Good MB/Graphics Card

[ichwar]

Ok, so I'm looking for 2 pc parts.
1: A mother board.
2: A graphics card.


The requirements for the mother board are that it be intel core2 quad capable, the form factor must be atx, and it should not have integrated graphics.

there really aren't any requirements for the graphics card, I'm just looking for recommendations as they are the one thing in the pc that I know nothing about.

My budget for the two total is around $150 - $200.

 

[tridge]

So, I take it you have a separate budget for the CPU and/or have a CPU already?
Also, what about the budget for the RAM?

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3LR LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - $84.99

BFG Tech BFGE96512GTOCBE GeForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $79.99


A few other questions come to mind... The reason I got so close to $200.00 is because if your going to upgrade, you might as well make the biggest jump possible. The hardware listed above is already out-dated. My suggestion would be to increase your budget and actually make the purchase last you.

 

[Smith6612]

I second increasing the budget a little bit. Either that, or at least get a good enough cooling style to be able to overclock the hardware to last a little while longer. Personally, I would take the above Gigabyte board and stick a GTX260 on there or an ATi Radeon 4850 if you really want to last for years. But yet again, considering back over a year ago when I was running the GeForce 8800GT with no SLi in my current rig (when I first built the thing, dang!), that card would run through games like Crysis, but it did run them quite well. It really only choked over Crysis when I turned up the Antialiasing any more than 8x MSAA on that card.

But other than that, if you want an 8800GT on Steroids, go with a 9800GT. I would at least shoot for a GTX260 if you can cough up the extra money though as it'll last you a bit longer, unless of course you're planning to build a new machine soon, but the 9600GT should be fine. As always, I suggest going double slot cards. They run cooler

 

[naval]

very good

 

[ichwar]

So, I take it you have a separate budget for the CPU and/or have a CPU already?
Also, what about the budget for the RAM?

GIGABYTE GA-EP43-DS3LR LGA 775 Intel P43 ATX Intel Motherboard - $84.99

BFG Tech BFGE96512GTOCBE GGTX260eForce 9600 GT 512MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Supported Video Card - $79.99


A few other questions come to mind... The reason I got so close to $200.00 is because if your going to upgrade, you might as well make the biggest jump possible. The hardware listed above is already out-dated. My suggestion would be to increase your budget and actually make the purchase last you.

good, that motherboard was the one I had in mind.


The graphics card had looks pretty good. Thanks.
Edit:

I second increasing the budget a little bit. Either that, or at least get a good enough cooling style to be able to overclock the hardware to last a little while longer. Personally, I would take the above Gigabyte board and stick a GTX260 on there or an ATi Radeon 4850 if you really want to last for years. But yet again, considering back over a year ago when I was running the GeForce 8800GT with no SLi in my current rig (when I first built the thing, dang!), that card would run through games like Crysis, but it did run them quite well. It really only choked over Crysis when I turned up the Antialiasing any more than 8x MSAA on that card.

But other than that, if you want an 8800GT on Steroids, go with a 9800GT. I would at least shoot for a GTX260 if you can cough up the extra money though as it'll last you a bit longer, unless of course you're planning to build a new machine soon, but the 9600GT should be fine. As always, I suggest going double slot cards. They run cooler

Och, that's one exspensive video card. I really can't pay 200 for a video card right now. I'm not using it for gaming, probably the most intensive thing I'll be using it for is the compiz desktop on linux. My current graphics card is too slow for even that.

What do you think about this card: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4111742&CatId=3669

btw, I'm trying to build a pc for less than $600. Doable? Can you also suggest some other parts that are cheap. ie. ram/cpu/systemfan/harddrive?

 

[Smith6612]

Oh, then in that case the 9500GT should be fine. Otherwise, if you're not really in need of anything else for your System, just a new motherboard should be fine to compliment that card. As per processor, wouldn't know off hand as I'm typically a supporter of the Core 2 series/Phenom and the i7 processors for future proofing as well as their architecture. Per the RAM, anything that is DDR2 RAM and runs at 800Mhz or greater is what I suggest. 667Mhz should be fine though. Just don't let the RAM get slower than your video card's RAM clock speed, or else you may see some bottlenecks! Per system fan, I typically say shoot for large fans as they run noisier even though they run slower (often times), but any fan should do just as long as it is efficient AND it isn't noisy.

 

[ichwar]

pardon my ignorance, but which one of these numbers that ends with mhz refers to the ram clock speed?

Specifications
GPU/VPU: NVIDIA GeForce 9500 GT
RAMDAC: 400 MHz
Maximum Resolution: 2560 x 1600 (Digital)
Video Memory: 1GB
Memory Type: DDR2
Memory Interface: 128-bit
Stream Processors: 32
Core Clock: 550 MHz
Memory Clock: 1000 MHz
Shader Clock: 1400 MHz

 

[Smith6612]

Memory Clock: 1000 MHz

Basically, unless you're really filling up the card's memory, you shouldn't need to worry about the bottlenecks, but just wanted to make you aware of that.

