks you can create two RAID 1's and then combine those two with RAID 0 to get a super fast but still secure RAID 0+1 (aka RAID 01....or was that RAID 10?)

And Intels "Matrix storage" RAID controller allows you to create multiple RAID's on a single set of disks.
So with two disks and an Intel Matrix controller you can create a RAID 0 for your games and a RAID 1 for your work, and only loose your games when a harddisk crashes. (and assuming you have a CD/DVD for every game you play you don;t really loose them either).
That's my recommended setup.

Other RAID levels aren't common for desktop PC's.

I'm going to check it out, btw nowdays 'rivalries' between ATI/AMD fans from one side and Intel/nVidia addicts from another reminds me the 'good old times' when 'war' between Atari and Commodore owners lasted

Yes, it's really silly IMO.
If you want the best deal you should always consider multiple brands and then pick one based on cold facts, not emotions.
If you fall in love with one brand it means the marketing folks have gotten to you.

I do find it sad when AMD can't compete with Intel because I know that having two brands competing will be better for the consumer (=me) on the long run than having a monopoly.
But it didn't prevent me from buying an intel Core 2 CPU for my last computer.

[Erik]

let say I choose GF8800GTX but... what is Radeons equal/better pick up??? I've heard about 2900 series or something, maybe do you know the site where I can find some test of both and summary after all?

ATi's HD2900 has just been released, but initial reviews weren't that good.
The driver isn't optimized yet though, so performance might still improve over time (although there is no guarantee)

But more important than pure performance is the price/performance ratio.
So you should take a close look at benchmarks and price listings.

ATi X1950 XT is another alternative.
It's older and slower than 8800 GTS, and only supports DX9.
But with DX10 cards flooding the market and quickly replacing all DX9 cards you'll probably be able to pick one up at huge discounts in the coming months.
And you don't really need DX10 for another year or two, so if you don't spend much today you can already save up for the next generation DX10 cards.

[Freddie]

what do you think about it as I posted any advises/critisizm are welcome.

Don't take broadband for granted and try not to move house to often.

BTW GET a GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB don't get the one you mentioned 7950....DirectX 10 is the future and you need a card that can hold your hand whilst technology moves forward.

[KaerMorhen]

Personally I support the idea of combining multiple manufacturers to get most optimized effect but also have heard stories about possible troubles caused by such technique. I don't know how many of them are based of facts and how much rubbish involves others. I completely agree that emotions aren't good advisers if you going to spend money.

[DukeofSerbia]

The main problem can be caused in relation >>motherboard and memory<<< plus some sound cards. Many new memories and motherboards just don't like each others [MBs refuse to boot with some memories] - compatibility issue.

Graphics cars [as I know] can't cause that. Just stick with 8800GTS and everything will be fine. New Radeon HD2900XT is not good, at least in first previews.