06-12-2006, 08:00 PM
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#1
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Member (3 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 4
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Oblivion-rate this build
Simply put, I want to build a $1000 dollar-ish rig that'll be able to run Oblivion with AA up at around 40-50 FPS. I have no overclocking skills, and as such, here's what I've put together so far. Please rate the parts i've listed and offer up any price-saving suggestions that you can think of.
Case: Antec Sonata II (Will the 450 power supply handle everything well?)
Mobo: MSI K8N SLI-F (two pci x16 should I ever want to double up my GPU.)
Processor: Athlon x2 3800+ (price cut coming july 24th! $160!!!)
Ram: 2Gb (does the brand actually matter? I'm looking at getting mwave's house brand)
GPU: Sapphire Ati Radeon X1800 XT (Enough? Too much? is there a cheaper card that'll run oblivion well?)
Sound: onboard.
DVD-RW: Suggestions?
Hard Drive: I want 250-300 Gb SATA, any suggestions?
That's it. I'd love to hear suggestions, thoughts, opinions, anything! Any help is appreciated!
Also, how does crossfire work? Is it just like sli? Is it possible to eventually double-up with the card and mobo i chose?
Thanks!
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06-12-2006, 08:22 PM
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#2
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Wx geek
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Indiana
Posts: 6,638
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The 450W PSU will suffice for a non-SLI (dual video card) setup, however, if you ever want to run dual cards (either SLI or Crossfire) it won't cut the mustard. You'll want a SLI-Certified unit for that.
http://www.slizone.com/object/slizon..._powersupplies
I'd recommend Corsair Value Select for RAM.
I don't have Oblivion so I can't really give any insight on performance there, but I've heard it's pretty heavy on the GPU. I wouldn't go any cheaper.
LITE-ON and NECs have good burners.
I have a Western Digital 250GB SE16 and it's pretty snappy.
Crossfire is similar to SLI, yes. It uses an external connector instead of an internal bridge like SLI. However, you need a Crossfire motherboard if you want run dual ATI cards. You can only run dual nVidia cards on SLI boards. Single cards work on either CF/SLI, however mixing would be kinda a waste.
For Crossfire you either need an Intel with a 975x chipset or one of ATi's CF chipsets (plus two PCI-Ex16 slots of course).
__________________
"It is the way of man to make monsters and it is the nature of monsters to destroy their makers."
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06-12-2006, 08:26 PM
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#3
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Member (3 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 4
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Damnation! What is the best SLI card that is similar in price and performance to the x1800xt?
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06-12-2006, 09:28 PM
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#4
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V12
Join Date: Dec 2005
Location: Houston, T.E.X.A.S
Posts: 3,488
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trust me, keep that x1800xt, the x1k series are doing very very well in oblivion compared to equivalent counterparts from nvidia. I.e 7900gt/x series. You will be very happy with x1800xt. And get a crossfire board instead if you ever do wanna go dual card. I would personally pick something from Asus or DFI(<---only if your overclocking).
__________________
“We must not let ourselves get driven off course, no matter what happens we must stick to our natural game”
-Zenedine Zidane
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06-12-2006, 09:58 PM
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#5
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Member (10 bit)
Join Date: Nov 2004
Location: New Mombasa, Halo 2
Posts: 716
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well i've had bad experience with MSI, ASUS is really good, and i'm a fan of ABIT and Gygabyte so look at those too. But hey you might get lucky with the MSI. lol
more features and better cpu support on the ASUS. but tahts really personal opinion so yea what ever works.
value ram like blue said. the ATI x1800xt is well... BOOOOOOOM! haha should run obvivilion with ease.
this graphic card was *overclocked and outran two (2!!!) 7800GTX (stock speed)... one outrunning two... lol yea it's a good graphic card.
*though it was cooled by liguid nitrogen...
