Tech Support Forums - TechIMO.com - View Single Post - Decisions, Decisions... Nvidia or ATI...?

ShyguyXPC · June 30th, 2008, 08:57 PM

LOL, yeah, just sat down for some supper, back now

yeah, the GeminII, only reason I got it, was it was on sale on a special last year on newegg for $15, figured it was a good deal... though after I got it & a couple months later when I went to read up some on it, I found out many people complaining about a proper backplate to support the thing, I emailed Coolermaster & never got a reply, as to whether they had one, or were to release one...

so have been 2nd guessing using it, its a nice big cooler, only planned on using it as a passive cooler with the 250mm fan on the case, and no OCing right now. but the downsides to it, the main one, is its massive size, makes plugging things in to difficult, for example the RAM, I have all 4 slots used right now, but should I go 64-bit OS, & want to boost it from 3GB to 4 or 6GB will be a bit of a problem.

have been looking at some other coolers, just don't want to pay $50-60 for one though... for a while I was looking at the one from Enzotech, but I haven't seen it sold on several sites for a while now, & not sure if its still available or not. but even with that said, it was a $60-70 cooler too.

i looked at pricing on a 680i board, one that allows 16x 16x, but then figured aside from that one perk, an extra $150 spent on it, didn't really seem like a great deal (probably better in OCing than the 650, but since I don't do that much anymore if at all, not really a perk either). 750/780 boards would be nice, but near or at $200+? big turn-off.

thing is I don't really want to spend that much on upgrades, considering its only a partial upgrade this year, to this system I built last year... CPU & GPU, some storage.

but there are a couple other things to buy next check too, new headset finally & would REALLY love to upgrade the sound card to the X-fi Prelude if I could (if I have enough, or wait on that after selling the old CPU & GPU), 2nd Optical drive also wanting & TV Tuner card.

unless of course I can be convinced in buying a Wii, then the Optical drive & tuner card as well as headset might be put on hold LOL... still need to get one of these

thing is, I'd love to go for the ATI cards, but then I'm pretty much looking at an entire new system, with a Mobo swap in there...

I think I will go for a 9800GTX (slight performance boost of the GTX+ doesn't really seem like its worth the extra $30 you'd spend on it), if I could afford the extra $200 I'd grab a single 9800GX2 & just run one of those, but thats another $200 I don't want to spend.

the one thing I do have to laugh about is the pricing of the GTX vs the 8800GTS G92, GTX's going for $199, GTS's going for $205+... with the GTX being the "better" of the 2, despite more or less being the same card, aside from clock frequencies

one things for sure though, either way my 3D render times in Carrara 6 & other apps will drop by a good 50% LOL...

any suggestions on a good CPU cooler that should fit in my case/board, & cool the Q6600 pretty well, even for OCing (G0 stepping Quad)? (not any of those Tower coolers like the ones from Thermalright or Thermaltake, like the sonic tower, of Hyper blah blah blah LOL, their impressive in cooling, but way over sized & stick out too much)

June 30th, 2008, 08:57 PM	#3 (permalink)
ShyguyXPC Ultimate Member Join Date: Sep 2004 Location: Minnesota Posts: 2,318	LOL, yeah, just sat down for some supper, back now yeah, the GeminII, only reason I got it, was it was on sale on a special last year on newegg for $15, figured it was a good deal... though after I got it & a couple months later when I went to read up some on it, I found out many people complaining about a proper backplate to support the thing, I emailed Coolermaster & never got a reply, as to whether they had one, or were to release one... so have been 2nd guessing using it, its a nice big cooler, only planned on using it as a passive cooler with the 250mm fan on the case, and no OCing right now. but the downsides to it, the main one, is its massive size, makes plugging things in to difficult, for example the RAM, I have all 4 slots used right now, but should I go 64-bit OS, & want to boost it from 3GB to 4 or 6GB will be a bit of a problem. have been looking at some other coolers, just don't want to pay $50-60 for one though... for a while I was looking at the one from Enzotech, but I haven't seen it sold on several sites for a while now, & not sure if its still available or not. but even with that said, it was a $60-70 cooler too. i looked at pricing on a 680i board, one that allows 16x 16x, but then figured aside from that one perk, an extra $150 spent on it, didn't really seem like a great deal (probably better in OCing than the 650, but since I don't do that much anymore if at all, not really a perk either). 750/780 boards would be nice, but near or at $200+? big turn-off. thing is I don't really want to spend that much on upgrades, considering its only a partial upgrade this year, to this system I built last year... CPU & GPU, some storage. but there are a couple other things to buy next check too, new headset finally & would REALLY love to upgrade the sound card to the X-fi Prelude if I could (if I have enough, or wait on that after selling the old CPU & GPU), 2nd Optical drive also wanting & TV Tuner card. unless of course I can be convinced in buying a Wii, then the Optical drive & tuner card as well as headset might be put on hold LOL... still need to get one of these thing is, I'd love to go for the ATI cards, but then I'm pretty much looking at an entire new system, with a Mobo swap in there... I think I will go for a 9800GTX (slight performance boost of the GTX+ doesn't really seem like its worth the extra $30 you'd spend on it), if I could afford the extra $200 I'd grab a single 9800GX2 & just run one of those, but thats another $200 I don't want to spend. the one thing I do have to laugh about is the pricing of the GTX vs the 8800GTS G92, GTX's going for $199, GTS's going for $205+... with the GTX being the "better" of the 2, despite more or less being the same card, aside from clock frequencies one things for sure though, either way my 3D render times in Carrara 6 & other apps will drop by a good 50% LOL... any suggestions on a good CPU cooler that should fit in my case/board, & cool the Q6600 pretty well, even for OCing (G0 stepping Quad)? (not any of those Tower coolers like the ones from Thermalright or Thermaltake, like the sonic tower, of Hyper blah blah blah LOL, their impressive in cooling, but way over sized & stick out too much)