3 quick questions

shaneh

HI all,
I'm in the process of try to build a home PC and I have a few quick questions.

1) What is the best outputs to have on a graphics card. I'll be using a CRT monitor for the moment but will upgrade to a HDTV further down the line

2) I'm looknig at spending around the 200 mark on a card. If a card was alot better in performance, I may be willing to stretch it. On komplett, I've noticed a X1600XT for about 210 and X850XT for about 265. Is there much of a differnce in these cards? Is there any other cards you recommend. Will be going for a PCI-e with 256 DDR3 RAM.

3) What is a PCI-e x1 slot. The mother board I'm looking at has 2 of these. Can you use normal PCI cards in them? The board also has 2 PCI-e x16 slots

Cheers
Shane

AnCapaillMor

Most half decent card will 1,600+ pixels output, which will work on CRt no problems, different story with TFT.

If you can get an X850 for 200 go for it, the X1600 for 212 looks nice too. Should do for the next while. Deciding on a GFX card all depends on what you want the pc for.

you can't use normal PCI cards on PCI-E slots. they won't fit basically. The PCI-e X16 x 2 means you'll have 2 slots avalible to put GFX cards into, i'm guessing it's a sli motherboard, meaning you can chuck 2 gfx cards into the system and go wow!!. Show a link of the board you're getting and tell what PCI cards you want to transfer\put into it.

shaneh

Thanks AnCapaillMor,
I will be using the PC as a sort of home media centre, so playing games, watching DVDs on a CRT ( HDTV in the future), listening to music and addding a tv tuner card later on also.

A TFT is an LCD , correct or what is the difference? What are the pitfalls of using a TFT with 1 of the graphics cards.
The X850XT and X1600xt cards are on komplett. Was just wondering is it worth spending the extra 50 bucks in terms of performance, etc...

Yep, the motherboard is an SLI. http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=311239&cks=PLS. It has 2 PCIex16, 2 x PCIex1, 2xPCI. The cards I would want to install would be the graphics card, sound card, tv tuner card at later date & possibly wireless LAN card. Now, I know that 2xPCI is not enough for this but I was thinking that a board with 2x PCIex1 might be a better investment for the future.

Cheers
Shane

AnCapaillMor

Most if not all TFT's only do 1280 pixels.

As for the cards, the 50 bucks will basically extend the life of your PC, with X850 you should be able to play games at good quality for the next few years.

As for the cards you should be able to fit 2 of the cards(into the 2 whilte PCI-X slots) and the next card you get will have to be a PCI-E one, can't see an pci-e wirless nics on komplett altho thats only a matter of time, they do however do wireless via USB, if you get stuck for slots. Actually i'm surpirsed komplett has little or no PCI-E cards.

shaneh

Hi,
I think I'll stretch it a bit and go for the X850XT from Sapphire. There's 2 different versions on komplett for the same price. One has dual dvi-i & vivio, the other has 1 dvi-i & tv-out. Can you explain what's the difference in all of these connectors and WHICH results in the best picture quality, bearing in mind I will be purchasing a HDTV in the future. Thanks for the help
Shane

shaneh

Hi,
I think I'll stretch it a bit and go for the X850XT from Sapphire. There's 2 different versions on komplett for the same price. One has dual dvi-i & vivio, the other has 1 dvi-i & tv-out. Can you explain what's the difference in all of these connectors and WHICH results in the best picture quality, bearing in mind I will be purchasing a HDTV in the future. Thanks for the help
Shane

K.O.Kiki

Hope you can still cancel your order -- I tell you, you can save money & get the exact same performance by getting an X800XL!

As for your other questions:

• VIVO (from Wikipedia: [VIVO] can receive input from RCA or S-Video sources, and typically moves output ...over S-Video...However as this connection is not digital it does not support HDCP which would be required for official HDTV support as set out by the EICTA.
• DVI is the best output (digital-to-digital); better than VGA (digital-to-analog)
• So far, I've seen few PCI-e x1 products -- you'd be better off getting a board with more PCI slots (however, I'm not too versed on Intel boards). I would consider an Intel (non-SLI) chipset & more PCI slots more important for your needs here.
• If you're really hooking this up to a HDTV, I'm guessing you'll have the box close by. In this case, I'd strongly recommend a silent GPU like this 6600GT (best with a 120mm fan giving it cool air)