1. #21
    Agreed. I wouldn't really get a 16 pipe card right now unless $ is a concern as the 24 pipe and 512 mb cards will be expensive... Not as outrageous as the link above...


    Originally posted by Weather_Man:
    The 512mb cards will be completely compatible with your current rig. The interface is the same (AGP or PCI-E), the only difference is the extra RAM on the card.

    From what I understand, the first batch of 512mb cards will use the current X800 or GF6800 chips. You won't see any performance difference for most games with the extra RAM. Doom3 and maybe one or two other games are the only ones programed to use 512mb. Personally, I'd wait to get the next gen cards (R520), with the 24 pipelines, before upgrading. Those should be released soon.
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  2. #22
    To me, it all depends on thr rig in question as far as whether or not to upgrade the video card. All things being equal, yes, I would wait, not just for the 520 core and the 24 pixel pipeline cards, but to see if ATI's SLI thingy pans out as well.

    As far as the power supply thing goes, ignorance can be bliss for a while until you get a truly good one. I remember when Hunter82 was going on about the OCZ Powerstream power supplies. At first I was like...

    Yeah, right Bill, you're trying to sell me something!

    Well, I can tell anyone reading this thread that he was not making big bucks off of selling them and as it turns out, when you get one, you do have to watch out for a major safety concern... don't drop it because it won't hurt the power supply, it will just break your foot!

    It's just really nice to be able to say to myself...

    Well, it ain't a power supply problem!

    It really reduces not only diagnostic headaches, but helps you to run cooler, quieter and at higher clocks.
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  3. #23
    I agree with LB, I rocognize good advice when I hear it and just got my OCZ 600W a few days ago. It made my old PSU look like a cheap cardboard movie prop!!! It is impossible to imagine that you can look at something a boring as a psu and say to yourself "My god, that is the sexiest piece of hardware I have ever seen!". You can't look at pics of this thing and understand the pure quality it exudes in person. The wrapping and coating and length of the wires, the number of plugs and options available with this thing is so understated on all the websites I've looked at this thing on. I was sold on it's specs and reputation, but was shocked by it when I opened the box. I know this sounds like fanboydom but that really is the level at which it impressed me whe I laid eyes on it.
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  4. #24
    They do look really nice in a windowed case. The quality is really nice visually...then you get to the internal quality and it's amazing. OCZ no doubt makes one of the best PSU's in the powerstream.



    Originally posted by Urufu_Shinjiro:
    I agree with LB, I rocognize good advice when I hear it and just got my OCZ 600W a few days ago. It made my old PSU look like a cheap cardboard movie prop!!! It is impossible to imagine that you can look at something a boring as a psu and say to yourself "My god, that is the sexiest piece of hardware I have ever seen!". You can't look at pics of this thing and understand the pure quality it exudes in person. The wrapping and coating and length of the wires, the number of plugs and options available with this thing is so understated on all the websites I've looked at this thing on. I was sold on it's specs and reputation, but was shocked by it when I opened the box. I know this sounds like fanboydom but that really is the level at which it impressed me whe I laid eyes on it.
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  5. #25
    SLI + Water = 3 is NOT working, so keep that in mind as you build your new rig.
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  6. #26
    Originally posted by Hunter82:

    No Win XP 64 is a 64 bit version of XP Pro and not a early beta of Longhorn. Totally different OS all together from bottom up
    Hey, not quite that, xp x64 is completely diferente from xp pro 32bit or IA64, it's actually based on the server 2003 x64 core but with a xp interface (this is way they were both released at the same time). Actually most drivers or system tweaks (not to say some other stuff...) are the same.

    On a side note about OCZ psu's, why don't people who don't need the extra flashy stuff and adjustable rails simply buy Tagan PSU's? OCZ's are just rebadged Tagan psu's with some extras. Just as TT's were sirtec/chiftec/highpower rebadged psu's. Plus, if it's true ATX12V 2.0 compliance you are after, the only OCZ that is compliant is the 600W, both the 420W and 520W are ATX 2.0 but only 1.3 for the current ATX12V spec (which matters much more for powerfull bizness as a dfi nf4 with UTT and SLI's etc). Some time ago there was an extensive discussion about this @ http://www.dfi-street.com/forum/showthread.php?t=6570
    Does it really matter? Well...

    ps: please also remember that PC P&C are the rolls royce of PSU's
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  7. #27
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  8. #28
    Read here for a more in-depth analysis on ATIāĀ“s new Crossfire multivpu architechture:

    http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=Nzc4

    Sounds like a winner to me
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  9. #29
    This could be interesting...for $60 and some extra RAM laying around, you can set up a RAM drive.

    For users who are tired of sitting around and waiting for their Windows-based PCs to boot up, they can install Windows on the IRam and use that as the drive to start the system more quickly, Handley says. When the card is used in this way, starting Windows XP is a matter of seconds, rather than a minute or more, he says.

    The IRam can also be used by gamers, who want to reduce the time required to access stored data, he says.

    The IRam holds up to 4GB of DRAM in four memory slots. The card fits into a standard PCI slot, which provides power, and it uses a SATA (Serial ATA) connection for data transfer.

    Unlike DRAM-based main memory, the IRam card doesn't lose data when the PC is switched off, says Thomas Chang, a product manager at Giga-byte. As long as the PC is plugged into a socket, a very small amount of current continues to run through some parts of the system, including the PCI slots. This provides enough power to make sure that no data is lost, he says.

    If the PC is unplugged, the IRam has an on-board battery for emergency power that can last up to 12 hours, he says.

    The IRam will be available in July and will be priced at around $60 without DRAM.
    http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121105,00.asp
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  10. #30
    Here's something I noticed while looking at ATI's site on crossfire:
    "Only three components: a CrossFire Ready motherboard ideally based on the ATI Radeonā® Xpress 200 chipset, a compatible Radeon graphics card, and a related Radeon CrossFire Edition co-processor board."

    I draw your attention to the words "ideally based on the ATI Radeonā® Xpress 200 chipset", deos this mean there is the possibility of crossfire on other chipset based mobos? Is everything done cardside to the extent that maybe we could run crossfire on an SLI or the non-SLI dfi boards with two pci-e video slots? Okay, rumor mill, GO!
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