Rebuild - Comments please

[Smudger]

Hi, I've decided to take the plunge and order this weekend some bits to upgrade to PCI-E. Please see bleow and suggest alternatives/better options. I'm looking for overclocking the cpu to about 3ghz, but other than that, things will stay as stock.

Thanks in advance

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro £12.16

2GB (2x1GB) CorsairTwinX XMS2, DDR2 PC2-6400 (800) £70.08

Intel Core 2 Duo E4300, Socket 775, £70.44

256MB HighTech Radeon X1950 Pro, IceQ3 v2, £122.19

Asus P5B-E iP965, S775, PCI-E (x16),
DDR2 533/667/800, SATA II, SATA RAID, ATX £72.26

Looking at £350 max...

[Blitzen]

If you have a little more to spend then change the graphics card.
The X1950's are OK but £60 more and you are in 8800GTS territory which would be a better choice by far.

[Smudger]

Thanks Blitzen, I'm going x1950 cos I reckon it'll be at least a year before i go to Vista, and by then the DX10 cards will probably be on the next generation. Besides, i reckon that card is plenty powerful for the odd game of Far Cry or Half Life 2...

[Andy3536]

Your graghics card has only 12 streams and proccesses, witch is the same as a 7600 nvidia but £30 more than the best 7600, If you looking for a good mid range card try looking at the 7600's and save yourself some money.
try http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=519985
Or for a little more http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=249092

[jackvdbuk]

the X1950 is MUCH more powerful than a 7600 it has 36 pixel pipelines and higher clocks (iirc)

[Smudger]

Someone explained the whole pipelines/shader thing to me a while back. Apparently you multiply the pipes by the shaders or something. Anyway, from what i've read, the 1950 is more of a competitor for the 7900 or 7950, plus this one is the turbo, I think, which is slightly factory overclocked, with a better fan.

[Andy3536]

the X1950 is MUCH more powerful than a 7600 it has 36 pixel pipelines and higher clocks (iirc)

The card your looking at has slower clock speeds than the 7600 link, and it says for your graghics card 12 streams?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=589459 (12 pipes)

[Blitzen]

Its also only the 256mb version.

What kind of monitor will it be connected to?

BTW...I know the 8600GT's arent everyone cup of tea but they would be a better option aswell and the same price or less.

( I didnt realise what an awful selection of 'In Stock' mid-range cards Scan have atm. Theres nothing there).

[Smudger]

At the moment, a 19" one, with the possibility of an upgrade in future. To be honest, I'm not sure that what I'm going to be doing is going to even touch the limits of the card...

The only question i have is whether i need the VIVO version. If not, i may go for the 512Mb card...

[Blitzen]

Do yourself a favour though.
Take a look at the 8600's.

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...=296&OrderBy=1

I really think they will suit you more, especially as you are running 19" monitor.

They are about the 7800/7900 range in comparison to the older stuff.

[Smudger]

I've heard a lot of negative stuff about the 8600s to be honest, dunno if that's the norm or just a fgew disappointed folk...

[Andy3536]

The best thing to do with the 8600's if your interested is to see for yourself and come to your own conclusions.
http://www.guru3d.com/article/Videocards/426/
Theres a start.

[Sprite]

I always find this article...

http://www.vr-zone.com/?i=4925&s=1

... to be fun

1GHz on the core :O

[Smudger]

That Guru 3d article seems to imply that the vanilla 1950 Pro is faster than all but a pair of SLI'd 8600s. Is that right? Sounds daft seeing as the 1950 is cheaper...

[Andy3536]

No, they mean this card which is far more expensive than a 8600
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=595227

Edit, sorry it says 256mb so they mean this card which is about the same in cost so the 8600's there are some others with different clock speeds but this is the cheapest, they look comparable to the 8600's in price and performance.
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=492010

[Golden Dragoon]

The card your looking at has slower clock speeds than the 7600 link, and it says for your graghics card 12 streams?
http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Produ...oductID=589459 (12 pipes)

The X1950 pro has 36 pixel shaders, not 12 (it has 12 texture units and ROPs) the top end of the X1950 series looks like this:
X1950 PRO (12:36:12:8) 575mhz default core
X1950 XT (16:48:16:8) 625mhz default core
X1950 XTX (16:48:16:8) 650mhz default core

(Texture Units: Pixel Shaders:ROPs:Vertex Shaders)