Shoutbox

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Originally posted by ICQ
i know in Australia where i buy most my Hardware Ram is pretty dirt cheap ( DDR2 ) IMO i still think its to early to go to DDR3 stuff but thats my opinion only.

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You don't really have much of a choice any more. If you want Intel, you either get a quite old (and soon to be discontinued) S775 chip, or go DDR3 with S1156/1366. Since the memory controller is integrated, there's no option.

With AMD I think even their latest chips support DDR2 and DDR3, but I've not looked at their AM3 stuff.

thanks for the help, its now up and running!

I now need to decide on a graphics card (i thought an old pci card would do for a while, but win7 really doesnt like it).

Any suggestions? In a few weeks i will have around £150 to spend on one... I dont game that much, but use alot of CAD.
Dont know where to start, except ive always had no problem with nvidia so feel that i should stay with them.

At that price range, nv GTX260 or ati HD5770. The ati has DirectX 11, but is slightly less expensive. Although if you're paying for your own electricity, the HD5770 might be better for you in the long run as it uses less.

The GTX260 is getting a bit old and dated now, however, it's still a mighty fine card.

For CAD purposes, however, I'm unsure. Generally for these sort of things you would go with nv's Quadro or ati's FireGL series, but they're all pretty expensive...

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Originally posted by andrewdodd13
For CAD purposes, however, I'm unsure

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I Imagine most CAD applications are less demanding on the GPU than serious 3D games. Unless you're doing huge projects, but the average level in a 3D game is more complicated with a lot more textures and light sources than someone generally cooks up at home, not to mention fast movements in games.

i was looking at a gtx260, but that might be a bit overkill, these are the ones i have found so far...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/160748
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/180051
whats with the rubbish company names?
i have a 700w psu so should be able to power wither of those, suggestions?

XFX for video card, they have Double Lifetime Warranties, as in if you ever sell the video card, they will have a lifetime warranty also.

Either XFX or EVGA video card that has a lifetime warranty.

Did you ever manage to break a video card though? Not including DOA, extreme overclocking, physical damage, or driver issues (which except from DOA I doubt any company would ever cover).

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Originally posted by Menthix

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Originally posted by andrewdodd13
For CAD purposes, however, I'm unsure

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I Imagine most CAD applications are less demanding on the GPU than serious 3D games. Unless you're doing huge projects, but the average level in a 3D game is more complicated with a lot more textures and light sources than someone generally cooks up at home, not to mention fast movements in games.

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I guess so. In fact, I would imagine most basic CAD stuff can be handled by the CPU alone. For some reason I thought we were talking 3D modelling, in which case, the workstation graphics cards favour quality over performance (back when gaming cards didn't feature things like FSAA), although with programmable shaders I'm not quite sure what their point is anymore...

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Originally posted by Menthix
Did you ever manage to break a video card though? Not including DOA, extreme overclocking, physical damage, or driver issues (which except from DOA I doubt any company would ever cover).

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My 6600GT failed on me, without being overclocked, after about a year and a half.

Sapphire are one of the better ATI brands, but I also go for XFX (in fact I have an XFX HD5850 right now). I buy most of my gear from Overclockers UK now, they tend to have a better selection. Unfortunately the stock on all the HD5000 series is a bit crap at the moment.

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Originally posted by Menthix
Did you ever manage to break a video card though? Not including DOA, extreme overclocking, physical damage, or driver issues (which except from DOA I doubt any company would ever cover).

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Yes, and that's why I only buy good warrantied stuff now

Perfect example being: http://shoutbox.menthix.net/showthread.php?tid=53897

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Originally posted by SonicSam

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Originally posted by MeEtc
any warranty?

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nope

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Sapphire HD 5770 Vapor-X 1GB GDDR5 Dual DVI HDMI DisplayPort PCI-E
Looks pretty good...
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/189286