PC Discussion Thread - All PC related in here.

[Placebo 29]

Really? We walked past the concert hall quite a few times, very nice

Even took a photo of it myself:

[Messiah 2]

Yep, thats the one. Unfortunately it was designed a little before I joined, so nothing to do with me in terms of design, but I'll be happy to claim some sort of praise on behalf of the office

[Placebo 29]

Tomorrow I'll be ordering this.......

Quote[/b] ]XFX

GF 9800GTX 256-bit 512MB GDDR3 GPU 760Mhz PCI Express x16 Black Edition

GeForceTM 9800 GTX

The single most powerful GeForce card available today, the 9800 GTX utilizes HybridPower technology to enable users to switch to their motherboard GeForce GPU to run less graphically intense applications. Its 128 stream processors each clock in at a new high of 1688MHz, making it the fastest graphics card in this range. Users can triple their smack down power by running three 9800 GTX graphics cards in 3-way SLI mode on one of the new XFX nForce 780i or 790i motherboards for a ramp up of 2.8 times the performance of a single GPU.

Clock rate

760 MHz

Dual Link DVI - Supporting digital output up to 2560x1600

Yes (Dual)

Shader Clock

1900 MHz

Game Bundle

PV-T98F-YDB9 w/ Assassins Creed

Memory Clock

2.28 GHz

Chipset

GeForce 9800 GTX

Memory

512 MB

Bus Type

PCI-E 2.0

Memory Type

DDR3

Memory Bus

256-bit

Output

HDMI w/ HDMI upgrade kit (included)

Highlighted Features

HDCP Ready , HDTV ready , Dual DVI Out , RoHS , SLI ready , Vista

1.958,00 SEK (208 Euro, GBP165, $327US) of that I get back around 400Sek in tax from the government

Unless anyone knows of a better bargain out there for bang for buck at this maximum budget? I was tempted by the ATI 4850 but decided to stick with Nvidia as TV-Out is one of my primary PC uses and the Geforce drivers work 100% in TV-Out with my PC/TV combo and I don't want to tempt fate

[VictorTroska 0]

I would rather go with 8800GTS 512MB.

9800GTX is about 5% faster @ stock speeds, but costs half of 8800GTS 512 more.

So, 9800GTX is just 8800 G92 in different packaging, as I would say Nvidia's marketing trick.

Some comparison:

http://www.imagesforme.com/show.php/81630_98gtxvs88gts.png

http://www.imagesforme.com/show.php/81631_98gtxvs88gtsoc.png

As u can see, 8800GTS 512 is even better @ same speeds.

[Lepardi 0]

I would rather go with 8800GTS 512MB.

9800GTX is about 5% faster @ stock speeds, but costs half of 8800GTS 512 more.

So, 9800GTX is just 8800 G92 in different packaging, as I would say Nvidia's marketing trick.

Some comparison:

http://www.imagesforme.com/show.php/81630_98gtxvs88gts.png

http://www.imagesforme.com/show.php/81631_98gtxvs88gtsoc.png

As u can see, 8800GTS 512 is even better @ same speeds.

HD 4850 or 4870 is the way to go now, not nvidia. The HD 4850 performs better than the 9800GTX, while costing even less than a 9800GTX.

HD 4870 is almost as good as the new GTX280, while costing only half the price, around 230€.

[Placebo 29]

I've already ruled out ATI for the reasons covered above.

Regarding 8800GTS, I'm not seeing 1/2 prices here in Sweden except for the 320mb version which doesn't seem worth buying, 512mb version is at best 25% lower than the XFX 9800 Black Edition I'm looking at.

Hard to compare the specs you post as I can't figure out what settings are being used for Crysis? (I used Crysis as my primary benchmark comparison as most agree it's the 1 game that's best for bringing a system to its knees)......

http://www.i4u.com/full-review-430.html

Quote[/b] ]Crysis

The next game test up was Crysis. The game was run at 1920 x 1200 with 2x AA and all settings on medium. Fraps recorded the following frame rate data from the initial beach insertion until the first fight with enemy soldiers:

   * Min- 30 fps

   * Avg- 56.527 fps

   * Max- 84 fps

http://www.gamepyre.com/reviewsd.html?aid=964&p=8

[Lepardi 0]

I've already ruled out ATI for the reasons covered above.

