Looking for some advise

[Gibb0N]

ASUS P5W DH Deluxe Pentium 4/Celeron/Pentium D/PentiumEE/65nm dual-core/Core2Duo...

Intel Core 2 DUO E6600 ""LGA775 Conroe"" 2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

G.Skill 2GB DDR2 ZX PC2-6400 (2x1GB)

74 Gb Western Digital Raptor, SATA, 10000 rpm, 16MB Cache

Antec P180 Black SPCR Advanced Super Mid Tower - No PSU

Creative Sound Blaster X-Fi Xtreme Music Sound Card OEM

Zalman CNPS9500-LED Aero Flower


First off with the above set up, which of the following gpu's do you favour, bearing in mind that dx10 cards are on their way in and sli [if I can get it with a conroe by the end of the month], is favourable over crossfire...


1Gb XFX 7950GX2, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1200 MHz, GPU 500 MHz, 48 Pipes, S-Video/2xDVI £316.08

256Mb EVGA 7900GT, PCI-E (x16), Mem 1600 MHz, GPU 600 MHz, 24 Pipes, Dual DVI/HDTV £250.86

PowerColor ATI Radeon X1800 XT 512MB, Mem 1500 MHz, GPU 625 MHz, GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-048-PC) £234.94


And more importantly, in your opinion, is 500 watts enough juice?

Antec Phantom 500GB Atx12v V2.01 500w 20or24pin Psu

Thoughts welcome please.

ta

[Gibb0N]

^^This a silly question or something?

[pmanington]

I was wondering the same thing to be honest. I wouldn't recomment the x1800, it's not worth that kind of money and the gx2 seems to me too expensive when it won't do dx10 although £320 isn't that bad i guess

the 7900gt isn't too bad but my current fave is the HIS X1900XT from overclockers who have it for £240 on their weeky deals page

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatal...k_Only_25.html

500W should be enough juice for what you want. You might be pushing it if you go for SLI or crossfire though. Especially Crossfire.

[Merlin4458]

is there actully a set date for dx10 yet, all i keep on hearing is its "around the corner". I would agree with manigton as its a v good price

[Gibb0N]

The X1800XT is faster at stock than the X1900XT though. :/

Have changed the psu to an sli ready seasonic 500watt. Should do.

[kalniel]

And more importantly, in your opinion, is 500 watts enough juice?

Yes.

[pmanington]

Nah, the x1800xt is quite a bit slower than an x1900xt

http://www.anandtech.com/video/showdoc.aspx?i=2746&p=4

thst's just the first review i could find, but they're all like that. the x1900xt will get you to within a few frames of an x1900xtx and you can normally overclock it to the same level if you want.

[piranha]

Heard dx10 was'nt going to appear until January at earliest - or has it since moved forward?

[charleski]

The chances of Vista coming out before the middle of next year are looking increasingly slim. While DX10 is supposed to offer benefits in lowering CPU overheads, a Conroe has more than enough grunt to mean that the effect of this doesn't look that great. We'll only know for sure when Vista comes out and comparisons can be made.

So realistically, I'd think that DX10 cards will only become important in 12-18 months.

I think the 7900GX2 card you listed is a good deal, which is why I bought one .

[Gibb0N]

You happy with it's results charleski?
I'm leaning towards it as I've always preffered nvidia over ati and would like to get shot of it if possible. If not then I'm leaning towards the x1900xt.

I want to go for the GX2 but I'm a bit skeptical about it's ability to deliver stunning frames.

[nvening]

Why the 7900 over the 50? The cooling is probably better but its huge and has some important features missing iirc.

[pmanington]

I think he means the 7950gx2. It is the fastest single slot card you can buy so you needn't worry about it's ability to deliver stunning frames. It doesn't have all the features that the ATI card does though (such as HDR and AA at the same time) and it's image quality isn't regarded to be as good, but you can't get faster than it without using SLI or Crossfire.