Trashing my computer vs. new video card

well it is $100 for the 430 watt, and $130 for the 500 watt, for an SLI system i would suggest the Antec TruePower 550 or Enermax whisper 2 535 which are both SLI approved and retail for $90 USD

Also are the normal GTOs built with the R480 core or jsut the GTO2s.

 

Dont forget, its not all about the wattage

but if you did get a Antec TruePower 550 or Enermax whisper 2 535 , then you proberbly wont be dissapointed, as there from a well known brand and are of good quality.

 

True, very true but as you know Antec is up there as one of the most respected PSU manufactures, and many people sware by antec, if i could afford a PC Power & Cooling or a SeaSonic i would, but for people on a bugdet who need a reliable PSU Antec is probably one of the Best PSU makers out there. And i did see that one post where the seasonic was at like 93 or 96% efficiency.

 

the seasonic is only 23 dollars more though, and proberbly better than those 500 wat antec ones, i may be wrong, but judging by the seasonics %90 reliability, i would spend and extra $23

to make the right decision in chossing a psu, head over to this thread

http://www.hardwareforums.com/psus-31-tested-15-failed-9-exploded-8369/

akasa and ernermax seem promising

 

floppy drives are needed to make boot disks and for recovering data as a alterantive to cds so yes they are still needed and as for my case our schools have xp but some are flickded and have 98 and dont recognize my jump drive and is a pain to o through all the procedures of drivers so i just carry a floppy drive a jumpdrive and my NX60 for papers and what not

 

well seeing as how im not really the most experianced person on these boards, we might want to see what some other people say regarding the PSU. That seasonic may verywell take care of his power needs, i just not sure if 430 watts is enough(even though it is a seasonic, you cant completly disregard wattage(can you)) for a heavily loaded SLI system

 

you can get boot disks on cd's now, i think...., as computers can boot from cd's, i am sure you can amke flopy boot disks into boot disks on cd's, also, the onyl reason you would need floppy drive is if you did not have somthing like a cd-rw or dvd-rw, or if computers you needed to use boot disk on did not have cd-roms like the crappy computers i use at college lol.

that seasonic would take care if he was running somthing simaler to what everyone has said, but 500w would be safer ibviously, enables oyu to cram loads of stuff in like lights, cathode tubes, lighting fans, card readers, more cd-roms/ dvd-roms, tv tuners, things like the gatewatch for fan speed control etc.......

 

thats my point the crappy school computers but that would apply to howard anyway like ive said in my 2nd post it is possible to make one through cd but as far as i go i would prefer to use a floppy even if i can set the boot order its just a better back up and a better way to use all my old floppies

 

some people still use floppy drives, but i think more people dont than do, my floppy drive bay is home to a blue lighting el cable now

my floppy drive still comes in usefull for propping thigns up like my old monitor for the old computer, but i am one of those who never needs to use floppy disks, even thought there are loads of times when i could of done to, but i worked around the problem.

if he wants to use a floppy drive then, its not bad lol, they use less power than a avarage 60w light bulb lol, floppy drive use somthing like 5w of power i think....

 

my main concern and this is my last off topic post is that id rather waste a floppy then a cd that can hold a lot more then just a image thats just too much space that could be used for other things

 

thats why you use cd re writables, anyway, yea lets go back on topic now....

 

well as one inccentive to buy an antec PSU is the SLI capable ones all have $15 mail in rebates.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...ice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=58&Submit=Property

 

I have a floppy drive in my computer, hardly ever use it though, only used it a few times, for flashing BIOS and drivers for something came on a floppy i think...
Tagan PSU's are extremely good, and I see willhub linked that thread I made about different PSU's, I have the TG480-U01, but it's getting old, it still can kick-it with the big boys though, even if it does only have 1 12V rail @ 28A (hefty Amps for a single rail)
there are other Tagan units with dual rails and while they may not be on the nVidia certified SLi list, they can handle the power needed to run such a system.

 

I looked at x850 and it sounds like a a great card but there site said that the purchase of a crossfire graphics card is required to qualify.

 

yes i didnt realize that till i took a closer look, sorry about that.
but if you look at that post that had the other specs you see it would cost $887 to buy one at normal price with the other parts i had listed, and if you already have XP it would cost only $800 or so

 

howard, your better of buying an X800GTO2 i think, there alot cheaper, and can be modded properly into an X850 XT i belive, i know for a fact that they can have all 16 pipelines unlocked safely.

 

yeah but that could shorten the life of the card wasting his money as said in a past thread

 

no, it dont shorten life of card by unlocking the 16 pipelines

sapphie build these cards so the extra 4 pipeliens are ready to unlock..

 

true, true that really is a better choice, and the cost about the same as an x800 xl,
heres the link for one
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102596
or you can always buy the FireBlade GTO although it mightnot be moddable to the x850

 

So if I use the newegg site which most seem to like what suggestions do you have for putting together a decent gaming computer for 600-1000 dollars. Online gaming is not a big issue because I can only use dial up where I am located now.