Hi! Pimprig peeeps!

I was wondering what is right now one of the best 3d grafics card below the 450€?? & what brand? (have had great experience with winfast/leadtek)
I have seen the ATI x800xt 256mb and the NVDIA 6800 with also 256/512mb.

My system is as follows:

ASUS P4C800E-DELUXE
P4 3GHZ PRESCOTT 1024L2 CACHE @ 3600Mhz (watercooled)
(WINFAST/LEADTEK A310D 5600FX 256MB) NOT ANYMORE!!!!! OVERCLOCKED TOO FAR!!!!!!! (was watercooled)
1 512 DDR-SDRAM 400Mhz (INFINEON)
UWSCSI 160 ADAPTEC CONTROLLER (water cooled)
1 UWSCSI 160 18,2GB SEAGATE HD
1 IDE 80GB SEAGATE BARRACUDA 133
1 IDE 60GB WESTERN DIGITAL
SOUNDBLASTER SOUNDCARD 1024 LIVE!

I was wondering what would be the best 3d card for my system. I've been looking for some info on the net, but I haven't still made my choice and I would like more opinions on choosing ATI or NVDIA.....I have always used NVDIA so far, but the more I look at ATI the more I want one. My budget is 450€ but I would`pay less for a more crappy one if someone tells me that now its not the time to buy a new 3d card but over a few months...the problem right now is that I can't use my computer because I can't do anything without having a 3d card installed in my system....so my new computer is waiting for the new monster to come...
I hope you don't tell me to buy a FX5600 and to overclock it..LoL
(I'm not overclocking GPU again, I think :-)

Please!! someone help me!!
The games that I would like to run smoothly at 1280*1024: Far Cry, Doom 3, Half-Life 2, STALKER, Bloodrayne 2, etc... (i know that I will need 1gb of ram...and Corsair XMS XL 2-2-2 but first a 3d card is required)

You watercooled a scsi controller? Thats a new one on me....


I'd say your best bet is the x800xt.... good luck getting one though, they're having production problems with the GDDR3 and they are hard to come by at the moment. This also goes for the 6800.

Quote: Originally Posted by M.D.K. You watercooled a scsi controller? Thats a new one on me.... I'd say your best bet is the x800xt.... good luck getting one though, they're having production problems with the GDDR3 and they are hard to come by at the moment. This also goes for the 6800.

No I haven't, I just had a look at it....it's my SCSI HDD that is water cooled...sorry

Thanks for the advice...but do you know what brand/trademark?

very interesting a h20cooled scsi hdd..hmmm
got any pics?

If all the info is correct above, my suggestion would be to get a 9800pro, and get another stick of ram in that motherboard...running an Intel on single channel is just a waste of ...well, Intel.

Hmmm h20 cooled SCSI hdd huh...cant say I ever seen one of those....pics pics pics
please...

I dunno Zennzz, is a 9800 Pro really all that worth it now? I mean, I would rather just save for a X800Pro or XT. Although that BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC looks pretty nice I must say.

Quote: Originally Posted by neotheducky I dunno Zennzz, is a 9800 Pro really all that worth it now? I mean, I would rather just save for a X800Pro or XT. Although that BFG GeForce 6800 GT OC looks pretty nice I must say.

This is not the round to be buying a video card, IMO
I'm thinking pricepoint, so he can get another stick of RAM as well... 'cmon INTEL on a single channel?

To me, my 9800pro flashed to XT will last me till the PCI-express gear is out and has the bugs worked out/paid for...

I still gotta see that SCSI h20 cooled HDD

Quote: Originally Posted by ZENNZZO I still gotta see that SCSI h20 cooled HDD

Me too, I have about 8 SCSI HDDs laying around here now myself.

YO! Guys, I would love to send you a picture where you can see the water cooling on the SCSI HDD, but my camera is broken...I could use my phone but the quality is very crappy...

Its just like the normal IDE HDD coolers....that means that; there are 2 blocks of pure copper that you put on each lateral side of the HDD. Because of doing this, the HDD is now wider and therefore has to be placed on a big bay, not where normally HDD are held. Then cooling liquid passes through from one side to the otherthanks to a hose that connects both sides and can be seen from the front view of the HDD
I will try to make a picture cause I am not very good at explaining things, LoL

Ok, I think from ATI a good choice is the X800XT series with 256mb. I have been looking for some reviews that were also comparing it with the new NVIDIA 6800 series and all have been showing that in overall performance the ATI is better than the NVIDIA one (according to reviews I have found). But games with a Doom 3 engine will play better on a NVIDIA than on a ATI, and games like HALF-LIFE 2, vice versa. ****! I am still stuck here!! I can not make my own clear conclusions...

The question remains the same....anyone?

From what I've seen, the X800XT performs better than the 6800 Ultra in almost all games when eye candy, such as AA and A, is turned on. The 6800 Ultra seems to perform better in lower resolutions without all the fancy stuff. The X800XT would be a better choice.

As for the watercooled harddrive, do you mean a heatpipe cooler? Is the watercooling on it connected to the rest of your watercooling setup (pump, rad, etc.)?

Quote: Originally Posted by gorked From what I've seen, the X800XT performs better than the 6800 Ultra in almost all games when eye candy, such as AA and A, is turned on. The 6800 Ultra seems to perform better in lower resolutions without all the fancy stuff. The X800XT would be a better choice. As for the watercooled harddrive, do you mean a heatpipe cooler? Is the watercooling on it connected to the rest of your watercooling setup (pump, rad, etc.)?

I got my 3d card working again!!!!!
But this still doesn't mean I'm not buying a new 3d card though....after so much looking around, I got in love with the ATI card X800XT PE.
Since my FX5600 is now working, I will wait a month or so to buy me the ATI X800XT PE card since I hope will then decrease in price.
Thx a lot for your help guys!

Going back to the SCSI Cooling: Yes the water cooling is connected to the rest of my watercooling setup (pump, radiator,etc...).
I'll see if I can make a picture tonight or tomorrow.

P.S: now I'm looking at some ram and don't know if for my system the Xtra low latency is better than the Ultra low latency for my PIV3,0ghz@3,6ghz I'll have to figure that out now...http://tomshardware.bizrate.com/buy/...ch_box--1.html I don't know which one to choose...anyone?