Finally got my comp done.

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

the HD4850s were the highest rated cards in the $250 and under range by far, NVidia dropped the ball since the new ATI cards came out and are yet to recover. Honestly im not going to drop $300 or so on a graphics card when all i use the computer for is school and surfing, and a little gaming here or there. Its just not worth that type of investment though

Debateble...

9800GTX beats the 4850 in plenty of games/tests and can be had for the same price or cheaper if you look around. (or its replacement the 9800GTX+ which can be had for the same price or $10 more) Just saying... theres options. It's not hands down ATI is the best and thats all anyone should buy (and nvidia is still holding market share... albeit loseing it rapidly but competition is only good for the consumer)

If you look around you will see Nvidia is staying very compeitive with ATI.

Nvidia did not drop the ball... ATI just finally released something worth a ****. There is no clear winner it depends on what you are doing.

But nice system none the less! And yes always build your own rig's... performance and oem do not go well together...

BTW your going to need to run prime 95 a bit longer if you want to prove that 3.8Ghz is stable.

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

I would post links with information from multiple tests showing that the HD4850 beat out the 98000GTX but last time I posted up a link to a computer site I was banned for an entire week, so I am unable to argue that point.

I ran Prime95 through out the night last night and it held fine, although temps did get a little higher then I would have liked to seen. I will most likely tune the OC down to 3.4 or so as I don't really need anything ran this high.

 

[Scoobydoo 5,000+ posts]

nice space heater, just in time for winter

 

[Eugenics 5,000+ posts]

If you're just going to surf and do other simple things, why do you need to overclock the piss out of it?

Also, this has got me thinking about doing something similar. If i can have a tower that will provide me with plenty of umph to play oblivion and sc2 while not raping my wallet... why not?

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

Debateble...
9800GTX beats the 4850 in plenty of games/tests and can be had for the same price or cheaper if you look around. (or its replacement the 9800GTX+ which can be had for the same price or $10 more) Just saying... theres options. It's not hands down ATI is the best and thats all anyone should buy (and nvidia is still holding market share... albeit loseing it rapidly but competition is only good for the consumer)

If you look around you will see Nvidia is staying very compeitive with ATI.

Nvidia did not drop the ball... ATI just finally released something worth a ****. There is no clear winner it depends on what you are doing.

But nice system none the less! And yes always build your own rig's... performance and oem do not go well together...

BTW your going to need to run prime 95 a bit longer if you want to prove that 3.8Ghz is stable.

Except the 9800 GTX is a fvcking monstrosity compared to the HD 4850 (2" longer, IIRC, plus dual slot ... HD 4850 also consumes less power), ATI/AMD have been releasing new official drivers on a monthly basis as opposed to Nvidia's recent bullshit approach of every 4-6 months) plus SLI is getting ***-***** by CrossfireX due to a lack of competitive motherboards supporting it.
The HD 4850 has much more going for it than the 9800 GTX ...

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

Except the 9800 GTX is a fvcking monstrosity compared to the HD 4850 (2" longer, IIRC, plus dual slot ... HD 4850 also consumes less power), ATI/AMD have been releasing new official drivers on a monthly basis as opposed to Nvidia's recent bullshit approach of every 4-6 months) plus SLI is getting ***-***** by CrossfireX due to a lack of competitive motherboards supporting it.
The HD 4850 has much more going for it than the 9800 GTX ...

thanks for helping clear that up, I think I made the right decision and have read literally hundreds of reviews of why it was better as well.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Except the 9800 GTX is a fvcking monstrosity compared to the HD 4850 (2" longer, IIRC, plus dual slot ... HD 4850 also consumes less power), ATI/AMD have been releasing new official drivers on a monthly basis as opposed to Nvidia's recent bullshit approach of every 4-6 months) plus SLI is getting ***-***** by CrossfireX due to a lack of competitive motherboards supporting it.
The HD 4850 has much more going for it than the 9800 GTX ...

9800GTX is quieter (thanks to the bigger cooler) and runs cooler. And none of the review I have read show the 4850 consuming much less then the 9800GTX (less then 10watts difference). Considering the smaller manufacturing process that's kinda disappointing...

And if you actually cared about your video card and the drivers you would go to a site like laptopvideo2go.com and download the latest drivers (new ones almost every week including great linux support...) Official drivers mean nothing...ATI is the same way if you really care you go get omega drivers are whatever.

And SLI/Crossfire is the biggest marketing ploy every. It is a waste of money and I don't even consider comparisons of dual GPU cards or linked cards as its all BS anyway.

