[999Virus999]

Now that "Racenutalways" has got my comp cleaned up I am looking to upgrade. I am 90% FPS and also play flight/driving sims. I am budgeting for about $1500.

This is what I am using now (everything in red is what I want to upgrade):

A chieftec aluminum mid tower ATX case, Ultra X-Connect 500W PSU, Zalman heatsink and fan, Asus P4P800 MOBO, P4 2.6GHZ CPU, ATI Radeon 9600XT GPU, Maxtor 80GB ultra series HD (this is plenty big enough for what I do), 3 X 80mm case fans, 2 CD/DVD writers (these could be upgraded), LG Studioworks monitor. I was also considering a gaming NIC card???

This is some of what I have looked at.

MOBO - http://www.tigerdire...p?EdpNo=2959594

CPU - http://www.tigerdire...u=CP2-DUO-Q6600
CPU - http://www.tigerdire...p?EdpNo=3274083

GPU X 1 - http://www.tigerdire...a...&CatId=1839
GPU X 2 - http://www.tigerdire...a...&CatId=1839

Any comments would be appreciated.
Thanks
9V9

Edited by 999Virus999, 16 December 2007 - 08:16 PM.

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The NIC gaming card is marketing publicity at it's greatest, don't buy it.
If you want to update your video card, that PSU has to go.
Get the second GPU you mentioned, it's the revised GTS (G92), I suggest you look at www.NCIX.com as there pricing there is more competitive and they will price match any competitors price.

Get the first CPU you mentioned.

For your PSU I recommend the OCZ 700W PSU as it seems to be the best PSU for the price point at the moment.

I recommend getting a P35 chipset motherboard, as long as you don't plan on getting SLI in the future.

For you monitor, I suggest you take a look at what Future shop or Bestbuy has to offer.
In a monitor I suggest:
-A contrast ratio of 1000:1 or greater
-A responce time of 5ms or less
-Widescreen
-Samsung or LG panel (they are the best in the market right now)

Can you measure the amount of space you have in your computer from your PCIe expansion slots in your case to your hard drive bays. I want to verify if this card will indeed fit.

James

Edited by james_8970, 16 December 2007 - 08:28 PM.

[james_8970]

The NIC gaming card is marketing publicity at it's greatest, don't buy it.
If you want to update your video card, that PSU has to go.
Get the second GPU you mentioned, it's the revised GTS (G92), I suggest you look at www.NCIX.com as there pricing there is more competitive and they will price match any competitors price.

Get the first CPU you mentioned.

For your PSU I recommend the OCZ 700W PSU as it seems to be the best PSU for the price point at the moment.

I recommend getting a P35 chipset motherboard, as long as you don't plan on getting SLI in the future.

For you monitor, I suggest you take a look at what Future shop or Bestbuy has to offer.
In a monitor I suggest:
-A contrast ratio of 1000:1 or greater
-A responce time of 5ms or less
-Widescreen
-Samsung or LG panel (they are the best in the market right now)

Can you measure the amount of space you have in your computer from your PCIe expansion slots in your case to your hard drive bays. I want to verify if this card will indeed fit.

James

Edited by james_8970, 16 December 2007 - 08:28 PM.

[999Virus999]

I have approx 11 inches from the back of my case to the drive bays. I also want to go SLI - if not now I will be putting a second card in sometime in the near future. But I guess I should ask which way to go - SLI or Crossfire?

9V9

Edited by 999Virus999, 17 December 2007 - 08:45 PM.

[SOORENA]

For that much of a budget you can build a brand new PC which will be better I think. I would advise you to look at my post HERE which will give you an idea. The links are to newegg.com but I would suggest buying from NCIX.com since you are Canadian. You should make a descent build for $1000 and then the rest for accessories like monitor and etc. Or go all out on Video and Cpu.

Soorena

EDIT: SLI and Crossfire are just marketing gimmicks. They only give a maximum of 20% increase in performance while you are paying for a 100%. SLI and Crossfire are only good if there is no better card in the market like an nVidia 8800 Ultra or ATI HD3870.

