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[Ysiadmihi]

You might have a bad GPU. I would return it if I were you. I get recommended to play on high setting with my 8800GTS 320mb, your 9800GT is leagues above my card.

I think I'll do a few more tests before I return it, but it really doesn't look like it's going to run much better. Crysis Warhead did run significantly better on medium after cleaning the drivers, but it's unplayable with a few settings on high. Far Cry 2 still runs pretty bad as well.

 

[Minsc]

You might have a bad GPU. I would return it if I were you. I get recommended to play on high setting with my 8800GTS 320mb, your 9800GT is leagues above my card.

According to gpureview, it's really not that much better. They have roughly the same core clock, shader clock, memory clock, pixel fill rate, and the 9800 GT actually has slower memory bandwidth. The texture fill rate is the only place it really seems to make a difference.

Hell, according to 3dmark, the 9800 GT scores ~15% lower than the 8800 GTS. So you would be totally incorrect then.

 

[Hazaro]

According to gpureview, it's really not that much better. They have roughly the same core clock, shader clock, memory clock, pixel fill rate, and the 9800 GT actually has slower memory bandwidth. The texture fill rate is the only place it really seems to make a difference.

Hell, according to 3dmark, the 9800 GT scores ~15% lower than the 8800 GTS. So you would be totally incorrect then.

You linked the G92 core (512MB) instead of the older G80 core (320/640MB)

 

[Minsc]

You linked the G92 core (512MB) instead of the older G80 core (320/640MB)

I saw that, I couldn't find a 320 meg version. How much else is different? If it's just the RAM, I doubt the final results are too different.

Actually the GPUReview link is the G80 core according to the specs (says G80).

 

[Ysiadmihi]

I tried cleaning the drivers a second time and now Crysis Warhead runs great on high settings. Fallout runs better but still drops to very low numbers, but it did that on my 8600GT at times too so that might be the game itself screwing up : / Gonna try cleaning the drivers in Vista again later to see how Far Cry 2 and GTA4 runs.

I think I'll stick with this card after seeing it finally run Crysis well, but should I be worried that Fallout still suggests I use such low settings? Or could that indicate a problem with another piece of hardware?

 

[Hazaro]

I saw that, I couldn't find a 320 meg version. How much else is different? If it's just the RAM, I doubt the final results are too different.

Actually the GPUReview link is the G80 core according to the specs (says G80).

The core is different. It's not the same card. Bad naming conventions.

I tried cleaning the drivers a second time and now Crysis Warhead runs great on high settings. Fallout runs better but still drops to very low numbers, but it did that on my 8600GT at times too so that might be the game itself screwing up : / Gonna try cleaning the drivers in Vista again later to see how Far Cry 2 and GTA4 runs.

I think I'll stick with this card after seeing it finally run Crysis well, but should I be worried that Fallout still suggests I use such low settings? Or could that indicate a problem with another piece of hardware?

Fallout 3 does that, no worries. Try reducing draw distance to help.

 

[K.Jack]

Quick question, why is the Geforce 9800 considered to be so much better then the 9600 for laptops?

Saw a laptop at Best Buy that was the same specs as one I was considering online except for that, but it was $600 cheaper. (Cheaper make though, so I wouldn't get it, but I was wondering)

Not "considered". It is so much better. The 9600 is 128-bit vs the 9800's 256-bit. The 256 card's larger bandwidth will allow way more data from the memory to be addressed. The 512MB is really almost more than the 9600 can address at once, and that's why 256MB equipped 8600/9600 notebooks are very common. Another gimmick is the 9650M GT with whopping 1GB of video memory.

I have these GPU-Z shots on hand for comparison's sake:

DDR2 and DDR3 9600s:

vs my 9800M GT, running at stock clocks:

^Look at the Pixel/Texture Fillrates and the Bandwidth. Another major strength difference is that the 9800m GT has three times the shaders of Nvidia's mid-range mobile cards (every card between 8600M GT and 9700M GT has the same number of shaders because, well, in reality they're the same card being constantly tweaked). The 9800m GS and GTS have 32 less than the GT.

Intel Core 2 Duo P8400 (2,53 GHz. 3MB L2, FSB 1066)
9600M GT (500/1250/1600) 65nm with 512MB DDR3 at 1600MHz
Screen 15.4"

I'm downgrading to XP and will OC the graphic card tomorrow.

