Budget Machine Thread Of Joy™

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » October 15th, 2007, 16:51

that spec works nicely, obviously i'd suggest waiting for the GT, but that's your choice

amblin · Post by **amblin** » October 15th, 2007, 16:54

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » October 15th, 2007, 16:59

Shit, now I've got and started looking for funding options for my rig, since I'll have the cash inside the next two weeks. This has interesting potential to bite me in the ass

amblin · Post by **amblin** » October 15th, 2007, 17:50

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 15th, 2007, 17:55

You say budget, but that thing will run most all of what you throw at it, and it'll run it well.

for buying new rig

That I can't get a faster one yet.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » October 15th, 2007, 19:40

Post by **FatherJack** » October 15th, 2007, 22:50

I bought a 486DX2-66 from Tiny for £1000 ("CAD" workstation with a then-huge 17" CRT), and a P166MMX from Packard Bell for £1500 (PC World finance FTL). Both were ace at the time.

Everything since was free, built from spare parts from work, including a P2-400, P3-866, P4-1.7G and a P4-3G-HT, as well as the original GeForce when it first came out, although I did buy a 12M(!) 3dfx Voodoo2 and a GF6600 along the way, as well as various soundcards from a Gravis to an Extigy.

This latest rig is up to about £2400 and counting, but I wanted to start high and keep pretty much at the top end, gaming is such now that it's very hard to build up a performance box from your average office PC - my brand-new office PC I got last week has an average 1.86GHz C2D and only 667Mhz RAM.

5-or-6 grand over fifteen years doesn't sound so bad, until you consider that nearly half of it was spent in the last six months. I'm lucky that a number of things, including debt-clearing and pay-rises happened at the right time, or I'd probably have a dual AGP/PCI-e mobo and trying to keep up a little bit at a time.

cheeseandham · Post by **cheeseandham** » October 17th, 2007, 12:42

Fifteen years since 486-DX2 66?
Just before I die, when I flashback through my life I'm rather afraid I will find that for the most part of my flashback I'll be staring at a monitor.

I'd better take a good book for that bit...

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » October 17th, 2007, 12:50

Attempt at construction discussion:

The new 8600 GTSs look fairly hot, at least next to the X1950 Pros.

For the price difference, which would you go with?

Post by **deject** » October 17th, 2007, 15:32

Hehulk wrote:Attempt at construction discussion:

The new 8600 GTSs look fairly hot, at least next to the X1950 Pros.

For the price difference, which would you go with?

Uh, did you look at the benchmarks? The X1950 was almost faster across the board. The current mid-range parts from both nVidia and ATi are utter shit that don't provide any real benefits over the last generation of GPUs that are at the same price point. Also, their DirectX 10 support is a total joke, because they don't have anywhere near enough speed to power a DX10 game properly.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » October 17th, 2007, 16:03

Hehulk wrote:Attempt at construction discussion:

The new 8600 GTSs look fairly hot, at least next to the X1950 Pros.

For the price difference, which would you go with?

The 8600s are utter shite, IIRC.

For low end you still want a 7900/7950 or 1950, they're all still plenty fast, just lack DX10 support (which'll be awful on the 8600)

Hehulk · Post by **Hehulk** » October 17th, 2007, 19:21

Welcome to why I asked, and no, didn't check benchmarks. Just looked at the core speed vs the X1950 and went oooooh, shiny.

Post by **deject** » October 17th, 2007, 19:28

Hehulk wrote:Welcome to why I asked, and no, didn't check benchmarks. Just looked at the core speed vs the X1950 and went oooooh, shiny.

fairy muff, but they're still shit. If you're on a tight budget, the X1950 is a great value. I'll still wait for the 8800GT.

Post by **tandino** » October 17th, 2007, 19:47

8800 GT for me at the end of the month then, huzzaH! Finally my upgrade will be complete. Are you fuckers going to keep your ears to the ground and let us know when they come out?

Post by **deject** » October 17th, 2007, 20:11

tandino wrote:8800 GT for me at the end of the month then, huzzaH! Finally my upgrade will be complete. Are you fuckers going to keep your ears to the ground and let us know when they come out?

I will be, seeing as I plan on getting one.

Post by **HereComesPete** » October 18th, 2007, 14:58

Good thing the 8800gt is. Not as good as at gtx, but there we go. I'm fairly sure my card is being throttled by the mobo/cpu/ram that it supports, so I think know my next upgrade is a new rig.

amblin · Post by **amblin** » October 19th, 2007, 15:07

Anhamgrimmar · Post by **Anhamgrimmar** » October 19th, 2007, 15:32

Minor not at all eve-related threadjack.

I need a stop gap GPU upgrade, as my current one (X800GTO) doesnt support shader model 3. and theres a New Game coming soon that will require it for all the OMGSHINEYNESS.

Can anyone recommend a SM3.0 compatible card? for cheap? rly cheap? PCIe 16 is present and correct, so i dont need to go for any AGP wierdness.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » October 19th, 2007, 19:04

pretty much any nvidia graphics card after (IIRC) a 6600 will do SM3.

otherwise, I think you're into x1000 territory, dunno which are sm3 there.

Post by **Dr. kitteny berk** » October 19th, 2007, 19:09

amblin wrote:Having constructed my new PC, I heartily recommend all of the components. Installation was a doddle and everything worked first time. There was room enough in the case for it all and the speed of the thing is really impressive when stepping up from a P4 and a 6600.

I'm glad it all works, given i threw the spec together in 5 minutes