And before you go off and say I dont know what I am talking about... I have had SLI 8800GTX, 9800GX2, 3870 X2 and currently own GTX280, 8800GTS G92 and a 4850 (and have played on a 4870 and X2) and I can make the following claims

1. SLI/crossfire gives little to no improvement in the mast majority of games and the inability to have dual monitors is unnacceptable. Plus all the conflics/problems that arrise from such is stupid.

2. 9800GX2 is a waste of money (for above 1. argument)

3. 3870 X2 couldn't hold its own against the 8800GTX or even my 8800GTS G92 except in some titles

4. GTX280 is the performance crown holder however the 4870's offers a much nicer value. Also GTX280 is a first hand experience card as the benchmarks do not show the true potential of this card (benchmarks dont show you stutters and jitters for example)

5. 4850 and 8800GTS(9800GTX+) are great budget card's that I put in most of the systems I build for people.

If you have had all the above cards or more... then you can argue.

In no way am I dissing ATI. I congrat them for finally pulling up and bringing to the table exactly what they said.... value. They came back into the came stating that they were aiming at bang for the buck and they have done exactly that and put the pressure back onto nvidia. But in no way is ATI the clear winner here. Nvidia has been staying very competitive with the pricing and the tests trade off with each other. The 4850 wins some, the 9800GTX+ wins some. And the difference's are not going to make or break whether they can play a game or not.

And don't beleive everything you read in reviews. The numbers dont tell the whole truth.

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

So anyways....

hope you guys enjoy my setup.

Im not here to argue with you Bun-Bun, i love the setup just how it is and wouldnt change anything about it.

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

So anyways....

hope you guys enjoy my setup.

Im not here to argue with you Bun-Bun, i love the setup just how it is and wouldnt change anything about it.

See that's where you are wrong. I wasn't trying to tell you that you made a poor choice. I was just saying that your blanket statement was incorrect. I guess you didn't read the rest of the post. I said it was a good system and that building your own systems is more worthwhile then buying oem... I built a very similar system just this weekend for a friend (and I put a 4850 in it) and its an awesome rig. It's amazing what $1,000 will get you when most people think you need $2k+ for a nice rig...

Just trying to keep down on the misinformation cause there is a lot of fanboyism surrounding this debate.

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

See that's where you are wrong. I wasn't trying to tell you that you made a poor choice. I was just saying that your blanket statement was incorrect. I guess you didn't read the rest of the post. I said it was a good system and that building your own systems is more worthwhile then buying oem... I built a very similar system just this weekend for a friend (and I put a 4850 in it) and its an awesome rig. It's amazing what $1,000 will get you when most people think you need $2k+ for a nice rig...
Just trying to keep down on the misinformation cause there is a lot of fanboyism surrounding this debate.

I appreciate the compliments, I really do. But I never was arguing I simply showed my build on here and listed what it consisted of.

 

[delvryboy 5,000+ posts]

Don't forget to re-format with 64 bit before you get too much stuff installed.

 

[Jmac 10+ year member]

9800GTX is quieter (thanks to the bigger cooler) and runs cooler. And none of the review I have read show the 4850 consuming much less then the 9800GTX (less then 10watts difference). Considering the smaller manufacturing process that's kinda disappointing...
And if you actually cared about your video card and the drivers you would go to a site like laptopvideo2go.com and download the latest drivers (new ones almost every week including great linux support...) Official drivers mean nothing...ATI is the same way if you really care you go get omega drivers are whatever.

And SLI/Crossfire is the biggest marketing ploy every. It is a waste of money and I don't even consider comparisons of dual GPU cards or linked cards as its all BS anyway.

And before you go off and say I dont know what I am talking about... I have had SLI 8800GTX, 9800GX2, 3870 X2 and currently own GTX280, 8800GTS G92 and a 4850 (and have played on a 4870 and X2) and I can make the following claims

1. SLI/crossfire gives little to no improvement in the mast majority of games and the inability to have dual monitors is unnacceptable. Plus all the conflics/problems that arrise from such is stupid.

2. 9800GX2 is a waste of money (for above 1. argument)

3. 3870 X2 couldn't hold its own against the 8800GTX or even my 8800GTS G92 except in some titles

4. GTX280 is the performance crown holder however the 4870's offers a much nicer value. Also GTX280 is a first hand experience card as the benchmarks do not show the true potential of this card (benchmarks dont show you stutters and jitters for example)

5. 4850 and 8800GTS(9800GTX+) are great budget card's that I put in most of the systems I build for people.

If you have had all the above cards or more... then you can argue.