The P8400 is 2.26Ghz. The 2.53Ghz Montevina chip with 3MB L2 cache will be the new P8700.

 

[BoboBrazil]

Use CoreTemp or RealTemp just in case.

Under 60 load is where it's at really, but nothing you should be doing should cause the CPU to throttle itself.

OH SHIT GTX 295 IS OUT :lol
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130439

Time to read some more reviews and see if it got any better.

Saw one of these at Fry's today from BFG. Unfortunately they said they couldn't sale before the street date. They also had the new Phenom 2 processor system numbers under their no interest deal, but didn't receive stock yet...

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Ok...when uninstall the drivers in Vista and reboot, it automatically installs new ones (I guess some generic one that came with Vista) before I can cancel. Any idea how to prevent that?

 

[grap3fruitman]

See I was thinking something along the lines of

Core i7 920 2.66GHZ $300
ASUS P6T6 WS Revolution motherboard $370
CORSAIR 6GB 240-Pin DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) $239 or OCZ 6GB 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) $246
The thing with the ram is that the Corsair is 1600 but has 8-8-8-24 timings while the OCZ is 1333 but with 7-7-7-20 timings. Not sure which I'd be better off with, particularly with that motherboard.
GTX 295 $510
So right there I'm at ~$1,400. Any opinions on this setup?

Someone also recommended to me the Gigabyte GA-EX58-DS4 instead of the Asus I was looking at.

 

[Labombadog]

I saw that, I couldn't find a 320 meg version. How much else is different? If it's just the RAM, I doubt the final results are too different.

Actually the GPUReview link is the G80 core according to the specs (says G80).

Trust me, its a BIG difference. I installed a 9800GT to my dads PC and it runs a hell of alot faster than my graphic card. And my CPU is OC'ed to 3.2Ghz and his Quad is at stock (2.4Ghz).

Ok...when uninstall the drivers in Vista and reboot, it automatically installs new ones (I guess some generic one that came with Vista) before I can cancel. Any idea how to prevent that?

I would turn 'Automatic Updates' off, then try to uninstall and restart. Try that!

 

[Ysiadmihi]

I would turn 'Automatic Updates' off, then try to uninstall and restart. Try that!

It's off. Even unplugged the net, rebooted and it still installed it so it must have the drivers stored someplace on the hard drive :lol

 

[rc213]

It's off. Even unplugged the net, rebooted and it still installed it so it must have the drivers stored someplace on the hard drive :lol

C:\Nvidia

That DIR is usually created when I install Nvidia's video drivers.

I use Driver Sweeper when I have to reinstall my video drivers.

http://www.guru3d.com/category/driversweeper/

How to use ?

There are two methods to use Driver Sweeper.
Both methods achieve the same results. This method is always able to clean all files.

This method will delete remaining files upon reboot (if deleting failed). You can clean your drivers this way:

* Use the official uninstaller(s) of the driver(s) you want to uninstall.
* Reboot your PC in Safe Mode.
* Run Driver Sweeper and select what to clean.
* Analyse lists all the entries possible to remove, cleaning removes the entries selected.
* More drivers can be selected for the same cleaning process.

 

[pizzaguysrevenge]

OH SHIT GTX 295 IS OUT :lol
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130439

Time to read some more reviews and see if it got any better.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Figured it out. Had to uninstall the device and then disable it before restarting. An option to at least prompt me before installing would have been nice Microsoft :lol

 

[Hazaro]

:lol

 

[VictimOfGrief]

Any guesses?

 

[Hazaro]

Any guesses?

8400GS

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Bah, still cannot get a decent frame rate in Far Cry 2. Crysis Warhead was running great, but I think it's just because the area I was in wasn't as open as the others because now the framerate is constantly between 10-20fps

Can an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ oc'd to 3.2ghz be bottlenecking a 9800GT or should I try looking at another component like the motherboard or PSU?

Edit: Just ran 3DMark06. Got a score of 6358...similar systems get 11605. This is under XP, and Vista runs even worse

 

[demigod]

Bah, still cannot get a decent frame rate in Far Cry 2. Crysis Warhead was running great, but I think it's just because the area I was in wasn't as open as the others because now the framerate is constantly between 10-20fps

Can an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ oc'd to 3.2ghz be bottlenecking a 9800GT or should I try looking at another component like the motherboard or PSU?

