Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: Race on December 02, 2008, 01:42:40 AM
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With Christmas around the corner I am looking to upgrade my computer. Right now everything is fairly even matched (in my highly uneducated opinion anyway) and the next choice is a little unclear. I was thinking about SLI because the video card I own is SLI capable (however the MB is NOT). With AH I can pretty much do whatever I want with the video settings. Some of the other games I play arent quite up to par tho. Power supply is already overloaded according to supply/demand so its got to go...So far the computer doesnt run to bad when the mother board isnt being fried by a lightning strike. The funny part was its the only thing on a surge protector. They told me I needed a new MB along with another hard drive. Got the hard drive back (for proprietary data) plugged it in and viola no issues. I could have only hoped they canned the whole thing and gave me my money back. Vista has been a night mare all along and I can relate to skuzzy's pain. Except for the factory OC on the video card the whole thing is stock parameters. I couldnt even tell you what the temp of the CPU is and prefer to keep it that way.
I keep my tinkering in the garage for good reasons. :D
The computer specs:
AMD 5000+ Dual Core processors running at 2.6 GHz
3 GB's of factory ram (unknown specs)
Two 400GB disk drives (1 for games and 1 for everything else)
22" Gateway running 1680X1040 screen res at 60 Hertz
512mb 8600 GT OC video card (SLI Capable)
Vista (ick)
DirectX 10
Two things....I am stuck with AMD and NVidia for unrelated software reasons.
Race
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From what I know, SLI doesn't give you enough benefit to really encourage you to use 2 video cards.
I'd suggest you buy a new video card, it seems like your choke point.
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Skip trying to SLI that card, get a 9800 (or a GT260 or GT280 if it's in the buget) and upgrade your power supply.
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8600 GT is a lower mid range card. You'll be wise to spend money on 1 single better video card than a duplicate + new motherboard.
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Educate me here... you say "Two things....I am stuck with AMD and NVidia for unrelated software reasons." I am not aware of any software other then OCing gizmo's that are proprietary to hardware. Information please.
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8600 GT is a lower mid range card. You'll be wise to spend money on 1 single better video card than a duplicate + new motherboard.
Ditto, that card is minimal.
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If you have money to toss away, I bet those 400GB hard drives are not too fast. A single new/huge HD or one of the WD raptors (or velociraptors) would make the system feel a bit more responsive due to faster drive access.
But the other suggestions about the vid card are correct. I recommend a GTX260 since they can be purchased for right around $200 right now and they have great bang/buck ratio.
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Watch the 150 v-raptors huge failure rate. Also WD made big boo boo, the drives are hotswap but they don't fit 98% of the hotswap cards.
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GTX260 are in the $250-$300 range
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GTX260 are in the $250-$300 range
I got mine at newegg for $229 minus a 30$ rebate. It's one of the older ones, but the older ones are maybe 1% slower than the newer ones.
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If you can find that deal post the link for the members. Great buy!!!
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EVGA 260, the 198 Stream Proc. model. $220 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370
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EVGA 260, the 198 Stream Proc. model. $220 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370
It's $219 now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130370
$10 more out the door gets you an overclocked version, but the $10 rebate brings it back to $219.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130373