Graphics Card...

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kiwis

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#25137 13-Aug-2008 06:48

I want to get into Flight Sim big time, I love the program which I've had for a few days now...

Thing is my computer is old and i'm not going to upgrade till later this year early next year and i want the best graphics card i can get....

my current system is this http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/prodinfoCategory?lc=en&cc=mx&dlc=es&product=325139&printable=yes&encodeUrl=true but I've added RAM and Hard Disk space since I got it.

My question is what graphics card should I get, ive not a clue when it comes to them?

garvani

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#156490 13-Aug-2008 08:38

According to that specification page you sent it dosnt look like very good news for you at all! Not only is this an AGP generation motherboard, its actually lacking the AGP port. In otherwords you cant upgrade the graphics card (unless you goto PCI.. note not pci-express, but PCI. Which is a waste of time) So to go any further you will need to fast track that upgrade you were talking about, you will need to replace Your motherboard, CPU, RAM, and then you can get a new graphics card, since your doing that you may as well buy a new pc alltogether!
Sorry for the bad news man, but id imagine youve had that pc for around 4 years so its probably done you well.

xpd

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#156492 13-Aug-2008 08:40

Agreed, PCI graphics cards are extermely expensive now (if you can find them) and they are very low powered.

Save some cash and get an upgrade box....

XPD / Gavin

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kiwis

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#156511 13-Aug-2008 10:08

Well I'm looking at building my PC anyway, i've got a nice case already I believe.

I'm conformatable with most things but what do i look for in a motherboard and CPU?

xpd

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#156513 13-Aug-2008 10:23

Quite a few other threads regarding buying new PC.....

But what it comes down to is : What do you want the PC for ? (Flight Sim obviously :) )
And what is your budget ?

XPD / Gavin

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kiwis

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#156516 13-Aug-2008 10:42

xpd: Quite a few other threads regarding buying new PC.....

But what it comes down to is : What do you want the PC for ? (Flight Sim obviously :) )
And what is your budget ?

Flight Sim and Programming.... VB.NET PHP etc..

Budget... Anything really, don't want to over spend on features I will not need of course...

xpd

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#156528 13-Aug-2008 11:19

Hehe be nice if all of us didnt care about budget too much... :)

Anyway

Personally i was looking at somehting along the lines of (PC used for entertainment mainly) :

Asus P5K-R Motherboard (any of the P5K range are good)
Intel Core 2 Duo 8400 CPU
2gb DDR2 RAM (G.Skill or Corsair)
Silverstone STF50 500W PSU
Nvidia video card (was looking at spending approx $300 on that)

DVD drive, HDD etc were all being swiped form my current system.

XPD / Gavin

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kiwis

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#156529 13-Aug-2008 11:28

So what's the difference in proformance in these..... there is about a $200 price dfference in this PK5 range.

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MBDAS61217

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MBDAS61226

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MBDAS61222

xpd

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#156547 13-Aug-2008 12:23

Different BUS speeds (good for future upgrades), just a heap of different options... RAM slots is one to look for - more slots the better, so that first one youve mentioned ($99) only has 2 slots supporting to 4gb RAM - the other support 8 or 16 at various speeds.

If it was for me and only those 3 boards were available, Id take the middle option. Supports decent bus speed, plenty of RAM upgrade potential, plenty of storage options etc....

But thats me. :) The $99 one should be a good little board as well, kust slightly more limited in future proofing.

It is a hard choice these days to choose what components to buy for a PC, especially since every 3-6 months something bigger and better is out. But you eventually have to bite the bullet and go "Ill have that one" and be happy with it unless youre loaded and can afford a new PC every 6 months :)

Just remember, newer boards require newer power supply. So dont think you can get away with an older PSU all the time :)

XPD / Gavin

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eXDee

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#156632 13-Aug-2008 16:25

kiwis: So what's the difference in proformance in these..... there is about a $200 price dfference in this PK5 range.

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MBDAS61217

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MBDAS61226

http://www.pbtech.co.nz/index.php?item=MBDAS61222

Those are pretty much from oldest to newest. The biggest difference is the intel chipset, those are G31, P45 and X38 respectively, and the newest has more features as you would expect. Go for the P5Q, its a very good motherboard, the P5E is excessive in your case and the P5K boards are getting a bit old.