Edited by SOORENA, 17 December 2007 - 08:57 PM.

[stettybet0]

EDIT: SLI and Crossfire are just marketing gimmicks. They only give a maximum of 20% increase in performance while you are paying for a 100%. SLI and Crossfire are only good if there is no better card in the market like an nVidia 8800 Ultra or ATI HD3870.

While it is true that SLI and Crossfire don't give a 100% performance increase, they do give more than "a maximum of 20%". In some cases, they can provide up to a 75% increase, possibly more. Of course, in other cases, they can actually hurt performance if the game or drivers aren't properly optimized. However, I can easily think of a time that SLI is useful, other than the top of the line: in the 8800GT. Two 8800GTs beat a 8800GTX, for a very similar price.

Edited by stettybet0, 17 December 2007 - 09:48 PM.

[james_8970]

Unless you are playing at super high resolutions, don`t get either, unless you have money to spend one a 8800GTS (G92). No one should buy a GTX or ultra right now, no one.
SLI will never scale as good as 75% in it`s current state. If you saw a link that suggested it, the reviewer didn`t do a very good job benchmarking. SLI and Crossfire as still a relatively new technology, while it`ll likely become more popular in the future when it scales better, right now, both scale terrible in terms of performance/dollar ratio. Unless you are playing at really high resolutions, then we begin to see an advantage as the GPU.

My keyboard isn`t working proporly so I`m quotting settybet.
Two 8800GTs beat a 8800GTX, for a very similar price.
While this is true in some instances, like you have already mentioned, games need to be optimized for SLI, if they are not, SLI can actually hurt your frame rates.

Just spotted a deal for all canadians, if you`re looking for a PSU, catch them before they sell out.
http://www.ncix.com/...u...&quantity=1

James

Edited by james_8970, 17 December 2007 - 10:07 PM.

[999Virus999]

Any comments on the new NVidia 3-way SLI?

[999Virus999]

Just spotted a deal for all canadians, if you`re looking for a PSU, catch them before they sell out.
http://www.ncix.com/...u...&quantity=1

James

Is this PSU SLI ready / certified?

V9V

[SOORENA]

It should be but I'm not sure. I also highly discourage you to go SLI not 2 way nor 3 way. 3 Way is even worse, why pay 3 x $200 for a descent card when paying $600 for one good card can beat it by huge margin? So if you have the money just go foe ONE good card like the 8800GT or 8800GTS.

Soorena

[stettybet0]

Any comments on the new NVidia 3-way SLI?

Tri-SLI is only for those with a ridiculous amount of money to spend. It only works with the 8800gtx or 8800ultra, and with the 9 series just around the corner, it doesn't make any sense for the average consumer to invest in it.

To James, this is where I got 75% from: http://www.tomshardw...iii/page20.html. In one instance, there was a 73% increase. I rounded to 75%. And considering that this article is two years old, I would think improved drivers and newer cards would have led to even higher performance increases in some cases.

[SOORENA]

Any comments on the new NVidia 3-way SLI?

Tri-SLI is only for those with a ridiculous amount of money to spend. It only works with the 8800gtx or 8800ultra, and with the 9 series just around the corner, it doesn't make any sense for the average consumer to invest in it.

To James, this is where I got 75% from: http://www.tomshardw...iii/page20.html. In one instance, there was a 73% increase. I rounded to 75%. And considering that this article is two years old, I would think improved drivers and newer cards would have led to even higher performance increases in some cases.

I have seen benchmarks with HACKED drivers that went up close to even 90%. But I highly discourage that since it is unreliable and on your own risk.

Soorena

[james_8970]

There was a 73% gain as that was a lower end card at that time, therefor the GPU was a bottleneck.
Notice how on the higher end (the only cards that should be placed in SLI) the gains are in many cases loss and the gains are much lower.....
That put aside, lets keep the information much more recent, even recent benchmarks will prove that these number have not improved and there are very few games that will scale well with SLI/Crossfire.

Yes that PSU is SLI certified.
James