The Gaming HTPC Thread

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richos: Max Budget?
 
finding out how much you can blow nam?
 
Hi Dave - A few questions first. What is your budget and what are your running temps for your cpu?

Do you find the case is noisy with the stock cooling?


With the psu you have you should be able to get away with using a 260GTX.

I have never worked on a Fusion HTPC case but I do know its a micro atx case. Do you think the length of the graphics card will be an issue? Does your 7600GT have much room length wise?

hi, budget say 200 maybe abit more, depends if i can do it for that if not i doubt i would bother to be honest, running temps im abit unsure of ill have a check in a bit,

i dont find the case to loud to be honest you can here it but not when the sound is on,

in length ive got about another 75mm until it would be up to some of the chassis, there seems to be space on the mobo as long as the gfx card is the same general layout, height i only have about 20 mm to go before it my not fit in,

thanks for your help
Dave
 
Hi Razor,

The GXT260 has come up a few times in this thread as a very good value card. Which one would you recommend between this and the HD 4870?

I was going to go for the HIS version of the HD 4870 but am reconsidering now...

Cheers,

R

Sorry to butt in on this, but check these benchmarks, to see how these cards compare, across various games and resolutions

Both great value
 
The 260gtx 216 was a refresh of the 260gtx 192. The HD4870 had the advantage over the older 192 model but newer 216 model gave it the slight edge over the 4870.

Both cards are really good and in real word use (ie gaming) you probably couldn't tell them apart.

Some games prefer ATI slightly and other prefer Nvidia. Its swings and roundabouts.

The HIS cards have probably one of the the best coolers you can get on a graphics card in terms of silent running and cooling.You should also get a very good overclock with that cooler as the card is running allot colder than stock cards.

One thing I do prefer on the ATI cards is the scaling with custom dpi. I find ATI does a better job of this than nvidia. If your not going to use custom dpi with overscan then this doesn't come into the equation.

Nvidia has physx under its belt (on board physics for games). There are only a few games out today which support this feature but there will be more on the horizon.


I think I might be tempted with the nvidia 260GTX because of physx and its has the slight edge in power on a few games I like. :)
 
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richos: Max Budget?

Don't really want to pay more than around £200 for the graphics card if I can get a decent (not best) card for less.

I can get the HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ 1GB DDR5 card for £165 but wondered if the GTX260 (or any other card) would be better for around that money.

Cheers,

R
 
Don't really want to pay more than around £200 for the graphics card if I can get a decent (not best) card for less.

I can get the HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ 1GB DDR5 card for £165 but wondered if the GTX260 (or any other card) would be better for around that money.

Cheers,

R

seen them about and you will be looking at this .. Buy HIS ATI Radeon HD 4870 IceQ4+ 1GB DDR5 PCIe Graphic Card, 1GB at Plemix.com with postage never used the site my self ..

or .

HD-487A-ZDDC - 1GB XFX HD 4870 XXX, PCI-E 2.0 (x16), 3800MHz GDDR5, GPU 775MHz, 800 Cores, 2x DL DVI-I/ HDTV - Scan.co.uk


260 216 cores .

cheapeast
GX-260N-ADEF - 896MB XFX GTX 260 XT 55nm, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 2000 MHz GDDR3, GPU 621 MHz, 216 Cores + FarCry2 voucher - Scan.co.uk

not bad for money ..

GX-260N-ADBF - 896MB XFX GTX 260 Black 55nm, PCI-E 2.0(x16), 2300 MHz GDDR3, GPU 666 MHz, 216 Cores+FarCry2 voucher - Scan.co.uk

remember this too ..
AVForums Home
 
£165 is a good price for the ICEQ. With the ICEQ you will be guaranteed silent running.

At a £200 budget you could go for a 4890 if you can find one with aftermarket cooling. Or a 275GTX. ;)
 
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hi, budget say 200 maybe abit more, depends if i can do it for that if not i doubt i would bother to be honest, running temps im abit unsure of ill have a check in a bit,

i dont find the case to loud to be honest you can here it but not when the sound is on,

in length ive got about another 75mm until it would be up to some of the chassis, there seems to be space on the mobo as long as the gfx card is the same general layout, height i only have about 20 mm to go before it my not fit in,

thanks for your help
Dave

7600TX is

8.98" Length

260GTX is

10.5 inches

It should fit. Card height will be the same.

With a approx £200 budget you could go for a 275 or 4890. :)
 
£165 is a good price for the ICEQ. With the ICEQ you will be guaranteed silent running.

At a £200 budget you could go for a 4890 if you can find one with aftermarket cooling. ;)

Add and look at postage :eek: .
 
The OcUK one that I got is a little cheaper than that.


but then you have postage on top I.e £9 , if richos Does 10 more posts then free postage .. :thumbsup:
 
but then you have postage on top I.e £9 , if richos Does 10 more posts then free postage .. :thumbsup:

Yeah, I get free postage from 'em. :smashin:

Pics coming soon......................
 
