Originally Posted by MightyMacbeth

Thanks mmarsh
Okay, I'll see what can be done about the video card matter.
About the 4GB or ram, is it possible to not get 4gb but at least 3gb then?

The short answer is no. There are a few motherboards that bend the rules but in general the rules about RAM are the following.

1. You can have a single chip, a pair of chips, or a pair of pairs (4 chips).
2. All chips must be of the same Speed, Rating, Capacity, and either all ECC or non ECC, but not a mix. Mixing manufactures is allowed (as long as the chips are the same) but not advisable due to lower performance and compatibility issues.
3. RAM chips only work on Motherboards that are compatible. In other words putting a DDR2 chip will not work if the board only uses DDR1

Originally Posted by mmarsh

The short answer is no. There are a few motherboards that bend the rules but in general the rules about RAM are the following.

1. You can have a single chip, a pair of chips, or a pair of pairs (4 chips).
2. All chips must be of the same Speed, Rating, Capacity, and either all ECC or non ECC, but not a mix. Mixing manufactures is allowed (as long as the chips are the same) but not advisable due to lower performance and compatibility issues.
3. RAM chips only work on Motherboards that are compatible. In other words putting a DDR2 chip will not work if the board only uses DDR1

ah I see, very well. So what do you suggest? 2gb ram? or should I get 4gb of ram? (keeping in mind that the cost will increase with passion) Is paying more going to be worth it?

Oh and one more thing, is there any major differences between ( Geforce 7300, 7900GS and 7950GX2) ? Which should I get and is worth it? Because the price will increase as well

Originally Posted by mmarsh

The short answer is no. There are a few motherboards that bend the rules but in general the rules about RAM are the following.

1. You can have a single chip, a pair of chips, or a pair of pairs (4 chips).
2. All chips must be of the same Speed, Rating, Capacity, and either all ECC or non ECC, but not a mix. Mixing manufactures is allowed (as long as the chips are the same) but not advisable due to lower performance and compatibility issues.
3. RAM chips only work on Motherboards that are compatible. In other words putting a DDR2 chip will not work if the board only uses DDR1

You are of course assuming that the board will support 4 chips and if it does I would almost put money on him being saddled with 4x512 which is going to make upgrading damn sight more expensive. However my "guess" is that he is being offered a generic system ie good speed with average components and that usually entails a motherboard with 3 RAM slots.

As far as the 8800 goes you are correct it is the future its not like Nvidia are suddenly going to jump back to 7800's but right now and probably for the next few months the I do not believe the 8800 is a good choice. I also accept the arguments about DX10 but given that he has said it will be for games etc. and to date none of the major online companies are supporting DX10 it may cause more issues than its worth.

Essentially if he was buying this machine 3-6 months from now I would agree with you 100% but right at this moment I am not convinced.

Oh and one thing we haven't asked is what the power supply in this thing is like because running SLI and the high end video cards will require a better than average wattage.

Originally Posted by MontyB

You are of course assuming that the board will support 4 chips and if it does I would almost put money on him being saddled with 4x512 which is going to make upgrading damn sight more expensive. However my "guess" is that he is being offered a generic system ie good speed with average components and that usually entails a motherboard with 3 RAM slots.

As far as the 8800 goes you are correct it is the future its not like Nvidia are suddenly going to jump back to 7800's but right now and probably for the next few months the I do not believe the 8800 is a good choice. I also accept the arguments about DX10 but given that he has said it will be for games etc. and to date none of the major online companies are supporting DX10 it may cause more issues than its worth.

Essentially if he was buying this machine 3-6 months from now I would agree with you 100% but right at this moment I am not convinced.

Oh and one thing we haven't asked is what the power supply in this thing is like because running SLI and the high end video cards will require a better than average wattage.

umm.. help help

I feel that with AMDs recent acquisition of ATi you are going to see a huge shift in the fan boy nVidia market...Thankfully I have always been faithful to ATi...

What I'm getting at is I would hold off and wait a few months until all this vista DX10 hub ub settles down and see what the products are come summer...

Originally Posted by MightyMacbeth

ah I see, very well. So what do you suggest? 2gb ram? or should I get 4gb of ram? (keeping in mind that the cost will increase with passion) Is paying more going to be worth it?

Oh and one more thing, is there any major differences between ( Geforce 7300, 7900GS and 7950GX2) ? Which should I get and is worth it? Because the price will increase as well

okay but does anyone have the ability to help with this?

Originally Posted by MightyMacbeth

okay but does anyone have the ability to help with this?

Ok to make this quick if you are going to go for an 8800 or a couple of them in a few months I would buy the basic 7900 as its reasonably cheap and wont penalise you while gaming (too much).

I agree with Donkey ATi make some nice cards but I still prefer Nvidia's intergrated driver sets especially if you are running an Nvidia chipset on you motherboard

MontyB+MightyMacbeth

Almost all MB have 4 DIMM slots now, as long as he buys a namebrand ASUS, MSI, GIGABYTE, DFI, he should be OK. The 2-3 slots are being phased out because the maximum amount of memory supported is increasing. As for memory he shouldn't get 512 Sims. Thats a waste. He should get 2x2048 or 4x1024. Keep in mind that Windows will only recognize up to 4 GIGS, so anything above that is a waste.

As for the video card, I grant you that the 7 series is the more stable card (although that is not to say the Series 8 is unstable). But given the fact that you will have to upgrade to series 8 at some point soon anyway, it seems like a waste of money to buy the old tech now. I simply don"t see the reason of buying a 7900GS now and then buying a 8800GTS in 3-6 months. Nvidia isnt like ATI, you cannot mix two different chipsets. Its 200€ wasted.

As for PSU, at least 500W. I have 600W for my pair of 7800GTX. Make sure its a good brand too Enermax, Hiper, Antec, Coolermaster, Asus.

Concerning the CPU.

Due to the AMD+ATI merger, it would be very unwise I buy a Intel CPU and a ATI card. They are competitors and although Intel has said will make a chipset for crossfire, the bulk of their concentration will be for Nvidia.


MightMacbeth

Monty and I have a disagreement about which card you should buy.
I personally think you should buy a series 8 (8800GTS) but thats my opinion. Of the 3 cards you mentioned. The 7300 is a budget card, it'll do games but not very well. I have one on my server. The 7900GS is a vast improvement and is more oriented toward gamers. The 7950GX is faster that the 7900GS but not by too much. Since you'll probably be ditching this card anyway I would get the middle-of-the-road range. BTW Nvidia as stated that they will have a 8800 budget gamers cards sometime Q1 2007. You might want to get that instead if the price is the same.

ahh my fellows, I thank you alot, for without this info, I would have sailed my ship to doom, and with the info, I to doom shall sail never!

Originally Posted by mmarsh

Monty and I have a disagreement about which card you should buy.

Actually I don't think we are that far apart on this one my concern is that the 8800 "currently" may not be the best card for what he wants to do I have no doubt that 6 months from now the 8800 and Vista will be the way to go.

Essentially I just think this is probably not the best time to be buying a system as we are in a change period with Vista and for the next few months the support for the new technology from software companies and driver suppliers just isn't there.

Originally Posted by MightMacbeth

ahh my fellows, I thank you alot, for without this info, I would have sailed my ship to doom, and with the info, I to doom shall sail never!

Hehe dont bet on it, we have more than likely already torpedoed your bank balance.