In no way am I dissing ATI. I congrat them for finally pulling up and bringing to the table exactly what they said.... value. They came back into the came stating that they were aiming at bang for the buck and they have done exactly that and put the pressure back onto nvidia. But in no way is ATI the clear winner here. Nvidia has been staying very competitive with the pricing and the tests trade off with each other. The 4850 wins some, the 9800GTX+ wins some. And the difference's are not going to make or break whether they can play a game or not.

And don't beleive everything you read in reviews. The numbers dont tell the whole truth.

I've owned most of those cards and used all of them. I, too, am not a huge fan of multi-GPU setups as software titles and drivers need serious work in order for them to be taken seriously, but when a card nears EOL, it's hard to pass up the opportunity to nearly double your performance in select titles for a small fraction of the price you paid for the original card. For example, if you picked up an 8800 GT earlier this year, you can pick another one up for less than $100 now that they're EOL (I've seen them for $60 after MIR, FFS).
As for the HD 4850, it's perfectly quiet at idle and you don't really notice it when playing a game as you usually have the sound turned up, so the fact that the 9800 GTX is quieter is a non-issue, IMO. The nice thing about a dual slot cooler is that the heat is removed from the case, however; good if you have a cramped case or poor airflow (of course, if you have a cramped case, you probably won't be getting the 9800 GTX in it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif).

I've had bad experiences with custom drivers, personally, so I stick to the official ones, as do most people. For example, the Omega drivers did NOT vibe well at all w/ my HD 4870 w/ frequent crashes and hang-ups. I had a couple less-severe issues w/ custom drivers and my 8800 GTS as well. The fact that ATI/AMD releases new drivers on a regular basis is much-appreciated, especially given that the performance of recent ATI cards (HD 2000-series and newer) has shown serious performance gains w/ driver updates.

I'm not saying the 9800 GTX is a bad card at all; I'm just saying I personally prefer the HD 4850 for most applications. If they were using it for 3D modelling, CAD work, or Folding@Home, I would definitely recommend the 9800 GTX (assuming it would fit).

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

I've owned most of those cards and used all of them. I, too, am not a huge fan of multi-GPU setups as software titles and drivers need serious work in order for them to be taken seriously, but when a card nears EOL, it's hard to pass up the opportunity to nearly double your performance in select titles for a small fraction of the price you paid for the original card. For example, if you picked up an 8800 GT earlier this year, you can pick another one up for less than $100 now that they're EOL (I've seen them for $60 after MIR, FFS).
As for the HD 4850, it's perfectly quiet at idle and you don't really notice it when playing a game as you usually have the sound turned up, so the fact that the 9800 GTX is quieter is a non-issue, IMO. The nice thing about a dual slot cooler is that the heat is removed from the case, however; good if you have a cramped case or poor airflow (of course, if you have a cramped case, you probably won't be getting the 9800 GTX in it //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif).

I've had bad experiences with custom drivers, personally, so I stick to the official ones, as do most people. For example, the Omega drivers did NOT vibe well at all w/ my HD 4870 w/ frequent crashes and hang-ups. I had a couple less-severe issues w/ custom drivers and my 8800 GTS as well. The fact that ATI/AMD releases new drivers on a regular basis is much-appreciated, especially given that the performance of recent ATI cards (HD 2000-series and newer) has shown serious performance gains w/ driver updates.

I'm not saying the 9800 GTX is a bad card at all; I'm just saying I personally prefer the HD 4850 for most applications. If they were using it for 3D modelling, CAD work, or Folding@Home, I would definitely recommend the 9800 GTX (assuming it would fit).

And some people would care about the fan difference. Me for example I don't have a case and the video card fan is only a foot away from my ear //content.invisioncic.com/y282845/emoticons/wink.gif.608e3ea05f1a9f98611af0861652f8fb.gif

Well the drivers on laptopvideo2go are official drivers... they just aren't rubber stamped and put on the website. But they are direct from nvidia (though you can get custom inf's if you desire). I have solved many of my problems by getting newer drivers from laptopvideo2go. The only reason nvidia doens't post them on teh site that offten is they need whql appoval which is annoying to get in the frequency that they do update.

And yes... professional/cad work is much better on the nvidia line up...

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but why in the hell dont you have a case? Prefer optimum cooling lol?

 

[Bun-Bun 10+ year member]

Maybe this is a dumb question, but why in the hell dont you have a case? Prefer optimum cooling lol?

I was changing parts so often that it was getting annoying to have my stuff in a case. If you can't tell already I am a bit of a computer geek...

I do have a kick *** custom case though... took me several months to get all the mods done they way I wanted. I plan to get it back up and running in the next month or so now that I am done changing parts.

You can see more of that case here http://pics.livejournal.com/bun_bun/gallery/0000axzr?page=15