 

[ichwar]

Memory Clock: 1000 MHz

Basically, unless you're really filling up the card's memory, you shouldn't need to worry about the bottlenecks, but just wanted to make you aware of that.

ok, thanks. That's good to know. Now, (ignoring cost, just focusing on performance) would it be better to get two of these: http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4111743&CatId=3670
and SLI,
or just one of these:
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?EdpNo=4111742&CatId=3669

 

[linkclub]

I think the best sub-$70 card you can get is the Radeon 4670. By all accounts a very nippy performer. It beats the 9500GT in every benchmark (except Ghost Recon, in which case it's quite close) for only an extra $10.

You can pick 'em up on eBay:-

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/SAPPHIRE-rade...hash=item220388815475&_trksid=p3286.m63.l1177

There's probably cheaper if you really look.

Check out the conclusions of guru3d review below (quite a few pages, the benchmarks start around page 8 so I just copied the conclusions).


A Guru's Verdict

So then, it's one of these products again that is really good. Sure, I'm not talking about a framerate annihilator here, but face it... 79 USD is the MSRP, these prices will be even lower in e-tail. Even with the card on a castrated 128-bit memory it still performs well, and is a bloody nice addition in the value range as everything smells right about this product.

The direct competition price wise will be the 9500 GT, which is a nice card, yet performance wise is slapped with a proverbial trout in the face by the Radeon HD 4670. The next card in line competing would then be the GeForce 9600 GSO, which quite honestly offers a lot of value versus performance as well. Yet prices on the GSO hover roughly at 90 to 100 USD (check here). And with a 30 USD margin the 9600 GSO is not really competing with the Radeon HD 4670. My bet is that you'd opt for the 9600 GT way sooner at 100-110 USD (check here). And though more expensive, that might be the best next thing, but still that's a 30-40 USD difference. You can tell from the 79 USD price point, the positioning of the Radeon HD 4670 is looking really good.

Personally what I really like about the card are the new power states. See, this card only utilizes more power when it's actually needed. While working in desktop mode I noticed my rig utilizing 115 Watts, and guys... this is a pretty high-end system. So these numbers are purely achieved by the graphics card. Very commendable.
Let's sum it up. Pop in a Blu-ray disc and the GPU can decode and enhance the movie for you, it'll even send 8 channel sound to your receiver or HD screen. Games wise you cannot ignore the fact that playing most modern games with very high image quality settings at 1280x1024 will not be a problem whatsoever. In fact, most games will play fine at very decent framerates at 1600x1200 as well.

The price is right, the performance is right, the noise levels are right, power consumption is right, features set is right. The only negative I could find is a somewhat high GPU temperature when we stress it, but even that is within defined AMD safety levels.
Other than that, if 80 USD / 60 EUR is your maximum budget... there's honest to the one almighty nothing I can say to keep you from purchasing this product. You'll absolutely respect what it does for the money. This surely is one of the best years for section, they are on a roll and you as a consumer will benefit from it greatly.

The Radeon 4670 512MB version is definitely recommend by Guru3D.com, if you are on a limited budget.

 

[ichwar]

I don't like raedons. Maybe just personal bad experiences, but still...
Anyways, I settled for a motherboard with integrated graphics, but the graphics seem to be better than the raedon I used to use anyways.

 

[Smith6612]

There's nothing wrong with Radeon cards. I'm just a big fan of nVidia though hence why I use them. ATi does in fact make faster cards for less money though (one of the ATi cards I know of completely creams nVidia's Fastest Tesla card and it does more!). I am against on-board cards though, as if something were to go wrong with the system, it's more of a PITA to diagnose it, plus the on-boards are typically not as fast, but if you are on a budget, you have to get what works best for you.

 

[ichwar]

How does the 8600 compare to the 9600? Do you know?

 

[Smith6612]

How does the 8600 compare to the 9600? Do you know?

The only big thing about a GeForce 9600GT is the more efficient chipset between the two cards, where it generates less heat and uses slight less power with possibly a very slight speed boost from an 8600GT. The GeForce 9800GT and 8800GT are basically the same cards in terms of specs, but the 9800GT uses more efficient/cooler running hardware and designs.

 

[ichwar]

The only big thing about a GeForce 9600GT is the more efficient chipset between the two cards, where it generates less heat and uses slight less power with possibly a very slight speed boost from an 8600GT. The GeForce 9800GT and 8800GT are basically the same cards in terms of specs, but the 9800GT uses more efficient/cooler running hardware and designs.

ok, wow, you know everything about every computer part ever manufactured!
heat isn't a problem with me right now.