Noob - Please Advise!

[Raineh]

Hello, First post here! hopefully not the last

Been puting pcs together for years - This is not an issue.
However when selecting hardware im a little lost

My current pc is

500W X-Power ATX-500TD
AMD6000+x2
2GB Corsair TwinX DDR2 6400
Nvidia 7900 GT 256mb
320GB HDD (raid)
ECS C51GM-M v1.0 Mobo
(yeah really crap mobo, but my better last one didnt like having tea spilt on it strangly)

So Ive found a new mobo, to replace the crappy spare one in there atm its the ASUS Crosshair SKT
Ive also been eyeing a new graphics card, This one does well (lightmark2007 score = 100fps - but im not sure how much my crappy mobo is slowing that down~) Sure it runs the games I play well, but Id like to try some of the newer games (crysis/gow/cod4/etc) at full detail or as close as I can come with my gfx budget (£250)

The SLI on the new mobo got me to thinking, with my budget I could do 3 things - This is where I need help, Ive NO IDEA whats best as id hope not to have to upgrade the graphics for a few years to come

1) Buy two 9600gt 512mb cards and SLI them
2) Buy two 8800gt 512mb cards and SLI them and go over budget
3) Buy one 8800gtx 738mb card

Please advise and explain, Ive no idea whats best I read most games utilise SLI at higher resolutions
and the max id want with my monitor is 1280x1024, but then isnt the 8800gtx old, hot, and never shuts up compared to the others?!?

Ughhh I dunno -halp!

Ps. Running XP atm but will be upgrading to vista (ughffs) for dx10

[staffsMike]

I would think the 8800GT would make more noise than the GTX, though I've only heard the GT up close. They seem to get very hot though, so I would be looking at one with a dual slot cooler if you can find one. Something like the Leadtek ZL (zalman cooler) seems good for the money ~£140

At 1280 x 1024, any of those cards would be fine on their own, no need to SLi any of them imo.

I would put my money on a GT with a decent cooler or a GTS perhaps which can found for around £170.

[Hunain]

Firstly, welcome to Hexus, yes this surely wont be your last post

As for your gfx card dilemma, firstly id say you dont need to SLI, get an 8800GTS, it will be more than enough for your intended gaming resolution (will work fine with higher as well) But still, if you want to go SLI (yes its not as good as the theory, 2 cards being used) You could go with either the 96 or 88, both will be good for the price IMO. But I would strongly suggest you go for an 8800GTS....

[Raineh]

Thanks for the super duper fast reply!

Correct me if im wrong but I thought the 8800GT and 9600 are G92 and run cooler and not as loud as the GTX?

So at this resolution SLI is totaly pointless? Good to know

Ugh Im not sure, Is the GTS better than the GTX? Or just cheaper?

I dont mind paying the extra if its worth it

[SiM]

Probably... I reckon any one of those card can max out graphics at your resolution (except maybe not crysis)

[staffsMike]

The GTX and GTS are so similar it doesn't make a difference. The GTS is newer, cheaper and runs cool and quiet enough so it's the better pick.

Given the same cooler the GT's would probably run cooler but with their single slot coolers they tend to run very hot and thus quite loud especially when gaming and extra especially with the GT from what I have seen (heard).

[Raineh]

Ahh I see, makes sence!

Im looking at the site I normaly use, they have quite a few models of the 8800gts 512mb and few with more memory.
Should I only go for the 640mb+ models? Do you think 512 is enough? How much should I be looking to pay? they range here from £200-300

Thanks again

[SiM]

The 640mb ones are older versions and slower than the 512 ones... get the 512 one
256 will be sufficient at your resolution too, if you want to save a bit more cash

[Raineh]

Good to know, Good to know!
512mb one it is !

One last question if you will endulge me
(these models & info are from the site I buy from)

EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB £258.99 inc vat
Video Memory
Access Time 1.1 ns
Bus Width 320-bit
Installed Size 640 MB
Memory Clock Speed 1.8 GHz
Technology GDDR3 SDRAM

XFX GeForce 8800GTS 512MB £208.05 inc vat
GPU Clock 650 MHz
Memory Bus 256-bit
Memory Type DDR3
Memory Size 512 MB
Memory Speed 1940 MHz


I can See that the 512MB one is cheaper and has a slightly faster mem speed, but the 640mb one has Bus Width 320-bit I wont pretend to know what thats all about shed any light if it even maters? lol

Thanks

[DDY]

I say get the 8800GTS 512 like others have been saying, it's illogical but the 512MB version is faster than the 640MB one.

£210 is too much to pay for a 8800GTS, I got mine for £165 from Aria.co.uk super specials (it's gone up to £175 now)

Here is a link for a cheaper onefrom OcUK.

[staffsMike]

The 512mb is better than the 640mb one in every respect. Seems a bit pricey for both though. You can get something like this Point of View GeForce 8800 GTS 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (8717344966320) for £170.

[Raineh]

Orderd, Got the mobo from that site as well, a bit cheeper too!

Thanks a lot for the imput peoples

Much love