Edit: Just ran 3DMark06. Got a score of 6358...similar systems get 11605. This is under XP, and Vista runs even worse

Well I'm no computer expert but I really think your CPU is bottlenecking your card. Aren't X2 5000+ like 2-3 years now? I had a 4200+ with a Radeon 1900XTX , I upgraded my cpu and used the 1900XTX until my 4870 arrived. I couldn't believe that I was getting 20FPS increase in Left 4 Dead with the new cpu. I was getting anywhere from 15-30fps with high settings and then I was getting over 45FPS afterwards.

 

[Gibbo]

Hey Guys looking to build a custom PC. How does this look?

CPU :Asus P5Q P45 GBE/1394
Intel Quad Core Q9400
HDD :Hitachi 500GB 8/16MB
RAM : PC 8500/1066 Kingston HyperX 1GB x2
Graphics: Asus EAH 4850 512 MB DDR3


Would this be able to run stuff like COD: WAW, Crysis, Left4Dead?

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Well I'm no computer expert but I really think your CPU is bottlenecking your card. Aren't X2 5000+ like 2-3 years now? I had a 4200+ with a Radeon 1900XTX , I upgraded my cpu and used the 1900XTX until my 4870 arrived. I couldn't believe that I was getting 20FPS increase in Left 4 Dead with the new cpu. I was getting anywhere from 15-30fps with high settings and then I was getting over 45FPS afterwards.

I'd like to think it's the CPU so at least I'd know what the problem was :lol After searching a bit on the net though it looks like the CPU should be alright for most games as long as it's overclocked.

I'm starting to think the video card may be damaged but have no way of testing it in another PC with a PCI-E motherboard : / I guess I'll try switching the card to the lower PCI-E slot for the hell of it.

 

[JudgeN]

Bah, still cannot get a decent frame rate in Far Cry 2. Crysis Warhead was running great, but I think it's just because the area I was in wasn't as open as the others because now the framerate is constantly between 10-20fps

Can an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ oc'd to 3.2ghz be bottlenecking a 9800GT or should I try looking at another component like the motherboard or PSU?

Edit: Just ran 3DMark06. Got a score of 6358...similar systems get 11605. This is under XP, and Vista runs even worse

Its your CPU, Athlon 64 X2 5000+ has a 512kb cache and that's what killing your performance. I used to have one overclocked to 3.2gig just like you and was getting 40-45 FPS in bioshock with an 8800GT (Which is the same card as a 9800GT). When I switched to a stock Q6600 I got a rock solid 60 FPS in bioshock and an increase of 15-20 FPS in other games. AMD CPU are trash right now I'm afraid, the phenom 2 may change that but everything else AMD CPU wise sucks. You need to get an intel CPU/board or wait for phenom 2 and see if they don't suck.

 

[rohlfinator]

Hey Guys looking to build a custom PC. How does this look?

CPU :Asus P5Q P45 GBE/1394
Intel Quad Core Q9400
HDD :Hitachi 500GB 8/16MB
RAM : PC 8500/1066 Kingston HyperX 1GB x2
Graphics: Asus EAH 4850 512 MB DDR3


Would this be able to run stuff like COD: WAW, Crysis, Left4Dead?

Should be more than fine for COD and L4D, and should handle Crysis pretty well, depending on your resolution. You might as well spring for 4GB of RAM, though... won't cost you too much more.

 

[VictimOfGrief]

http://shop1.frys.com/product/5361898?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

I picked one up for myself yesterday.... painting happens this weekend.

 

[blitz64]

Bah, still cannot get a decent frame rate in Far Cry 2. Crysis Warhead was running great, but I think it's just because the area I was in wasn't as open as the others because now the framerate is constantly between 10-20fps

Can an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ oc'd to 3.2ghz be bottlenecking a 9800GT or should I try looking at another component like the motherboard or PSU?

Edit: Just ran 3DMark06. Got a score of 6358...similar systems get 11605. This is under XP, and Vista runs even worse

Don't look at the total 3dmark06 score. Just look at the graphics score which is pixel shader 2 and 3.0. This will take the cpu out of the equation. Although you should compare the cpu score to see how old your cpu is.

