The Official PC building thread -3rd Edition

6800GT? I'm pretty sure even the FX5700 stomps it. That's what's sad.

 

Well...I feel great about my purchase decision

 

I'm surprised you bought one to be honest, our G210 slating has been quite public long before now...

Shaff is right though, just because the G210 is the slowest graphics card for several years, still doesn't mean it can't play HD video. If that's all it's for, it will still work.

 

An electric converter box is both more expensive, and tedious. At least the 210 is MORE proper than converting VGA D-Sub analog, to HDMI. I guess time will tell just how idiotic this purchase was LOL!

 

Not idiotic at all as long as you're not putting any load on the card at all. If, however, you're only using it for HDMI out to replace a card that only had VGA, you could have bought a card off ebay like an 8400GS with a DVI port for probably less than half the cost.

In terms of power, a GTX260 216core, which while reasonably powerful, is hardly top dog in the current GPU charts, is between 35 and 60 times as powerful as the G210. Meanwhile, it is only roughly 8 to 10 times as powerful as an X800XT from 2004, or 18 to 30 times as powerful as a 9800 Pro from early 2003.

 

My velociraptor hasn't been up and running that long. So really, I don't hold a lot of faith in smart statistics. But I've never seen the analysis come back telling me that I have "511 pending sectors" It says that this value is very large, and that I should replace the drive as soon as possible. The damn thing is brand new LOL! Surely this is some kind of error or mistake...

 

It is a ways off, but the gap shrinks quickly in summer The odd part is it's just a storage drive I hardly ever access. Right now (according to everest) my boot drive (WD) is 27C, the storage drive I'm using is 27C (WD) and the one that's not in use (Seagate) is 32C.

I ran out of the plugs with right angle heads, and mine are only about 12" probably lol. The problem is the power cable since it's stiff and and to be bent 180 degrees to get the connections right on top of each other. New sata cables and power adapters could probably solve my problem with this case; probably try that when I go to use it again.

 

Omega: Use a few different SMART programs, see if they all tell you the same thing. SMART is unfortunately not an exact science, and artifacts can show up on occasions.

 

Does that mean I have to put my gpu in the first slot in order to get optimal performance? I don't understand why I can't just put it in any PCI-E 16X slot since there will only be one card. If so can I get around that problem by getting a BIOSTAR TPOWER instead? They don't mention anything about having to put the gpu in the first slot but I wouldn't be surprised if they just didn't add the fine print.

TIA,

redmaw

 

It depends on the motherboard. If the second slot is wired at 16x, then there will be no difference in performance. If it isn't, then you will lose a little performance. Which board is in question here?

 

Sorry, kind of left that out lol. My original choice was a GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R (and is the board in question whose specifications state that with only one gpu it needs to be placed in the first slot).

 

Ah, the X58A-UD3R is a little different as it has four PCIe slots. What it actually says is this:

If you look carefully at the board, you will see two of the slots are designated 16x, and two are designated 8x. If you use any of the 8x slots, the 16x slots that correspond will also run at 8x, even if neither of the other two slots are being used.

If we call the 8x slots B1 and B2, and the 16x slots A1 and A2, here's how it plays out:

A1: 16
A2: 16
B1: 8
B2: 8
A1+A2: 16+16
A1+B1: 8+8
A1+B2: 16+8
A2+B1: 16+8
A2+B2: 8+8
B1+B2: 8+8
A1+A2+B1: 8+16+8 (I'm pretty sure about this, but not 100%)
A2+B1+B2: 8+8+8
A1+A2+B1+B2: 8+8+8+8

 

Heck I could have sent him one... ROFL.

 

You guys are awesome! You make me feel great about my purchase. The way I saw it, I didn't have much choice on the egg. The 210 runs cool, at the time it seemed to be the most cutting edge. So Nvidia is a bunch of bastards for taking a step backwards. The 210 has no right to bare the name/Numeral. If the 210 does not compare to the 8400, they had no right naming it such. It's highly confusing to do that. Its like saying a 3.1 liter engine is more powerful than a 3.8!

 

You know what the best thing is? It's since been rebranded to the 310...
(Also, to be fair, the last numerals denote performance, and there was never a x100 card before, other than integrated graphics)

This is one of several reasons I'm no fan of nvidia.

 

Depends on who overclocks it! ROFLMSOAO!!!

Russ

 

You may have just sold me sam...

My next purchase will be ati. Unfortunately, there seemed to be a high risk for bugs when installing ati in the HTPC board. Which for all I know could be complete BS!

 

Buy an HD3450 off ebay for pittance and try it
If no luck, back on ebay it goes!

 

Thanks sam, the explanation is much appreciated. Guess I'll be getting the Gigabyte board after all.

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I'm thinking of doing my shopping at amazon rather than the newegg for now on since they have pretty much the same return policy (for everything else I use the manufacture) and there's a pretty penny to be saved by not paying state taxe lol.

 

Yes especially for an HTPC rig ATi is far and above the best. They have superior video acceleration and quality, not to mention a lot more options to play with IQ-wise.

Nvidia cards aren't terrible per se, but the GT210 is just sad. Seriously, what was Nvidia thinking releasing a product that terrible? They taken a major step BACKWARDS in budget graphics. Rebranded as the GT310? WTF

Nvidia get your heads out of your lazy asses and start doing some actual R&D! Nobody likes the rebranded card musical chairs game