Curse

kazi_saki · Sep 07, 2008, 02:46 AM // 02:46

ECS black edition 780 am2/phenom mobo
Sapphire ATI3650 512mb
AMD Athlonx2 5000
and I'll just get cheap parts for the rest.

But those three are okay already for games like Crysis, Mass Effect, GW right? worth it for the budget? is it a good balance of price + power?

moriz · Sep 07, 2008, 02:58 AM // 02:58

GW yes. no for the other two unfortunately. the HD3650 is not powerful enough, neither is the CPU.

kazi_saki · Sep 07, 2008, 03:22 AM // 03:22

dang. but not so bad right? does it make mass effect playable at medium graphics or at least with good resolution and motion blur?

{IceFire} · Sep 07, 2008, 03:44 AM // 03:44

My advice is to buy the 780g but not the ECS model...

I bought it from ECS (cheapest) a month ago and the onboard sound is atrocious. It doesn't even detect my mic, it plays static constantly, and only one of my speakers work. Their support is equally bad, giving incomplete advice and slow (1week+) email support.

The graphics on it are fine for many games (EVE, CoH w/ decent performance, just don't expect too much from it)

I have the same processor as well. It's been great (coming from pentium 4)

My advice is to spend the extra 10-20 bucks and get the 780g from a better manufacturer... I'm probably going to have to buy a sound card now, which negates any savings i got from buying ECS...

kazi_saki · Sep 07, 2008, 03:48 AM // 03:48

alright. cool. what manufacturer then? does ASUS make them? or emaxx?

edit:
I just bought the ECS one since they didn't have anything else. I also had to get the x1950 pro 256mb instead of the sapphire 3650 512mb because they ran out of stock

Is the x1950 pro better since I had to pay a bit more?

Elder III · Sep 07, 2008, 05:39 PM // 17:39

well, it will play GW just fine, but don't expect to have much fun with games like Crysis...

the 1950 pro is a little better than the 3650, so as long as you didn't pay too much more it's worth it.

ECS is ok, but Asus, Gigabyte, or MSI would have been a better choice.

kazi_saki · Sep 07, 2008, 11:17 PM // 23:17

Converted from PHP to USD:
Sapphire HD3650 = $55.55
Sapphire X1950 Pro = %106.67

Did I pay too much? Should I exchange it?

moriz · Sep 07, 2008, 11:22 PM // 23:22

the HD3650 price sounds about right. no sure about the X1950 Pro though.

anyways, you cannot compare prices between the US and europe, especially on computer parts.

kazi_saki · Sep 07, 2008, 11:37 PM // 23:37

I'm from the Philippines (Asia

) but I get the point.
I'm just afraid that, for the same price, I could've gotten a HD 3850 or something similar.

edit:
The prices in the PHilippines suck! converted, the Inno3d 8600 GT 512ddr3 costs about $125. I guess I can't beat US prices but I got the best price for my money now

edit2:
Hey, I was offered by the store to exchange my X1950 pro w/ a sapphire 3850 512 mb card. Should I exchange it? The weird thing is that they said its 512 ddr2 but I know there aren't any ddr2 3850's. Did they just make a mistake and they meant gddr3?

{IceFire} · Sep 08, 2008, 05:17 AM // 05:17

newegg has like 5-6 manufacturers of the 780g, plz let me know if yours doesnt have such terrible onboard sound

kazi_saki · Sep 08, 2008, 05:45 AM // 05:45

lol. okay. I'm going to try my new rig tomorrow since that's when their 3850 is arriving in the store. Oh yeah, the HD 3850 is ddr3 512. That's way better than the x1950 pro 256 right???

Elder III · Sep 08, 2008, 08:16 PM // 20:16

the 3850 is a pretty decent card - it should smoke the 1950 like a a crackhead on payday.

IceFire - I have a Gigabyte mobo with the 780g and it has fairly good onboard sound... are you sure it isn't cheap speakers on your end???

Lord Sojar · Sep 08, 2008, 10:05 PM // 22:05

Quote:

Originally Posted by moriz

neither is the CPU.

Lies.... just because AMD isn't as good as Intel doesn't mean they can't game well. Their IMC allows AMD's to game extremely well.

kazi_saki · Sep 08, 2008, 10:34 PM // 22:34

What's an IMC? I switched from intel to AMD because I thought I could squeeze better performance for the money in an AMD-ATi combo

Lord Sojar · Sep 08, 2008, 10:43 PM // 22:43

IMC = Integrated Memory Controller.

The new CPU from Intel, Nehalem, has one as well.

And yes, for the money, you can squeeze more performance out of an AMD purity build.

moriz · Sep 08, 2008, 10:45 PM // 22:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rahja the Thief

Lies.... just because AMD isn't as good as Intel doesn't mean they can't game well. Their IMC allows AMD's to game extremely well.

i'm pretty sure an athlon64 x2 5000 is not quite adequate for crysis. it's very good for its cost, but still not quite good enough.

{IceFire} · Sep 08, 2008, 11:11 PM // 23:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by Elder III

the 3850 is a pretty decent card - it should smoke the 1950 like a a crackhead on payday.

IceFire - I have a Gigabyte mobo with the 780g and it has fairly good onboard sound... are you sure it isn't cheap speakers on your end???

mine is ECS

kazi_saki · Sep 08, 2008, 11:18 PM // 23:18

mine is too! And I know how u feel

I couldn't find a Gigabyte 780g anywhere so I just settled for that ECS. which would be better btw, an AMD x2 5000 + HD 3850 or an intel core 2 duo + 8800 GS???

Lord Sojar · Sep 09, 2008, 03:07 AM // 03:07

Quote:

Originally Posted by kazi_saki

mine is too! And I know how u feel

I couldn't find a Gigabyte 780g anywhere so I just settled for that ECS. which would be better btw, an AMD x2 5000 + HD 3850 or an intel core 2 duo + 8800 GS???

8800 GS + Core 2 Duo, for sure. The Core 2 slaughters the AMD, and 8800GS beats the 3850 hands down.

kazi_saki · Sep 09, 2008, 03:47 AM // 03:47

dammit! I have the worst luck! They ran out of Sapphire brands and the MSI/Gigabyte 3850s cost almost as much as a 3870. They're offering a Palit HD 3850 instead so I guess i'll just have to get that. is palit a good manufacturer???

edit:
Hey Icefire, the ECS board has a good sound card. It sounds crisp and clear on my end. Btw, the Palit 3850 is pretty good and it has a gigantic heatsink + fan which is pretty quiet so far. I guess that's a +1 for Palit from me