Tomshardware.com has the pixel shader2,3 score of most graphic cards. So compare the graphic score and not the total. If it's still way off, I would return and get a different card.

 

[Fantasmo]

Ok I have a bunch of questions that I was hoping you guys would be able to answer... I'm really a dinosaur when it comes to putting together machines (last one I built was an Athlon XP 3000+).

I'd like to be able to play Crysis, Oblivion, Fallout 3, and possibly a few others down the road but future proofing isn't that high on my list.

I'd like to put together a machine for under $700 if possible including

Video: 9800GT
Audio: Dolby Digital Live or DTS Connect (I use my 42" HDTV and my Onkyo receiver which doesn't have PC headphone inputs)
Some way of connecting Parallel hard drives, whether its motherboard or another way (2 hard drives totalling 500GB that I'd hate to part with)
Something relatively quiet
I will probably be running Vista
Mid or small tower size

No need for monitor/keyboard/mouse/hard drives, but if the PC requires including a hard drive, that's okay too.

Do I want dual or quad core? How many MHZ? FSB? How much RAM? Speed of RAM?

I already have a Montego DDL card but I'm not sure that works with Vista. I also heard that X-Fi Sound Blasters have drivers out there that work with Dolby Digital Live made by some Daniel K guy. Any experience with those? I'd hate to put nearly $200 into a sound card for 5.1 audio if I can get it much cheaper.

I'd like to buy from someone like avadirect because I'd rather not put the machine together myself.

Thanks for any and all assistance!

 

[x3sphere]

Bah, still cannot get a decent frame rate in Far Cry 2. Crysis Warhead was running great, but I think it's just because the area I was in wasn't as open as the others because now the framerate is constantly between 10-20fps

Can an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ oc'd to 3.2ghz be bottlenecking a 9800GT or should I try looking at another component like the motherboard or PSU?

Edit: Just ran 3DMark06. Got a score of 6358...similar systems get 11605. This is under XP, and Vista runs even worse

With my X2 5000+ at stock, I run Far Cry 2 with everything on High and get a stable 30FPS. And that's with a slightly inferior video card, an HD4670. Indeed, AMD X2's aren't great but they can still deliver a playable experience in any PC title out right now - aside from GTA IV, maybe.

I don't know what a decent frame rate is for you, but if you're getting lower FPS than me, maybe something is wrong with your OC.

 

[Coen]

After five years of service, I've finally decided to move my trustworthy P4 HT to the attic and buy something new. With the help of this excellent thread and some other boards, I've already decided on a Core i7 920, an Asus P6T Deluxe, 3x2gigs of DDR3 RAM and a GTX260 (216). Seemed like a reasonably priced solution with enough possibilities to update in the future.

However, and here's where I'd like some advice, I've no clue what kind of case, psu (and possibly additional fans) I'd have to get. First and foremost: I want it to be silent! And I'm a fan of the simple-but-clean look of most Lian-Li and Antec cases, so I'd like to go that route. I'm not big on blue leds and see-through panels, nor do I like big towers, but I do like some space for an extra GTX260 if SLi ever takes of, so I'm guessing I'd have to go with a midtower? The new Antec Sonata series seem to offer a nice bang for the buck with an included spu. Is that a decent option? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!

 

[iam220]

junkster, at a minimum get a 9800GTX+/ati 4850. I would suggest spending the extra for a 260 or 4870.
You're going to have a hell of a time trying to find a mobo with more then one parallel port unfortunately. You can get drive enclosures though .. but it's probably not worth it and you'd be better off getting some new sata drives.
If you're running vista get at least 4 gigs of ram, if you're running XP 2 gigs will do for now. PC2 800 should be good enough.
As for dual vs quad, if you're building something < 700$ I'd suggest a dual. e7300 if you plan to overlcock e8400 or so if you don't.

