Hi, this is my first post on the forums, although I've used bit-tech a lot in the past. I'm building a new computer in a few weeks, after Christmas, and have a few questions. 1. I'm going to be buying a 4870 1GB, but am also going to be using three monitors, what would be a good low powered video card I could buy to run the two monitors that aren't on the 4870 (one is a 19" 1280x1024 LCD, the other a 1600x1200 CRT)? 2. I was going to buy a 150GB VelociRaptor ,but I've read that the 1TB Spinpoint F1 drives are almost as fast, or even faster. Which would you recommend? 3. Finally, what power supply would you recommend (It will be a Core i7 build with two or three HDD's including the VelociRaptor/Spinpoint) This is what I'm thinking of now. Thanks for any advice.
1. go with a 9600gt. 2. go with the samsung spinpoints 3. go with the modular on, it should make it easier to manage cables
Thanks, although I had wanted to to with a very inexpensive video card, just to run the monitors, nothing graphics intensive. I would be able to get a 7300 LE for almost nothing from a friend, would there be any driver conflicts there with the 4870?
7300=NVidia 4870=ATI so yes, there would be massive conflicts... to be honest if you're going down that route, I'd get the 7300 off your friend, then use the money for the 4870 to get the GTX260 with 216 shaders (then o/c it)
No there wouldn't AFAIK. I think you can set the drivers up serperately. In that case, go for it, and go for a 1Gb 4870 aswell.
So if I use XP than I can combine both nVidia and ATI, but if I use vista i cannot? I guess I'll go with the 7300 and the 260 than. Thanks for the advice.
I recall Bindi said something about massive conflicts if you use two cards from different generations, aswell. So no 7000+200.
listen up boiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii just buy a cheap ati for like £40 bucks, i swear i saw them on overclockers, they did a review on here, you can link it in crossfire and its even got half decent performance. here the card i was thinking of... BOO yes the spinpoint is quicker, but do you want a 1gig c drive, remember partitioning a drive will make it a little slower if you decide to part. it and put a c and d drives on the spinpoint. i dont know how much performance it will drain though, so may be a moot point. a 650 watt psu will be fine mate, atleast when stressed it'll be using ~60% of the psu and efficiency will be slightly better, corsair make a good psu but just check out one of bindi's psu roundups and see whats in there, easiest way to judge performance and features. no more than 650 is needed imo, bigger isnt always better as far as a psu is concerned. note: even if nvidia and ati cards could be used together i wouldnt, just stick with one brand for the sake of your insanity, plus ati rule in hardware and software need any more help just ask, if you think i'm chatting total bs then kiss my hairy ar$e only joking, peace fatman
it was something a mate on here said, dude called felixthecat. i dont know, but i reckon that if you have a drive searching for 2 things at once, it gets slower, so a partioned drive, with installs on one part and media or something on another, will labour it slightly more thus making it slower, although that is purely hot air as i havent bothered to look it up but makes a degree of sense when thought about. note: seek scientific explanation elsewhere, i just dont have all the answers today peace fatman
Yes, it's slower to have media+OS on one drive for simultaneous access, but that's nothing to do with partitioning. OP: 1) I'd say 4870 512MB, it's a great card. 2) Spinpoint F1, because it's very nearly as fast as the Raptor for less 3) Corsair 520W; either modular or normal, depending on what you fancy - personally I'm never using a non-modular PSU for my rig again unless there's something seriously special about it.