__________________
Current Rig - Gigabyte GA P35 DS3L, Intel C2D E8400 3.0ghz, 2gb RAM Geil DDR800 (2x1) , eVGA 8800GT Akimbo Edition, 2x 640gb WD and 400gb SG HDD, XP Pro, Macbook 1.8ghz with Windows XP Pro and OSX 10.5 (status replacing hard drive)
Fourth Build Plan - Windows XP Pro, eVGA 780i SLI, Intel Core 2 Duo E8500, (3x) eVGA Geforce GTX 260 640MB, Crucial Ballistix 4GB (4 x 1GB) DDR3-1066, WD Raptor 74gb HDD, WD 640gb HDD, Logitech G15 Keyboard + G5 Mouse, Creative X-Fi Fatal1ty FPS 8, Creative GigaWorks 7.1 Speaker, TT 1000W Power Supply, TT Armor Case, (2x) Viewsonic 22inch Widescreen LCD
Last edited by spartan015; 06-12-2006 at 10:01 PM..
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06-12-2006, 10:15 PM
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#6
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Member (3 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 4
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Liquid Nitrogen? Cripes....
K. can someone recommend me a dual pciex16 mobo with crossfire support by asus that can have the athlon x2 3800+? does such a thing exist?
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06-12-2006, 11:30 PM
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#8
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Member (7 bit)
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 68
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Is the big price cut in the 3800+ just for Socket 939 or AM2 too, don't feel like finding out right now.
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06-12-2006, 11:32 PM
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#9
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Member (3 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2006
Posts: 4
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I believe both.
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06-13-2006, 08:28 AM
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#10
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Member (5 bit)
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 31
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HOw long has that been the plan? ***bangning head on the table***
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06-13-2006, 09:25 AM
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#11
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Member (11 bit)
Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Owosso, MI, USA
Posts: 1,283
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As has been mentioned, keep the X1800. There have been more issues with NVIDIA cards and Oblivion than with ATI cards.
__________________
DFI Infinity 975X/G, Intel C2D E6600 (@3.4Ghz), 2 Gb DDR2 800 GSkill HZ, Powercolor X1900XT, 74 Gb Raptor SATA, 250 Gb Seagate SATA, Audigy 2 ZS, FSP Epsilon 600 watt PSU, NEC 3540 DVD-RW, ASUS DVD ROM, Thermalright SI-128, Thermalright HR-05, Lian Li PC65 case, Samsung 940B 19" LCD
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06-13-2006, 09:30 AM
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#12
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Computing Professor
Staff
Premiere Member
Join Date: Jun 2001
Posts: 10,820
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Pope7
Simply put, I want to build a $1000 dollar-ish rig that'll be able to run Oblivion with AA up at around 40-50 FPS. I have no overclocking skills, and as such, here's what I've put together so far. Please rate the parts i've listed and offer up any price-saving suggestions that you can think of.
Case: Antec Sonata II (Will the 450 power supply handle everything well?)
Mobo: MSI K8N SLI-F (two pci x16 should I ever want to double up my GPU.)
Processor: Athlon x2 3800+ (price cut coming july 24th! $160!!!)
Ram: 2Gb (does the brand actually matter? I'm looking at getting mwave's house brand)
GPU: Sapphire Ati Radeon X1800 XT (Enough? Too much? is there a cheaper card that'll run oblivion well?)
Sound: onboard.
DVD-RW: Suggestions?
Hard Drive: I want 250-300 Gb SATA, any suggestions?
That's it. I'd love to hear suggestions, thoughts, opinions, anything! Any help is appreciated!
Also, how does crossfire work? Is it just like sli? Is it possible to eventually double-up with the card and mobo i chose?
Thanks!
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Dream on.
A top of the line SLI build with the latest 7900 cards can't do what you're asking.
Check down at the bottom of this review for what MaximumPC has to say about what you can expect : http://www.maximumpc.com/2006/06/the_elder_scrol.html
__________________
Asus M3A78-CM, 64 X2 6000+, 4 GB Corsair DDR2 800 ram, Radeon 5770.
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