 

[Fantasmo]

junkster, at a minimum get a 9800GTX+/ati 4850. I would suggest spending the extra for a 260 or 4870.
You're going to have a hell of a time trying to find a mobo with more then one parallel port unfortunately. You can get drive enclosures though .. but it's probably not worth it and you'd be better off getting some new sata drives.
If you're running vista get at least 4 gigs of ram, if you're running XP 2 gigs will do for now. PC2 800 should be good enough.
As for dual vs quad, if you're building something < 700$ I'd suggest a dual. e7300 if you plan to overlcock e8400 or so if you don't.

Assuming I go E7300, 9800GTX or 260, 2 hard drives and a DVD drive or two, what PSU wattage do I need?

 

[DangerStepp]

After five years of service, I've finally decided to move my trustworthy P4 HT to the attic and buy something new. With the help of this excellent thread and some other boards, I've already decided on a Core i7 920, an Asus P6T Deluxe, 3x2gigs of DDR3 RAM and a GTX260 (216). Seemed like a reasonably priced solution with enough possibilities to update in the future.

However, and here's where I'd like some advice, I've no clue what kind of case, psu (and possibly additional fans) I'd have to get. First and foremost: I want it to be silent! And I'm a fan of the simple-but-clean look of most Lian-Li and Antec cases, so I'd like to go that route. I'm not big on blue leds and see-through panels, nor do I like big towers, but I do like some space for an extra GTX260 if SLi ever takes of, so I'm guessing I'd have to go with a midtower? The new Antec Sonata series seem to offer a nice bang for the buck with an included spu. Is that a decent option? Any other suggestions? Thanks in advance!

I recently built a rig very simlar to yours. For my case, I went with the COOLER MASTER RC-690 (SLI ready) , which is excellent for the price and I've been very happy with it thus far. It's pretty minimalist in design and is ventilated like crazy plus the bottom mounted PSU makes for a cooler setup. However, it is wayyy bigger than I expected a mid-tower to be.

Concerning addional cooling options, I opted for the Thermaltake V1 to take the place of the stock i7 920 processor fan. I've read that it's a Godsend if you plan on overclocking, though I can't attest to that personally.

I've had no problems thus far and, for the price, both are very viable options. Although I will say that the CoolerMaster stock case fans make for a loud combination but I can't expect anything less from such a beast.

 

[Minsc]

junkster, at a minimum get a 9800GTX+/ati 4850. I would suggest spending the extra for a 260 or 4870.
You're going to have a hell of a time trying to find a mobo with more then one parallel port unfortunately. You can get drive enclosures though .. but it's probably not worth it and you'd be better off getting some new sata drives.
If you're running vista get at least 4 gigs of ram, if you're running XP 2 gigs will do for now. PC2 800 should be good enough.
As for dual vs quad, if you're building something < 700$ I'd suggest a dual. e7300 if you plan to overlcock e8400 or so if you don't.

What's the better prices a 260 (216) can be had for again? I was seeing $260ish on Newegg, and the 280's are just $300 now... probably go the ultra-high end route again, but even a 280 doesn't run CoH at 60 fps, so hopefully a 295 or higher can!

 

[iam220]

Assuming I go E7300, 9800GTX or 260, 2 hard drives and a DVD drive or two, what PSU wattage do I need?

Probably 450W at a minimum (I think 260 requires 500W). I would suggest you don't go any lower then 550W though just to be on the safe side. Invest in a nice PSU and case they can last you many years.

 

[iam220]

What's the better prices a 260 (216) can be had for again? I was seeing $260ish on Newegg, and the 280's are just $300 now... probably go the ultra-high end route again, but even a 280 doesn't run CoH at 60 fps, so hopefully a 295 or higher can!

Company of heroes can't reach 60 fps on a 280? weird.

Yeah the 280's are actually well priced now. Cheapest on newegg is 324 after a 30 dollar mail in rebate. So I guess if going the 260 (216) route you might as well get the 280.

They have a good price on a 260 (192) for $234, so that's a whole $100 cheaper. Although I think this is the best value : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236. $189 for such an awesome card.

edit: damnit , wish I lived in the USA. We get ripped off hard here in Canada even though the dollar is about the same ... just look at newegg.ca it's ridiculous.

 

[Minsc]

Company of heroes can't reach 60 fps on a 280? weird.

Yeah the 280's are actually well priced now. Cheapest on newegg is 324 after a 30 dollar mail in rebate. So I guess if going the 260 (216) route you might as well get the 280.

