Posted on 07/15/2004 7:51:30 AM PDT by Paradox
PCI Express x 16 will become the standard a few years from now. I am going to stick with my AGP Pro (on the i875 Canterwood mobo)for now, because no programs can take advantage of the speed that PCI-X works at.
SLI was really great when you hooked two VooDoo 2 cards together, but with todays cards operating as fast as they do, will you actually be able to see any difference? The X800XT PE works at 1.1 GHz, where most peoples cards work at half that or less. The 6800 Ultra OC works at 1.2 GHz. How much more do you need? Unless you are a benchmark fanatic, nothing.
Alienware also is coming out with its version of SLI. That system will set you back $4K. Ouch.
Oh, THAT one? SWEEEET! That case was the first product of Thermaltake's that got me hooked -they had one at CompUSA. Are they easy to work with on the inside?
It is not so much the video card these day as your CPU and your ping times from your internet connection. Anything 2.8 GHz and above and a higher than a 9800 series vid card is overkill, and won't actually help you in online gaming all that much. SLI definitely won't help at all, and IMHO is a waste o' cash. You are not going to be able to tell the difference in frame rates between one 6800 and 2x 6800 cards. You might be able to crank up your detail levels to max without paying too great a penalty, but my 9800XT allows me to do that with FarCry now (even the water at ultra high detail).
Then of course there are people like me who like to push computers as hard and high as they will go! :^)
DO NOT get a PCI Express board yet. There are still bugs to be worked out, and DDR2 memory is expensive, and not yet as fast (latency-wise) as DDR1. You will not get any benefit from PCI X just yet. Programs aren't that fast yet. BTX will be out by the end of this year, and that will drive down the cost of ATX parts.
Thanks for the info Dude.
Not much has changed in that regard...
9 bucks a month if you purchase a year...hehe.
It's too addictive for me. We did a large op this past Sunday against Helmond...east of Eindhoven. Despite being bombed continuously...we eventually won out. And I painted a bathroom during the whole thing...lol.
I got mine from newegg:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=11-133-109&depa=1
It has a lot of room inside so it was fairly easy to hook everything up. This was the first time I had put a computer together from scratch and it went pretty smoothly except for some confusion on getting the RAID 0 drives set up correctly. I needed a faster computer for my work.
From here on out I am building my own - it was fun to put everything together - your get to get exactly what you want - and I think I saved a few $$$s
Oh hell yeah.
Alienware's too expensive.
Dell doesn't offer that much (If ya can understand the Indian salesfolks).
I haven't trusted Gateway since my little CDROM problem.
Build-yer-own is the best way to go.
Could you please ping those interested in Doom 3 and tell them that www.doom3.com has finally been upgraded to show the full trailer?
I'm at work and don't have the time. Thanks.
There are currently developing another Duke Nukem. Duke Nukem Forever. Though that doesn't mean much. The problem? Been in development for 7 years! When they said Forever, no one thought it would mean the development time (and at the moment, doesn't seem to be any close to be being released soon either).
Don't they already accuse us of that?
I'm in. UT2004 is my latest. broadband...so good pings.
look for OompaLoompa wandering around the UT servers.
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