:eek: missed that before!!! Did not realise it is a US site. So guess I will not be buying the HIS after all. :(

no i did not mate .. just did a Quick search .. there over £200 if paying that get the 275:)
 
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7600TX is

8.98" Length

260GTX is

10.5 inches

It should fit. Card height will be the same.

With a approx £200 budget you could go for a 275 or 4890. :)

ill probably go with the raedon 4890 then, will the rest of the system be ok then or will i have to buy any more bits? i have it connected to a 1080p panasonic plasma
 
You may have to swap out your psu. I don't know how good the psu's are that come with your case. I think it will be borderline.

I would probably go for a 500-550 watt psu, just to be safe. But you could buy the card then see how you go.

Review showing temps and psu load from both the 275GTX and 4890.

[H] Enthusiast - ASUS EAH4890 Video Card Evaluation


Two psu's I would recomend.

CMPSU-550VXUK - 550w Corsair VX Series PSU, ATX, PS/2, 5 year Warranty - see specs - Scan.co.uk

or this one

CMPSU-520HXUK - 520W Corsair HX Series Modular PSU, ATX, EPS12V, whisper quiet, 5 year warranty - Scan.co.uk

The Corsair 520HX is a slightly better psu as it is modular and is ever so slightly more silent. The HX also has triple rails where the other psu only has single rails.


Here is a few reviews for those thinking of getting a 4890 or a 275GTX.

Radeon HD 4890 review | test

AnandTech: ATI Radeon HD 4890 vs. NVIDIA GeForce GTX 275

[H] Enthusiast - ASUS EAH4890 Video Card Evaluation
 
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While I'm waiting for Crysis Warhead to install I thought I'd post some pics of my updated build now that the GTX260 is in. :thumbsup:

Here's the card minus the stock cooler and with some RAM heatsinks that I've added;

cimg3149.jpg








It's quite a bit longer than the 8800GTS that it replaces but as you can see there are more memory chips and the core is much bigger.

Once installed it looks like this;

cimg3151.jpg






cimg3152r.jpg






I had to order a different centre plate for the water block as the hole centres are much further apart on this card.

I've plugged in an extra PCI-E power loom to my modular Enermax PSU as these cards have two power connectors. There are some 4-pin to 6-pin adapters in the box if you need them but for me it was a no-brainer with this PSU.

It's a little with the connectors on the side of the card, there's just enough room under the DVD drive if you push the cables down flat.

And here's the case finished and ready to go;

cimg3008.jpg




cimg3013.jpg



In case anyone's interested the full specs are;
Q9550, P5K-E, HDAV1.3, GTX-260, HVR-4000, Enermax PSU, 2x640gb, 1x500gb, 4gb PC2-8500 and a Blu-Ray/HD-DVD combo.

Anyway, off to play some Warhead which seems to be playing very nicely in 5.1 via the HDAV :thumbsup: (sorry Razor!).
 
Nice pictures wolvers. Thanks for posting mate. :smashin:

The HDAV worked in the end with crysis but I did notice a slight frame drop. The Auzen Forte doesn't effect frame rates and also sounds better in game than the HDAV did. :)

Anyway have fun with your new card, I am sure you will be impressed. Its a good purchase. :smashin:
 
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nice setup - shame about the HDAV but hey what you gonna do? lol

looks nice and neat as well
 
nice setup - shame about the HDAV but hey what you gonna do? lol

Cheeky monkey. :rolleyes:

So far I've clocked it to 750 on the core (from 575) and 1450 on the shaders (from 1240) but haven't touched the memory because of the lack of a full cover block. If I go to 1500 on the shaders it has a major nip up and reboots the machine so I'm not going to push it any further, although I think the core may go higher.

Not a bad boost in performance at all and doesn't seem to of impacted on temps at all. :smashin:
 
Thats a nice overclock you have there Wolvers. How are you finding the card compared to your 8800gt? :)
 
Thats a nice overclock you have there Wolvers. How are you finding the card compared to your 8800gt? :)

Very nice thank mate. I've dropped the core clock back as it was on the limit and Rivatuner wouldn't save it. I have clocked the memory a little now though to 1100mhz. Now running at 721/1461/1100. :thumbsup:

I can now run Crysis (and Warhead) easily @1080p with all of the option on v.high. I could only manage 720p and high with the 8800GTS. I've done some benchmarks if anyone is interested.

Crysis benchmark with the GTX260 @stock clocks. 1080p, Very high all options. Avg 40fps;

crysisdx9vhigh1080pq955.jpg





Crysis benchmark with the GTX260 @721/1461/1100. 1080p, Very high all options. Avg 48fps;


crysisdx9vhigh1080pq955a.jpg



I'm really pleased with the GTX260. For £140 it's an upgrade that I'm really pleased with. :)
 
Anyone have thoughts on the HD4850 x2 @ around £220 vs. the HD 4890 or GXT 275 for about the same price?
 
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