They have a good price on a 260 (192) for $234, so that's a whole $100 cheaper. Although I think this is the best value : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236. $189 for such an awesome card.

Not at 2540x1600, averages 45 fps (had it wrong before)

Anyway, there's AMD Phenom II X4 benches all over the place. No one discussing them or did I miss it earlier? Anandtech seems to be down because of them :lol

Dell's even put the Phenom in their 630 gaming box.

 

[dork]

i ordered 4 gig more ram cuz it was on sale for my new pc

it looks a little different than my current ram but i ordered the EXACT same kind from before...weird


i have my first 2 in slot 1 and 3, so i put these in 2 and 4. then turned computer on and it went on and off, on and off. so i got scared and turned it off

now i just took it out. what did i do wrong? do i need to move the original ram to 1 and 2, and new to 3 and 4? or what did i do?

 

[iam220]

Not at 2540x1600, averages 45 fps (had it wrong before)

Anyway, there's AMD Phenom II X4 benches all over the place. No one discussing them or did I miss it earlier? Anandtech seems to be down because of them :lol

Dell's even put the Phenom in their 630 gaming box.

Wow! I haven't seen those yet! Judging by those benches anyone looking to get a i7 920 is better off with a phenom 940. Looks like amd is back in the game.

edit: spoke too soon. After looking at more benchies, not as much bang-for-buck as I initially thought .. but still great value! For those with an am2+ board they should upgrade asap

 

[brain_stew]

I think I'll do a few more tests before I return it, but it really doesn't look like it's going to run much better. Crysis Warhead did run significantly better on medium after cleaning the drivers, but it's unplayable with a few settings on high. Far Cry 2 still runs pretty bad as well.

Are you sure its 100% locked into the slot. I had a similar sort of thing when I installed my 4850, as the heatsink was heavier than my previous 8800GT my case's built in locking mechanism didn't hold it properly in place, and my performance pretty much halved. A couple of screws and a little force later and all was well. Worth checking at least.

 

[ithorien]

Bah, still cannot get a decent frame rate in Far Cry 2. Crysis Warhead was running great, but I think it's just because the area I was in wasn't as open as the others because now the framerate is constantly between 10-20fps

Can an Athlon 64 X2 5000+ oc'd to 3.2ghz be bottlenecking a 9800GT or should I try looking at another component like the motherboard or PSU?

Edit: Just ran 3DMark06. Got a score of 6358...similar systems get 11605. This is under XP, and Vista runs even worse

I'm totally late into the conversation, but I recently had some really bad framerate issues because of my HDD. Did you check that as well?

 

[Kamakazie!]

I'd like to think it's the CPU so at least I'd know what the problem was :lol After searching a bit on the net though it looks like the CPU should be alright for most games as long as it's overclocked.

I'm starting to think the video card may be damaged but have no way of testing it in another PC with a PCI-E motherboard : / I guess I'll try switching the card to the lower PCI-E slot for the hell of it.

It is highly unlikely to be the CPU that is causing the problem.

Try something like Driver Cleaner or Driver Sweeper (suggested earlier) to properly clean the drivers off the computer. Simply uninstalling will not do the job.

 

[avaya]

Finally decided on spec, gonna be ordering this tomorrow. The sales rep is chomping at the bit.

CPU: Intel i7 920, Nehalem, 2.66GHz, 4.8GT/s QPI, 8MB Cache
Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 Exclusive Dual Fan CPU Cooler
Mobo: Asus P6T Deluxe
RAM: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 8-8-8-24 (920@ 4GHz on air guaranteed!)
GPU: 1792MB EVGA GTX 295, 576MHz GPU, 480 Cores, 2000MHz GDDR3
PSU: 1000W Corsair HX Series Modular
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card 7.1Ch
System Drive: 300 GB Western Digital WD3000GLFS VelociRaptor, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache
Storage Drive: 1000 GB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache
OS: Vista-64 Ultimate

Case will be Antec 1200 or Lian-Li PC80B Armor Suit. Can't decide on that. Antec seems just fine, while Lian-Li seems overpriced to be honest (but verryy nice).

 

[dmann]

^^ That computer is a beast. Very nice, I wish I had deep pockets to upgrade my outdated computer.

