Curse

Ghengis Kwell · Dec 28, 2007, 02:07 AM // 02:07

I am thinking of lashing out with a bit of money from Xmas and upgrading, I found this on eBay for £150

# AMD Dual Core 6000 X2 Retail Boxed with Heatsink & Fan
# 2GB DDR2
# Asus M2N-E SLI Motherboard

Now would I need to get 2 rooting tooting all singing graphics cards or would 2 mid range ones do , any recommendations out there? thanks

Yichi · Dec 28, 2007, 02:39 AM // 02:39

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ghengis Kwell

I am thinking of lashing out with a bit of money from Xmas and upgrading, I found this on eBay for £150

# AMD Dual Core 6000 X2 Retail Boxed with Heatsink & Fan
# 2GB DDR2
# Asus M2N-E SLI Motherboard

Now would I need to get 2 rooting tooting all singing graphics cards or would 2 mid range ones do , any recommendations out there? thanks

I have the same setup, just with a gigabyte motherboard and I'm running dual 8600gt's 512mb and i have no problems with anything i have ran.

zamial · Dec 28, 2007, 02:40 PM // 14:40

I would (and am) holding off on the cpu and mother board purchases until spring time. there are new mobo's with better north/south bridge chips coming. There will also be new cpu chips to fit the new form (AMD3). I did however get a 8800 gt for under $300.00 from bestbuy.com.

My suggestion is wait or upgrade alternate components.

lordpwn · Dec 28, 2007, 06:12 PM // 18:12

I wouldn't bother with two "mid range" cards. The current gen "mid range" cards have sucked the whole year: too slow for any real DX10 gaming, overpriced for anything else. Due to various issues with the SLI and Crossfire implementations you will never get twice the 3D performance by getting a second graphics card, making the "mid range" stuff's already questionable price/performance ratios even worse. Plus you need a motherboard that supports two video cards, potentially making the whole deal more expensive than just getting a single video card that's actually good. Of course, you seem to already have a suitable motherboard there.

In my opinion, unless you can find a really good offer somewhere (not that unlikely after Christmas), the three video cards worth bothering with right now are the Radeon 3850, Radeon 3870 and the GeForce 8800GT, in order of increasing performance. Go any cheaper and the cards start to get so crippled at higher resolutions, AA/AF settings and such you're not getting good value for your money; any faster than those three and the price starts to increase much more than the performance does.

Ayumi The Angel · Dec 28, 2007, 10:00 PM // 22:00

Personally I would wait for AMD to finish there Phenom lineup, and Intel to release there next gen of chips, as well as for Nvidia to release the 9xxx series, which will be sure to blow the 8xxx series out of the water just as every other generation has done.

Personally, going for AMD at this point in time seems pointless, as there lineup is slower and less impressive than Intels, and the same goes for AMD-ATI graphics.

If you insist on upgrading now, I would recommend a C2D 6750 or a Q6600 (Quad-Core)(Quad core currently isnt necessary at all, but by buying it now, you save yourself from having to upgrade later), as well as at least 2GB of the fastest DDR2 RAM, a 8800GT, and the socket 775 mobo of your choice. If you insist on AMD, get the processor that best fits your budget, but make sure your motherboard is socket AM2+ for upgradeability. The "+" is the key thing there.

If you are going to wait (as I recommend), I would get the equivalent of everything above in its "new" version, which will ultimately lead to similar prices and faster performance. Just wait for some benchmarks to come out, and then make your choice.

Hope this helps.

--Ayumi