As far as the monitors go, there are probably others more well versed than I am, but you are looking at a few things. Refresh rate, max resolution and whether you want wide screen or normal.

Most lcd's right now are typically set to max 1280x1024. (I think)

That is not a super high resolution, but it is decent. Some wide screens have a bit higher. If you want higher resolution on a flat panel, you're looking at spending over $300 easily. With that being said, if your highest resolution is going to be 1280x1024, you won't need to be able to have 60 fps at some ungodly high resolution. You will be looking at good frame rates for the highest resolution you can run.

With that being said, the ATI 3850 isn't bad, but it is hampered by only 256k ram on board, but it outperforms the nvidia 8600gs/gt. The next step up is the ATI 3870, then the 8800gt.

Those are your real options. If you pick any lower than the 8000 series nvidia's you won't have dx10 capability.

As far as refresh rates go..the higher the number the better. Hopefully someone else can provide more info than I, but that should get you started in your search.

D.

I found out about what type of motherboards they use the XPS 420 which is 150 $ cheaper then the 720 uses intels - x38 express chipset while the more expensive modle the 720 uses nvidia's nforce 680 SLI motherboard just wondering is if both are good quality and if the first one is upgradable i googled it and it said that the x38 was ready for the upcoming DDR3 memory but could not find out any more than that.

All help would be apreciated since dell is changing their system line up today at 11 59 so i was planning on ordering tonight.

X38 chipset was designed to take the 45nm penryn processors, ddr3 and pcie 2.0. 680i is set up for current processors and SLI nvidia cards. The 780i chipset is coming out to replace the 680i chipset, but there will be another chipset following in a few months to do a better job of it.

In short, I'd buy the x38 chipset mobo.

D.

I purchased a computer from dell whitch costed 1800$ Canadian.

Processor-intel 6850  core 2  3ghz

power- 375 watt standard power supply

cooling- standard fax cooling

motherboard - intel x38

operating system- vista home premium 64bit edition

memory- 3gigs DDR2 800mghz

hard drive - 320 GB 7200 RPM

sound card - intergrated 7.1

video card - 512MB 8800 GT

monitor - 20 inch E207WFP widescreen

speakers -  2.1 A525 30 watt

wondering if this will play fine and just wondering if anyone thinks the power supply will be enough i thought it should since dell only offers the one for the whole build.

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Originally posted by Gamer_17
I purchased a computer from dell whitch costed 1800$ Canadian.
Processor-intel 6850 core 2 3ghz
power- 375 watt standard power supply
cooling- standard fax cooling
motherboard - intel x38
operating system- vista home premium 64bit edition

 

memory- 3gigs DDR2 800mghz

hard drive - 320 GB 7200 RPM
sound card - intergrated 7.1
video card - 512MB 8800 GT
monitor - 20 inch E207WFP widescreen
speakers - 2.1 A525 30 watt
wondering if this will play fine and just wondering if anyone thinks the power supply will be enough i thought it should since dell only offers the one for the whole build.

 

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It's not a bad system man, pricey for the hardware but you pay a bit more for pre-built.

  Only thing is someone should inform dell the minimum requirements for a 8800GT are a 400W powersupply pushing out 26 amps. Guess just have em ship it with that thing and give it away to some starving children or something. Get yourself at least a 700W/4 Rail. These days we run dedicated rails to our chips/bridge/video etc...a 375W PSU sounds more like a typo, Dell really sells them with that?

You've got the 64bit OS I don't see the point in not going with a full 4 gigs. Cost me around 100 American these days for 4, I just don't see any reason to go with 3 if you have the OS for it.

Too bad you're in Canada man, Microsoft now gives Vista Ultimate away for free to US residents : / Nice money to save when building new.

Edit:  Welp scratch that actually, looks like Microsoft gave away all the copies they wanted to.  Deals gone.

Dell is horrible about that. The powersupply will work, or they wouldn't be able to ship PC's with it. It will barely work though. If you upgrade anything in the future you will need a better power supply.

That should run games just fine. It's a solid rig with the exception of the power supply, but even that should do good enough for you.