 

[Hazaro]

Finally decided on spec, gonna be ordering this tomorrow. The sales rep is chomping at the bit.

Enjoy it.

@Ysi, download CPU-Z and check if PCI-E bandidth is running at 16x, it could be running at 1x. If so lock the Mhz to 100 in the BIOS.

 

[Ysiadmihi]

Don't look at the total 3dmark06 score. Just look at the graphics score which is pixel shader 2 and 3.0. This will take the cpu out of the equation. Although you should compare the cpu score to see how old your cpu is.

Tomshardware.com has the pixel shader2,3 score of most graphic cards. So compare the graphic score and not the total. If it's still way off, I would return and get a different card.

I can't find a score for a 9800GT (lots of 9800GTXs though), but looking at similar cards on there it seems mine is definitely under-performing. It looks to be getting about half the scores it should be.

Kamakazie!: I already cleaned the drivers twice but I'll try it again for the hell of it.

ithorien: I do have 7200RPM 40GB IDE HDD for my XP installation. Should that really matter?

brain_stew: I'll check but I'm pretty sure it's in there. Made sure to screw it in the whole way and tugged on it (hurrr) to make sure it was in.

Hazaro: It's running at 16x according to CPU-Z.

 

[Irulan]

Assuming I go E7300, 9800GTX or 260, 2 hard drives and a DVD drive or two, what PSU wattage do I need?

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

500 Watt should be more than enough for you, just make sure you buy a proper brand. Power consumption is usually greatly overestimated, people should use calculators like this more.

 

[avaya]

^^ That computer is a beast. Very nice, I wish I had deep pockets to upgrade my outdated computer.

I'm going from a Prescott P4 to this, so it's been quite a while since I upgraded. Always do it every 4-5yrs.

Enjoy it.

Looking forward to a fantastic year of PC gaming!

 

[Minsc]

Finally decided on spec, gonna be ordering this tomorrow. The sales rep is chomping at the bit.

CPU: Intel i7 920, Nehalem, 2.66GHz, 4.8GT/s QPI, 8MB Cache
Cooler: Noctua NH-U12P SE1366 Exclusive Dual Fan CPU Cooler
Mobo: Asus P6T Deluxe
RAM: 6GB (3x2GB) Corsair Dominator DDR3, PC3-12800 (1600) CAS 8-8-8-24 (920@ 4GHz on air guaranteed!)
GPU: 1792MB EVGA GTX 295, 576MHz GPU, 480 Cores, 2000MHz GDDR3
PSU: 1000W Corsair HX Series Modular
Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Titanium Sound Card 7.1Ch
System Drive: 300 GB Western Digital WD3000GLFS VelociRaptor, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache
Storage Drive: 1000 GB Western Digital WD1001FALS Caviar Black, 7200 rpm, 32MB Cache
OS: Vista-64 Ultimate

Case will be Antec 1200 or Lian-Li PC80B Armor Suit. Can't decide on that. Antec seems just fine, while Lian-Li seems overpriced to be honest (but verryy nice).

Any good benches yet for that 295?

Also no Intel X25-M SSD (or it's faster, smaller brother)? Shame shame. You could have 6 second boot times and load games in 1/5th the time!

 

[Angry Grimace]

Company of heroes can't reach 60 fps on a 280? weird.

Yeah the 280's are actually well priced now. Cheapest on newegg is 324 after a 30 dollar mail in rebate. So I guess if going the 260 (216) route you might as well get the 280.

They have a good price on a 260 (192) for $234, so that's a whole $100 cheaper. Although I think this is the best value : http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161236. $189 for such an awesome card.

edit: damnit , wish I lived in the USA. We get ripped off hard here in Canada even though the dollar is about the same ... just look at newegg.ca it's ridiculous.

Make a friend in the US, and have them ship stuff to you as gifts. I think that's some kind of customs evasion, but whateva.

 

[Angry Grimace]

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

500 Watt should be more than enough for you, just make sure you buy a proper brand. Power consumption is usually greatly overestimated, people should use calculators like this more.

Those make me happy.

My friend was hammering on me that I NEEDED a 1000w PSU for Corei7.

I said, in these words, "Fuck that shit" and bought an antec 650w unit.

Calculator says: 393w. And it doesn't even have the 55nm 260s on the site.