DX10 card

[UltraLite]

I was one click away from ordering my new parts, then i saw the 8800 reviews.
"double u, tee, eff"

Would you upgrade now or wait for the mid-range DX10 cards, if you were me?

just so you know, currently a uni student, so im kinda poor atm
if the mid-range DX10 card comes out in summer, i guess i would have money from jobs, if i dont spend it all on pay day

Parts i'm going to buy:

AMD Athlon 64 3700+ San Diego
DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D
Arctic Cooling Freezer 64 Pro CPU Cooler
OCZ ModStream 450w
Sapphire ATI Radeon X1950 Pro 256MB

My current parts: (look under "my system" = old junk)

also tell me if the parts are worth buying, i've already looked at bunches of reviews. they are the best that i've found so far, all comes to an amazing £350

Thank you in advance

[ExceededGoku]

If I was you I wouldn't even be thinking about a DX9 card anymore, especially since the DX10 cards are coming in a few days. Not to say that you should order some but maybe the prices of current cards will go as they are all obsolete now . I am actually really excited about DX10, it fixes everything that was wrong with graphics card technology!

[UltraLite]

Hmm few days? even for the lower and mid-range?
you think there will be cards that are around £130?

though if they arent coming out until easter or something, i might not have the patient XD my damn pc is ancient. and hopefully the upgrades will knock off minute or two on 3dmax, also able to play NWN2/dark messiah with playable fps hehe

is DX10 technology that good? i kinda drift off somewhere when it comes to the technical things

[Jammer]

You ONLY need dx10 if you want to play dx10 games. Which are not coming out for a while.

Still though, what if you get a 8800 now. then by the time you atully get to use it with new games. It will be worth alot less 100-200 quid. With that money you could of got yourself a decent dx9 card now and an even better dx10 card later.

And STILL have a spare good gfx card,

[Sumanji]

Just stick with the X1950 Pro, it's a cracking card. Unless you have a spare £400 lying about DX10 won't be here for a while, and even then you'll need a few hundred quid for a copy of Vista. As Jammer says, getting an 8 series card now for DX10 now is a bit silly! No mid-range 8 series card will next February or something I think...

[BUFF]

also tell me if the parts are worth buying,

Core 2 Duo?

[Sumanji]

Oh lol, good point Buff! I didn't really pay attention to the rest of the spec.

Dude, unless you are buying second hand, Intel Core 2 is the way to go...

[UltraLite]

lol yeh i wish.
maybe you missed my budget as well , £350. getting a core 2 duo will take about 1/3 away

oh and what psu is better/worth getting? value/performance wise.

Hiper HPU-4K580-MK Type R 580W
Hiper HPU-4M580 Type R 580W
Enermax Noisetaker 535W EG565AX-VE(W)
OCZ ModStream 520w

[Sumanji]

Intel C2D E6300 £120
Abit AB9 £85
Sapphire X1950 Pro £130
Arctic Cooling Freezer Pro £20
Whatever PSU £50

Comes to about £400... of course you only have DDR at the moment, so you;d have to get DDR2 as well

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

How about an Athlon X2 3800 for around a 100 quid and the motherboard and cooler you specified which should be less than 100 quid total. You can get X1950gt for around 135 quid too.Once you factor in postage it should cost around 350 quid. Your power supply should be Ok for such a system for the time being.

I would upgrade the PSU when you get a Directx10 card.

If you had a budget closer to 550-600 quid then a Core2Duo E6300/E6400, 2gb of ddr2-667 memory and a new power supply(and a compatible motherboard and cooler) might be just possible.

What is the rush to upgrade BTW if your funds are quite tight??

I would personally just overclock the processor a bit and add an AGP 7600GT as a stop gap measure!

When you have got enough money in the next few months you could just totally rehaul your entire system.You should be able to build quite a decent system for around 600 quid by then.

[shaithis]

You in a tough spot at the moment....

If you are thinking of going DX10 within the next year, then buying a socket 939 system now is a mistake, IMO. You will just need (or at least, feel the need) o get a Conroe system or whatever is the new king at that time....which will almost certainly mean DDR2 memory.

DDR2 prices currently are a bit of a show-stopper for many people but I would suggest taking a trip to PC World to see what their DDR2 prices are like, I picked some up from their recently for quite cheap for a freinds PC (£60 for a 1GB stick iirc)

Its all a balancing act between what you afford now and in 6-12 months time by the sound of it and only you can decide what you can get by on and what you can afford.

Good luck

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

I was quite suprised when I saw PNY 1gb DDR2 sticks for 65 quid at PC World last week. Do you know what memory chips they used BTW??

[shaithis]

No idea but we managed to get them stable at 400FSB and they were PC5300.

[kalniel]

Nice overclock! We got a pair of them when they were on offer, so it was only 55 quid per gb stick!

To the OP, it's not worth getting dx10 cards yet, certainly not at your budget level. Your supplied spec is very good value for money and the x1950pro will do really well in todays and tommorows titles. By the time dx10 is really being taken advantage of Vista will be the mainstream operating system and there will be much better and cheaper dx10 cards available for purchase.

[sawyen]

in fact my X1800XT still does everything nice and well.. ...

I'll get something cheap now and wait for everything else to settle down..

X1950Pro, dirt cheap X1800XT 256MB and such..

[mr-nick]

You ONLY need dx10 if you want to play dx10 games.

I thought Vista will use DX10 for desktop enhancements as well?