If I needed to buy a PC ...

Gonz, I was at Best Buy helping a non tech savvy friend buy some things, and while he was mulling it over I got to play with some very nice machines built by some outfit I have never heard of called "Velocity". They were just like homebuilt clones, in sharp cases, made from quality non proprietarty hardware (ASUS boards, Nvidia DX10 vidcards and such).

Well one machine was a quad core with a GeForce 8800GTS (same card that's in my PC). I can tell you it is a NICE card, but I did pay over $250 just for the card alone. But the lower budget machine had the 8600GT model that goes around $100, that I suggested to you, and a dual core intel CPU. They both had 3Dmark '06 on them, so I benched them side by side. I was quite impressed with the 8600GT, as it held its own. The GTS does annihilate it when you consider resolution equal performance, but the 8600GT is a HELL of a card for the money, and at low res should play any game money can buy for the PC that is out today with acceptable performance levels.

Color me impressed with both the 8600GT, and Velocity computers. The Velocity machines were certainly a bit higher priced than the compaq garbage that was on display next to it, but IMHO worth EVERY penny and then some.
 
I saw a potential deal & was curious why it was so cheap. Especially running dual video cards. I'm planning on building my next one-best product per dollar. I'm unable to afford a two grand top o the line gamer.

My Barton 2500+/Soyo Dragon has lasted me the better part of 5 years. It was great when I built it but it fit my needs within my budget. I've upgraded memory & parts over time but it's just time for a new one.

I was looking at a possible quick fix. Thanks for the advice but I was just curious about the first machine....for now.
 
Well being as the 8600GT is also SLI capable, and as I cannot imagine the 7000 series card you mentioned is really that much cheaper (I saw no itemized costs, but in my research on the card I suggest, I saw several 7000 series cards going for more than the 8600GT, I believe it would be rather foolhardy to buy an obsolete card, and double it to squeeze performance out of it especially when games under development now will never be able to run on the setup. If you still want the system you proposed, then why not dual 8600GT's for quite possibly a negligeably higher price?

Actually between these first two paragraphs I looked, and a 7300GT, can be had for about half the 8600GT, but for $100, when we are talking about an upgrade that you can afford, but you want the longest amount of years on it, I personally think it's ludicrous to buy two obsolete cards, when perhaps one can squeeze the budget to afford something that serves the need and has lating power.

[Mark being a complete jackass, but only half serious and mostly in an attempt at humour in his biting and sarcastic way, which is rarely mean spirited, yet oft misunderstood]Could it be that you are simply too prideful to admit that your political arch rival is right for once and you can't deny it even to yourself? Even though he has made every attempt to convince you of his sincere desire to help you with his experience and expertise?

Or perhaps your politcal party of choice's fine econmic plans have you so prosperous you just can't squeeze $100 bucks to save yourself a more quickly than anticipated need to upgrade again?[/Mark being a complete jackass, but only half serious and mostly in an attempt at humour in his biting and sarcastic way, which is rarely mean spirited, yet oft misunderstood]
 
OK, Gonz, try this, I amended the wishlist. At first glance you may have sticker shock as the price is now, $741.91! BUT, when you consider that you can temporarily hold off on one of the vidcards till the budget allows for a savings of approx $110, and all the eligeable rebates, which total $80, AND if you get the second 8600GT, while it's still eligeable, an addtional $20 later, you come up with a total of $552, and $632, after the purchase of card two. Thing is, you've spent signifigantly more, but you have a system that will spank the TD one like the proverbial "redheaded stepchild"! Add to that you are dealing with just about the best online retail/wholesale outfit in the biz, and have that piece of mind, and the further fact that you can customize and tweak the concept further to your liking since it's not a package deal.....Well I think you get my point even if you disagree. Personally I think a single card with the potential to go for the 8800GTS later when it's more reasonably priced, or even a single next-gen budget card when they come out, makes more sense than SLI, but you do as you wish, as you and I know you will.

The bottom line I guess is just that I'd hate to see you with a brand new, but obsolete card when an industry standard one is so affordable.
 
markjs said:
One last thing. If they give you anything with Norton Internet Security on it when you buy it, remove it post haste (if you can without downloading a special utility to remove it) and replace it with AVG Antivirus, Spybot S&D, and Lavasoft's AdAware 2007. All of them are free, and do just as good of a job of protecting you, and they don't need an expra CPU and gig of ram to run them like Norton Bloatware does.
Click to expand...

So, do you need all three AVG Antivirus, Spybot, and Adaware? Or will just one of those do?
 
AVG has a different purpose than the other two. As for AdAware and Spybot, it's a good idea to have both just because one always seems to catch things the other misses.
 
I've seen too many toshibas with their screens moving freely. Something you really DON'T want on a laptop.
 
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