Quiet and light gaming: E6750 / Solo / 8600GT?

SevenFour · Post by **SevenFour** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 12:18 am

Mats wrote:Keep the DVD-RW and get a 320 - 500 GB SATA HD instead.

Now why did I not think of that

? I will have to see how much funds I have available for the upgrade.

As for your other suggestions I will have to find more time to investigate them. I do not want to go to low in performance since that will push my next upgrade closer in time? Going with Intel/Gigabyte I can upgrade to quad core in if it proves useful in the future.

Mats · Post by **Mats** » Fri Aug 17, 2007 4:07 pm

SevenFour wrote:I will have to find more time to investigate them. I do not want to go to low in performance since that will push my next upgrade closer in time?

Going with Intel/Gigabyte I can upgrade to quad core in if it proves useful in the future.

Well if you can consider a lower priced C2 (maybe a E4400) then the 4000+ is pretty close in terms of performance.
I don't think that there's much difference between those 2-3 years from now, it's not like you're gonna have to get a new system 2 years earlier if you choose the AMD.
There's a big price difference between the systems though.

AMD quad core will work in current motherboards, although you need to update the BIOS. Can't promise that all mobos will work,
but since the M2A-VM has AMD chipset and the model is probably the most popular ASUS AM2 mobo this year I wouldn't worry.

Or, if you want to think it over, you can put the Seasonic in your old system, and get new thermal paste for the CPU, it's possible that it will work better after that.

SevenFour · Post by **SevenFour** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 3:37 am

Mats wrote:As for GPU, I know that you won't need much power in it, but consider using a last generation card like X1950, 7600 or 7900. Simply more performance for the same price. No DX10, but you won't get that out of a 8600 with playable speeds anyway... nu Ã¤r jag tjatig..

It is closing in on decision time. I will order the rest of the components on Friday, unless something really interesting worth waiting for hardware is around the corner

.

Here is my roundup of GPU choices. Requirements are: at least single DVI, TV-out (that can be fed to an CRT), passive and light gaming. The cards are picked from my 2 main store choices, but if there is a much better card out there I will order from another store.

1) Asus Extreme GeForce 7600GS SILENT 256MB DDR2 TV-out
Price: 598kr (~$85)
Comment: not sure about the TV-out connection, is it S-video compatible? Requires more power and produces most heat of the 3 options? Cheap and thus will not make me feel all that bad if I need to replace with a gaming card when I need it.
2) HIS Radeon HD 2600 XT 256MB GDDR3, iSilence III
Price: 1199kr (~$171)
Comment: Video quality and suits my current needs. Best for HD video but unsure if I will use that feature. More expensive than the 7600gs and probably needs replacing if I pick up a new game. Lowest heat and power consumption?
3) PowerColor Radeon X1950PRO 256MB GDDR3, SCS3 (Silent), ViVo/HDCP
Price: 1449kr (~$207)
Comment: Has received good reviews and most threads with advice on midrange cards suggests the 1950pro. The best gaming card of the bunch and should be decent for my video needs. Decent heat and power consumption? The most expensive of the three choices.

I keep changing my mind about which card to get. Currently I favor the 1950pro card. The reasoning is to keep the gaming option open and go with the majority choice. Certainly the numerous threads with driver problems for the 2400/2600 cards have scared me a bit.

So there you go, I would love to hear your opinion if you have read this far

.

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 8:11 am

Most cards nowadays have a DVI and many have dual DVI. If you want to do light gaming, the 7600GS probably is the best for the price but how much is the 7600GT there?

If you are not going to do video stuff (e.g. encoding), then pass on the HD 2xxx series of cards. It's way too much money if you want to play games even if it is the odd game. It's strictly a HTPC type card.

The X1950 Pro is the best card of that bunch but way overpriced but it can be priced high because there is no competition within the mid-level of cards. But, it's a card to get if you do a lot of gaming but don't want to pay the prices of the higher level cards.

I've been reading and comparing cards because I'm shopping for a card for video work. I don't care too much if it is not optimized or suited for gaming. I'm comparing the HD 2xxx and Nvidia 8600 series of cards for that purpose. But, I wouldn't recommend it for gamers. The Direct X 9.0 cards are good enough for now if you want a video card now but no need to get the best one if you're only doing light gaming. I would buy a cheap card now and wait for the new generation of cards to come out. That way, you can decide if it's worth the upgrade or you can upgrade to an older card when they go down in price (due to the new cards). Also, I expect another issue with the new cards regarding drivers. Guess how many problems might surface with new cards/new drivers? I suggest going with an older cheaper card now and then you can decide if it's good enough but feel content you didn't pay too much. Just some ideas.

One more note: I suggest reading reviews from newegg which might answer some of your questions plus they have pictures of the cards and specs.

SevenFour · Post by **SevenFour** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 10:53 am

pputer wrote:how much is the 7600GT there?

Cheapest one is 1000kr = ~$142 (at the stores I mentioned).

pputer · Post by **pputer** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:33 am

There's an Asrock motherboard that has both AGP and PCI-e ports. It's under $80 here. It's Intel so it should take the Core 2 Duo chips.

I think it depends on how much you want to spend on the video card but I see it like this:
Based on gaming priority v.s. video playback/editing
Gaming - 1950 Pro > 7600 GT > HD 2600 / 8600 GT > 7600 GS
Video work - HD 2600 / 8600 > 1950 Pro > 7600 GT

If you don't game much, you might find the newer cards to be more useful if either Nvidia or ATI ever improve their drivers enough. Nvidia 8600 has better performance in games compared to the newer ATI cards but ATI's HD 2xxx series might end up being the better HTPC/video encoding card depending on their drivers development. But, Nvidia seems better at providing drivers more often and less unstable. Note though, that both are more recently failing in that later regard.

ame · Post by **ame** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:39 am

the 1950pro is very good. I've played rainbow six vegas on it and it was smoth 40+ fps at 1600*1050 highes settings.
The 7600 gs is way lower you'd probably be stressing it at 1024*768 if not to say 800*600. I know my old 6800 GT (about the same power as 7600GS) coludn't play UT3 engine at more than 800*600 smoth.
With that said you seem to want to connect a standard TV to your svideo output as a second monitor. Playing on 800*600 on standard tv is fine.

bottom line ---> if you are a gamer (like your headline suggests) go for the 1950 - this wll also future proof you for games like Crysis, Bioshock and UT3.

If you dont know these titles go for the 7600 gs and save money.

SevenFour · Post by **SevenFour** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 9:56 am

pputer wrote:Gaming - 1950 Pro > 7600 GT > HD 2600 / 8600 GT > 7600 GS
Video work - HD 2600 / 8600 > 1950 Pro > 7600 GT

That list really helped and pushed me into selecting the 1950pro along with the comments from ame. Sometimes I wish was methodical like that, I will try to remember it for next time.

A big thank you to everyone who have helped me in this thread. I have not adopted all your suggestions but they sure helped me in selecting the components I ended up with.