Well ATI drivers have always worked fine for me using TV-out.

[echo1 0]

9800GTX is about 5% faster @ stock speeds, but costs half of 8800GTS 512 more.

Youre a bit out of date my friend. When ATI launched their new cards, nVidia slashed the price of the 9800GTX. Its now around about €20 more expensive than the 8800GTS. Theyre also releasing a 9800GTX+ which is faster and more energy efficient than the normal card soon.

[Placebo 29]

I've already ruled out ATI for the reasons covered above.

Well ATI drivers have always worked fine for me using TV-out.

I have an onboard Radeon on this PC's motherboard, I briefly tried it with Vista and the option to (for example) set different resolutions on PC and TV had been removed/disabled/broken, in the latest drivers, that was enough to remind me of how bad ATI's history of driver releases can be, I went back to XP and I went back to my Radeon

9800GTX is about 5% faster @ stock speeds, but costs half of 8800GTS 512 more.

Youre a bit out of date my friend. When ATI launched their new cards, nVidia slashed the price of the 9800GTX. Its now around about €20 more expensive than the 8800GTS. Theyre also releasing a 9800GTX+ which is faster and more energy efficient than the normal card soon.

The XFX 9800 Black Edition I'm looking at buying is faster than the 9800GTX+ as I've read

[VictorTroska 0]

9800GTX is about 5% faster @ stock speeds, but costs half of 8800GTS 512 more.

Youre a bit out of date my friend. When ATI launched their new cards, nVidia slashed the price of the 9800GTX. Its now around about €20 more expensive than the 8800GTS. Theyre also releasing a 9800GTX+ which is faster and more energy efficient than the normal card soon.

Nah, here is that kind of situation atm, 8800GTS 512=1200kn and 9800GTX=1800kn

So for 4-5 % better performance and much more money (here,Croatia) I would rather go with 8800GTS 512 (barely slower, less warmer, and somehow better @ same speeds).

Ehh, I should ask about prices where Placebo lives

[echo1 0]

Ehh, I should ask about prices where Placebo lives  

I checked out Komplett.se (To paraphrase the words of Homer Simpson; "Grafikkort?! What the hell is a Grafikkort?!") the difference between the cheapest 8800GTS I could see vs. the cheapest 9800GTX was 250 SK, so about €25, which I think is worth it for the extra speed.

[Placebo 29]

Club-3D GeForce 8800GTS Dual-DVI 512MB 1 595Sek (1229Kn)

Gigabyte GeForce 9800GTX Dual-DVI 512MB 1 869Sek (1440Kn)

But I'm paying an extra 90 or so to get the

XFX GeForce 9800GTX Black Edition Dual-DVI 512MB 1 958Sek (1508Kn)

[VictorTroska 0]

Club-3D GeForce 8800GTS Dual-DVI 512MB 1 595Sek (1229Kn)

Gigabyte GeForce 9800GTX Dual-DVI 512MB 1 869Sek (1440Kn)

But I'm paying an extra 90 or so to get the

XFX GeForce 9800GTX Black Edition Dual-DVI 512MB 1 958Sek (1508Kn)

Fair prices. You should go with 9800GTX if that's the case.

Uff, I can't believe it, 9800GTX BE only 1500kn (~2000 Sek) ?!!.... here is about 2150kn (~2900 Sek)

Now, you do understand why I recommended 8800GTS 512, because it's big difference in money here.

But, that's not situation where Placebo lives, so go for it.

[Placebo 29]

Well I went ahead and ordered it, should be here at my local post office to pick up Tuesday, exciting stuff

[froggyluv 2136]

Nvidia dropping 260/280 prices tomm due to stiff ATI competition

Don't know if 9800 series will be effected.

I guess I've been a little Nvidia fanboy as I haven't taken the ATI cards seriously but they really seem to stack up especially in terms of bang for the buck . Well Ive still got a month to decide so hopefully the price wars continue.

