ArcherPhate

OK, my case has a dent in it, so im gona replace it. I am already planing on getting 1.5gig ram( maybe 2gig) and getting a nice looking case.

Now my question.
Should i get a AGP card or A PCI Express card. ~~Note: I would need a new MB for PCI-E

The AGP Card Im Looking at GForce 6800 Ultra

What i know about the card is that it will plow through EQ adn problibly EQ2. It is Gforces flagship atm. It is a HUGE card, 4' linger than ATI biggest card. It neeed power( comes with connectors to get powere from Power sorce). I can probly buy a 480W wit the new case im getting


By budgets around a $1k.

Tower:
A Full Tower

Power:
This one

or

THis one

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lanolar

That case comes with a power supply. The bad thing is, the power supply sucks.

Both the power supplies you listed are VERY poor quality also.

I would highyl reccomend a quality PS.

Here is a great case for the money:

Antec super lanboy

And a power supply:

Sparkle (the OEM for PC power and cooling)

For your video card, the Geforce Ultra AGP would be an awesome choice.

ArcherPhate

~~~Ignore This post~~~

Inokis

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Landaire

buy that Sparkle psu mentioned above with 18A 12V rail, and I guarantee you that it won't be able to power your video card. This psu will cost you $30 less and is almost 2X the psu with 30A 12V rail. Aspire ATX-MR450W at NewEgg

As far as the PCI-E and AGP debate, if you are comfortable replacing a MoBo, by all means, get the PCI-E. The cards cost less and you can count on compatibility for years to come.

Good luck with the upgrades.

Landaire

ArcherPhate

/feels dumb

Whats 18A/30A and 12V rail mea? Amps adn Volts?

I am worried about space issues. After reading all teh reviews for the case im a little less worried. THis will be the first comeputer i make( well put together anyway. I figure if i un onto any major roadblocks i can get help eather from here or from the instructor of teh class im taking that teaches computer assembley.

Also, i like the fact its portable. I will be leaving for college in August and will be taking computer with me, and then back home on vacations, then back to college, ect.

Neori

If you're really worried about size and portability, you could try one of these cases.

But if you want fairly decent power for the money, go for something like a 6600 GT, I just got one for my new system from Newegg for about $200. But you'd have to get a new motherboard and CPU as well. I got a Gigabyte GA-K8NF-9 and an AMD 64 3200+ (careful if you do get this one, SATA drives are tricky on it, I couldn't get the system to detect one and had to go back to a regular IDE ATA drive).

As for PSUs, I was having major problems with my old system that turned out to be due to a cheap no-name brand PSU I'd been using. It was powerful enough to run everything, but just wasn't quality or stable. I did a lot of research on it on various tech sites (overclocking sites are great for info, as to OC you need a very stable PSU to power it all). Some of the best PSUs to look for: Antec, OCZ (it's what I'm using), PCP&C, Enermax, Sparkle, E-Power/TAGAN. Avoid Aspire, Coolmax, Cooler Master, Raidmax, and most others. Most everyone seems to swear by Antec, Enermax, or OCZ from what I've seen.

What you want to figure out is how much power you'll need based on the components in the system. CPU, VGA, hard drives, optical drives, and case fans and/or lights all draw off the +12V rail especially, so you'll want one that has at least 18A on it, or maybe a PSU with twin +12V rails. And if you want to find out how stable your PSU is, look for programs like SpeedFan, Everest, PC Wizard, or SiSoft Sandra. They all have sensors that can monitor voltages, temperates, fan speeds, etc. Just bear in mind that the only accurate readings you can get for voltages and temperatures would be by hooking up the proper equipment (thermometers or voltmeters) to the appropriate areas; onboard sensors aren't always real accurate. But you can get a sense of what the system is doing with those programs at least. When watching the voltage readings, you want the +3.3V, +5V, and +12V readings to be within 10% minimum and within 5% ideally of those numbers. Any farther away means you're risking system problems and possible hardware failures. My graphics freezes in many games before were mostly likely due to the cheap PSU's +12V rail fluctuating too low and making the VGA card's power flow unstable.

Another thing to keep in mind is that the 6600s and 6800s have a bug in the more recent Nvidia drivers that causes the card's GPU temperature to report some 10 degrees higher than normal (and most people are saying that the card IS hotter than normal, it's not just a falsely high sensor reading). So you'll want to also think about maintaining good airflow for the case, and buy aftermarket coolers for the CPU and graphics card, as often the stock fansinks are only good as a bare minimum, and will really struggle if you OC anything. You'll probably want to have some case fans to move air through the system, starting at the lower front for intake to upper back for outflow, and have a 1:1 for intake/outflow for case fans.

If you want more information, check out these forums that I've gotten a ton of my info from: Dev Hardware Forums.

Hope this helps.

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danille

just build a new gaming pc 2 weeks ago for $1100.

send me a PM with your questions and will be glad to help you with good deals

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lanolar

That aspire is a POS. There is a reason they were able to jack up the 12v line. Look at how all the other lines are low power.

Sparkle is the OEM for the best power supply made. PC power and cooling, only about $50 cheaper.

The PSU I listed will EASILY power a 6800U and more. Not to mention its rated work time 100,000 hours. The aspire is 1/3 of that. Why? Because its a piece of crap.

ArcherPhate

After doing research, this is what i have decided to get. Please let me know if anything is not worth it or if something just suxs.
Cathode Lights 2x

LanBoy Case

120mm Blue LED Fans 2x, Will replace ones in case.

Consair DDR400 1GB (512x2) and Rosewill DDR400 1GB

Cool Master 450W PSU

EVGA GForce 6600 GT

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Total Cost (Including Tax)

$614.53

Neori

I'd suggest avoiding that PSU, it's not one of the brands that I've seen recommended. I just did a quick search on Newegg, and came up with this Antec 450W model.

It doesn't have dual +12V rails like the Cool Master PSU you linked, but it still has 20A on it. And it's about the same price. You'd probably be better off, as the Antec brand is one I've seen highly recommended for almost any model.

ArcherPhate

OK replacing wit taht PSU


New ToTal

$609

Neori

Maybe I missed it in here somewhere... but what motherboard did you settle on?