D.

Well i just got an email saying my PC has been shipped and will be here early this week so just a big thanks to everyone who helped me with my purchase

Glad to be of help. I would hope we are helping and not just a bunch of windbags preaching our favorite technology. (I know it gets that way sometimes.)

Good luck and Happy Gaming!!

D.

1. 1280x1024 (SXGA) was like 1995s 17 and 19" display res (5x4, 921Kpixel display.)
$240 modern 21 and 22" LCD usually do 1600x1200 (UXGA, 1.9Mpixel;) the wide screen 1600x1050 (WSXGA, 1.75Mp.)
HDTV is 1920x1080 2Mp. That is more the region of $700 +25 to $1K 32" displays where the standard is 2048x1536, QXGA, 4x3, 3Mp; and widescreen 2580x1600, WQXGA, 16x10, 4Mp... one can NOT believe what a display in 2580x1600 DX10 looks like compared to the antique 1280x1024 DX8.

But those huge 2 to 4Mpixel displays need serious gpu posting powers dual and quad core SLI/CF.

CRT are largely nolonger produced, like LCD replaced them and soon LED will replace the LCD while holo will replace LED five or six years down the line... if the world survives 2012ad.

2. With AMD to launch its Radeon HD 3870 X2 graphics card featuring dual RV670 GPUs on the 23 of this month, and Nvidia is also planning to launch the GeForce 9800 GX2 on February 14 which will be include two G92 GPUs, it looks as though 2008 will become the year of dual GPU cards, at least for the high-end market.

In the past, GPU makers would normally design for the highest-end GPU first and then reduce chip speeds and functions to create a product range targeting the different market segments.
However, with high-end chip design taking longer, while at the same time graphics card product-cycles have got shorter, AMD and Nvidia will both change their strategy, and now use their respective CrossFireX and SLI technologies to help prolong the life of their chips, detailed the sources.

GeForce 9800 GX2 cards will have a total of 256 stream processors and adopt a double PCB design. The two GPUs will share the same PCI Express port by using Nvidia's BR05 chip; a similar design solution to that employed in AMD's Radeon HD 3870 X2.
The performance will be 1.3-1.5 times faster than that of a single GeForce 8800 Ultra card, noted the sources.

The GeForce 9800 GX2 will keep SLI support for quad GPU configurations. Pricing will be set at US$449.

However, due to the low market acceptance of dual GPU graphics cards, the makers are currently still conservative over the two upcoming dual GPU products.
Most makers will only order in small volumes and will not order any more after they have sold out, according to the sources.

Nvidia is insisting card makers eat some of the manufacturing cost of 8800GT to make them compatable with R3800 price war, while refusing to lower it's profit margin.
Nvidia G94 launch Feb '08 (GF 9600, D9P, $170, 64 stream processors, 65nm, 256bit memory bus) vs AMD's HD R3850 (RV670pro)

3. If one does not have a huge display ( > 1400x1050) then the single R3870 should be adequate. GPU reference to see how the desktop graphic cards compare.

4. Intel has announced the discontinuation of the Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 and the Intel Core 2 Duo E6700, E6600, E6300, E6420 and E6320 processors in January 2008.
QX6700 Core duo T2700, T2600, T2500, T2400, T2300, T2300E already droped Nov '07.
By March '08 the C2D T7600, T7400, T7200, T5600, T5500, L7400, L7200; Core duo ULV U2500, U2400; Core solo U1500, U1400;
Intel also droped four Pentium D and three P4 cpu models.
Soon to add to the list is the C2D E6400, E4300, P4 651 and Celeron D 352 cpu.
Intel is gearing up for the 45nm C2Quads consider 16 new processors !

Intel will launch Nehalem-based notebook CPUs at the end of the second quarter of 2009, including the quad-core Clarkefield and dual-core Auburndale series. Auburndale will have integrated graphics, while the power consumption of both CPUs will drop significantly.

Soon on the market will be 8GB sticks of DDR2, just as the more expensive DDR3 for the X48 mobo come to market.