[echo1 0]

Considering that ATI hasnt released a serious competitor to nVidia's cards since the X1950XTX of about 2 years ago, one can be forgiven for prefering nVidia's offerings. The fact that ATI's cheap cards can kill nVidia's latest and greatest is pretty good however, as it ensures that there's fair competition which drives down the price and keeps faster and faster cards coming out.

[Balschoiw 0]

Quote[/b] ]I would doubt it. If its able to give power to the DVD drive it should be fine. PSU failures tend to manifest themselves in causing the computer to lock up or restart at random. I've never heard a PSU doing anything like that.

For the record. I installed a different PSU with the same wattage today.

Time for a premiere. The drive now works properly and even my old one works again.

No ther changes have been made. Simply replacing the working PSU with anotherone did the trick. Looks like there is a problem with the PSU that doesn´t show up during regular useage, but only affected the DVD-operations. Don´t ask me why or what but it´s simply as it is.

Keep that in mind if your DVD starts to act weird oneday or you hear that someone has problems acessing DVD´s while the rest of his comp works just fine.

[echo1 0]

You learn something new everyday I guess PSUs can have all sorts of wierd effects, but only affecting a DVD is a strange one alright. I'll remember that in future!

[-Snafu- 78]

Snafu -

Ive heard of that thing before. Reading through the specs, I noticed that it was designed to use PCI-E 1x cards. These are the short PCI-E cards used for things like WLAN adaptors, sound cards and some very basic video cards. Most graphics are 16x PCI-E cards. I am rather curious as I did not think that the 8600GT could work with this type of slot.

Even if it did work with PCI-E 16x cards, there will probably be limitations on what card you can put in. The 8600GT is a single slot card that uses little energy and doesnt need a 6 pin power lead. It's also a rather mediocre card that would be little improvement over what you already have, and is probably mainly designed for people with integrated Intel graphics. Most decent cards need such a power lead and have a dual card lead so you might not be able to use them in a unit designed for a 8600GT.

The problem is that it will probably only let you use cards that you'll never want. I cant find any reviews on it, so maybe I could be wrong. But my laptop's specs are similar to yours, and it runs games like Rome Total War, Portal, Red Orchestra and of course ArmA quite alright.

Thanks for the info ch_123. When I first heard of this thing I was pretty keen on it given laptops are not great for gaming - it had awesome potential. Good to know where my laptop's card stands (I just installed COD4 which it plays pretty damn well).

Just recently I have had a problem with my desktops wireless keyboard. The problem being that one key doesn't work. Removing the batteries and putting them in again solves this but another key stops working after some time. Now another key has also stopped working.

First it was the 1 key then I removed the batteries. Now it is the backspace key and the dash key to the left of the backspace.

Any ideas?

[echo1 0]

Hi,

Does the keyboard use standard batteries like AA? If so, put a standard pair of non-rechargable batteries into it, and put it as close to its receiver as is possible. If that doesnt get rid of the problem, the keyboard is faulty. If it fixes the problems, consider using different rechargable batteries or position the KB/receiver in a better position.

[-Snafu- 78]

I just have non rechargeable AA batteries. When the keyboard first got faulty I replaced the old batteries with ones of a different make (supposed to use batteries the same make). The keys still don't work even if I put the receiver right next to it. Looks like I'll have to dust the original keyboard off.

[echo1 0]

Aye, sounds like a dead keyboard then. What sort was it out of curiosity?

[-Snafu- 78]

Microsoft Wireless Keyboard 2000

Model: 1066

Keyboard almost lasted a year.

[Placebo 29]

I just left behind in Singapore a "Microsoft Comfort Curve Keyboard 2000" which randomly started losing certain keys, first it was home, then backspace, then left arrow, then 9 and 6 if I remember correctly. This was a wired USB one, only 18 months old by the time we left

[Placebo 29]

When I say losing I obviously meant they just stopped working, sometimes they'd come back on a reboot, sometimes they'd just come back for no good reason, most of the time they didn't work though.

I now have a cheap keyboard with weird Scandinavian letters on it, and as I use it as "British English" most of the symbols are in the wrong place and I have to go from muscle memory

It also has no "power off" key because I removed it with a screwdriver after 3 times too many turning off the PC with it when trying to press the print screen key which is where it should have been