Need some assistance

[[LaW]Maverick]

Ok, here's what we're planning on building my brother--only problem is we're a hair too expensive. These are the parts I have picked out thus far. We'd like to stick with the 680i chipset for him, though I have discovered through some research that the "LT" version is acceptable. Other than that, I'm willing to go somewhat low on the processor speed because I'm just going to overclock the heck out of it to get it up to high-end speeds. That being said, I went with the 6550 because of the 4mb L2 cache. It performs nearly as much as 32% better than the Allendales with 2mb L2 cache. The graphics card just needs to be DX10 and capable of playing (not necessarily with the graphics cranked) games like Team Fortress and Hellgate: London. Here's what we have picked out--everything else he has is covered.

 

EVGA 122-CK-NF67-T1 LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 680i LT SLI ATX Intel Motherboard

BFG 8600 GT with 256mb GDDR3

CoolerMaster 750 watt PSU (CoolerMaster only because it's decent for the low price--not my first choice)

E6550 Core 2 Duo Conre ~2.33ghz

Mushkin 2 x 1 GB DDR2 800 RAM (went with this because the latency was 4 instead of 5 for an extra $10)

 

What do I need help with? Well, we need to shave the cost on this stuff. If you can find me something similar for a couple of hundred less, post up and let me know. Consider it a challenge.

 

We want to stick with the SLi motherboards and the robust chipset to leave his upgrade path more viable. For example, with this setup, he could easily step up to a quad-core, OC it, and buy a second graphics card to increase his performance rather than buying a whole new board to boot.

 

Thoughts? Cheap parts somewhere? :-)

[[DLM]->Fish]

keep an eye on Http://www.slickdeals.net make sure to look in the hot deals forums and also black Friday is next week you can find those deals at http://www.bfads.net

Edited November 17, 2007 by [DLM]->Fish

[dragonfly]

Try the hardware forum?

 

If you're gonna stick with sli, buy a better card to start out with so he doesnt waste money buying two new cards down the road.

[[LaW]Maverick]

Any of you guys ever buy any MSI cards?http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16814127306that is cheaper and has a higher clock speed. It doesn't have the nice warranty of EVGA or BFG, but it's a lot of bang for the buck and shaves a good chunk off the total

Try the hardware forum? :DIf you're gonna stick with sli, buy a better card to start out with so he doesnt waste money buying two new cards down the road.

and, I wanted to post it here to make sure everyone saw it. It's not REALLY about the hardware, it's about the prices I can find on the hardware

[LoveForPriscillaChan]

you might actually get similar or better performance with a 512mb 7900 for a slightly less price....maybe

[dragonfly]

3850>8600gt by a LOT for not much more if I'm not mistake. Like, at least 2x as good.

 

Definitely consider not going sli!!! That'll save you monay.

[[DLM]->Fish]

$26 AR XFX GeForce 8400GS 450Mhz 256MB PCI Express x16 Video Card *or* $18 after rebate/GCO (free shipping)

[[LaW]Maverick]

I want to stick with a dx10 card--so that's why I'm not considering the 7900's

 

what I'm wondering 'bout that 8400 is whether or not it'll play games like Hellgate and TF2 fine...I dunno...that is a killer deal though, thanks Fish. I will definitely consider doin' that if we can't get the price down any other way.

Edited November 18, 2007 by [LaW]Maverick

[LoveForPriscillaChan]

if you want to play dx10 games, dont go with a 8600GT, its performance is horrendous so yes, you can run dx10 games but you'll be running them at 5 fps (well, not that bad but you get the idea)

 

you might as well get a really good dx9 card and probably save some money and crank up the textures or bite the bullet and buy a solid dx10

[Kruten]

if you want to play dx10 games, dont go with a 8600GT, its performance is horrendous so yes, you can run dx10 games but you'll be running them at 5 fps (well, not that bad but you get the idea)

 

you might as well get a really good dx9 card and probably save some money and crank up the textures or bite the bullet and buy a solid dx10

 

Yeah, there's no point in buying a dx10 card if you have to set everything to low.

[[LaW]Maverick]

I dunno....does the 7900 really perform better than the 8600? From what I've seen, they seem to be pretty much on-par with one another...I dunno

 

Here's the deal: they appear to be the same price, and that overclocked 8600 vs a 7900 is faster and costs the same amount (it has a faster core clock and FSB) so I dunno...

[Kruten]

If you go with that board and just have to go SLI later, then I suggest the MSI you linked. I don't see why the BFG you first had cost about $40 when it's specs are that much lower.

[LoveForPriscillaChan]

well, if you ignore the $50 dollar mail in rebate (which i know is a big sum of money but i'm just going to go on the assumption taht mail-in rebates dont work enough for you to count on them, for my computer, i had 2 successes out of 4 for rebates) ...

 

 

you can get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814186013 for 120 and according tom's hardware, its only less by 1.4 fps on the default benchmark (battlefield 2142)

 

so using new egg's price...

8600 without rebate == 155

8600 with rebate == 105

 

7900 without rebate == 120

7900 with rebate == 100

 

if you count on the fact that rebates work, that extra 1.4 fps is going to cost you 5 dollars, if rebates dont work, 1.4 fps is going to cost you 35 dollars, which is quite expensive

 

and when you buy the 8600, i think you should ditch the idea of playing games on dx10 cause you're not; i have an 8800GTS 320MB, which is a dx10 card, and i'm kinda sketchy on whether I can play dx10, judging from the benchmarks i've seen

[[LaW]Maverick]

well, if you ignore the $50 dollar mail in rebate (which i know is a big sum of money but i'm just going to go on the assumption taht mail-in rebates dont work enough for you to count on them, for my computer, i had 2 successes out of 4 for rebates) ...

 

 

you can get http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx...N82E16814186013 for 120 and according tom's hardware, its only less by 1.4 fps on the default benchmark (battlefield 2142)

 

so using new egg's price...

8600 without rebate == 155

8600 with rebate == 105

 

7900 without rebate == 120

7900 with rebate == 100

 

if you count on the fact that rebates work, that extra 1.4 fps is going to cost you 5 dollars, if rebates dont work, 1.4 fps is going to cost you 35 dollars, which is quite expensive

 

and when you buy the 8600, i think you should ditch the idea of playing games on dx10 cause you're not; i have an 8800GTS 320MB, which is a dx10 card, and i'm kinda sketchy on whether I can play dx10, judging from the benchmarks i've seen

http://www.newegg.com/product/product.asp?...N82E16814127306

 

Less than the 7900, and much higher specs (clock speed etc.) The MSI is looking to be the way we go.

 

any 8800 should run games in DX10, though some of them perhaps not cranked all the way up. I know Slaughter ran dx10 games on his 8800GTX no problem before SLi worked with Vista....thought we do have the 768 mb variety :-)

[dragonfly]

OC a little... and save yourself another $7 Edited November 19, 2007 by DarkArchon

[[DLM]->Fish]

Been looking for a video card for my new budget gaming PC, and this is the lowest I've seen on a 8600GT with DDR3.

 

$79.99 after rebate with free shipping at Newegg:

http://slickdeals.net/?sduid=200671&t=...N82E16814130297

 

Only downside I see is that it has 1xDVI and 1xVGA instead of 2xDVI

Edited November 22, 2007 by [DLM]->Fish