Well I bit the bullet...

[Tigger29]

G/F decided to build her dad a new computer for father's day as his old emachines is pushing 8 years old with no more upgrade options available, so this gives me a chance to get a little creative.

He's going to get her 9500GT.  She's going to get my 9800GTX+.  I'm buying me a new 5830...  I know the 9500 isn't much of a cart, but it's going to be 500X better than whatever PCI video card (no NOT PCI-e) he's got in his... which I'm sure was better than the onboard graphics the 8 year old emachines was originally equipped with LOL.  I got this card for just under $199 with after $15 rebate and free shipping.  I was considering a 5770, but this was literally only about $30-40 more.

I'm going to give him *MY* computer case.  It's an el-cheapo micro ATX case.. but it does look good and it's not very old at all.  (I'm getting a new NZXT case LOL).  Not a tempest, but one of their entry level cases that came with an el-cheapo 580 Watt power supply for $29.99 after $20 rebate and free shipping.  I'll take my chances with that P/S on his system, and I'll transfer over my 750 watt 'Seasonic'.  His emachines has a perfectly good 450 watt power supply that was replaced about a year or so ago, so I'll have that to default to if need be.

I'm graciously donating one of my 250GB hard drives for the cause, as I have a new Velociraptor coming.  I *ALMOST* took on a new SSD, but I'm still not quite 100% confident on the technology yet.

I also got me a couple of nice 120mm and one 140mm fan.  I have six 80mm fans now of which 2 are noisy.. so I'll transfer four of them over for him.  He'll also be getting a new AM3 motherboard, 3.0GHZ AMD processor (dual core), 2GB DDR3 (1333 even!) ram, and WinXP Pro. 32bit.

I don't believe this will be a bad system for him.  It gets light-duty use (internet, email, Zuma's revenge) and he spends quite a bit of time playing adventure games (2D graphics for the most part)... and maybe a few flash games online.  His old computer is so dated, it won't even run any of the newer adventure games on the market.

Now it might seem rude to give away 'used' parts from my old system as gifts, but my family is used to it.  My Dad has a saying, "I can't wait for my son to upgrade his computer, because it means that MINE will get upgraded too!" because he always gets my hand-me-downs LOL.  Well he got pretty much a fresh build for Christmas (with windows 7 even!) so this time around it can go to my 'step' father...

All in all it's going to cost me just a bit under $600, but she's giving me $300 for what her dad's going to get out of it, so I'm not complaining!  Now I'm going to have to figure out what to do with a perfectly good old emachines! LOL

[Chalenge]

You traded a 9800 GTX for a notebook class GPU? 

[gyrene81]

You traded a 9800 GTX for a notebook class GPU? 

I think he's talking about this one, not the mobile unit:

http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-5000/hd-5830/Pages/hd-5830-specifications.aspx

[Tigger29]

You traded a 9800 GTX for a notebook class GPU? 

Yes the eyefinity 5830, ya dork LOL

[Ghosth]

Sounds perfectly logical to me!

[Tigger29]

Got it installed.. working great!  FULL SETTINGS:  1920X1200, 1024 Textures (including hi-res), FULL AA, all graphics options on, all sliders maxed out, all shadows ON (4096) and I can't get it below my monitor's refresh rate no matter what I do.  I turned off V-sync temporarily just out of curiosity and the lowest I've seen it go is 85 FPS... but it's very common to see 200-300FPS.

If I pick 8192 shadow textures, it bogs down quite a bit... drops to 30-40FPS... I'm sure it's 1GB memory is filling up at that point.. but I can't even really notice a difference between 2048 and 4096.. let alone 8192! LOL.

MS Flight Simulator X is all pretty now too.. I have just about everything maxed out and it stays pegged at its 25FPS limit... if I raise the limit it gets a little jumpy at times, but by limiting it there it all stays smooth.. even in a thunderstorm.  I just did the monsoon mission to test it out and not only was the weather pretty, but it also played very smoothly.. and landing sideways is always a thrill.. even on a computer!

It was "H I S" brand.. I got it for just under $200, and it comes with a two year warranty (It seems like very few of these new generation cards come with lifetime warranties anymore).  I couldn't be happier.

Now it's time to shuffle these old part around LOL...

[Chalenge]

I dont like the sound of that! I was getting 32-30 fps on 8800GTs in SLI and now with the 480s never below refresh rate (talking FSX and I have all kinds of eye candy addons). But I tested Ati cards back two years ago (I think) and decided it was not the way to go at all. Well as long as it works well with AH its all that matters. 

[Ack-Ack]

It was "H I S" brand.. I got it for just under $200, and it comes with a two year warranty (It seems like very few of these new generation cards come with lifetime warranties anymore).  I couldn't be happier.

HIS is a decent brand, I really like their IceQ cooling system they use on some of their cards (wished all featured it).  In my old gaming machine, I have the IceQ DDR3 4670 AGP card and it runs very quiet and cool.

ack-ack

[Tigger29]

I dont like the sound of that! I was getting 32-30 fps on 8800GTs in SLI and now with the 480s never below refresh rate (talking FSX and I have all kinds of eye candy addons). But I tested Ati cards back two years ago (I think) and decided it was not the way to go at all. Well as long as it works well with AH its all that matters. 

Yes but you have to realize.. this is the ENTRY LEVEL eyefinity card.  The 480 is an entirely different beast altogether...

[Chalenge]

Yes I realize...

[Kazaa]

Yes the eyefinity 5830, ya dork LOL

Good luck gaming with 3 screens on that GPU.

[MrRiplEy[H]]

Yes but you have to realize.. this is the ENTRY LEVEL eyefinity card.  The 480 is an entirely different beast altogether...

Not to mention IIRC Chalenge has 3x480 in triple SLI not just a single 480.

He's comparing a 100 dollar card to a 1000 dollar setup