tyonna

I just bought:
intel core i7 920 bloomfield
windows 7 home edition
western digital caviar black 640
corsair dominator 6gb memory
antec earthwatts 750
Antec Nine Hundred Black Steel ATX Mid Tower
GIGABYTE GA-EX58-UD5 LGA 1366 Intel X58 ATX Motherboard
I now need to know what graphic card to buy. Some have suggested 5850 or 5870 cards. My question is, as I'm not computer savvy, does the graphic card have a big effect on the general graphics or mainly movies and games? The reason I ask is because this build is for my husband who does a lot of paperwork, but also watches movies (rarely), and is not a gaming build, so I don't want to waste money on something I don't need. Please provide any info and suggestions about graphic cards, or suggest a particular one.

Also someone here suggested I buy a Coolermaster v8 cooler for my CPU. Do I need that? Why or why not?



THANK YOU!!!!

voyagerfan99

The video card has a massive effect on games. I suggest you go with the 5870.

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Jamin43

She said her husband watches movies - and doesn't game. Spending that kindof money on a Graphics card without any gaming would be a waste of money. Did you read her post ??

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Mr soft

Geez that is one powerfull machine for watching movies.

how big is the monitor if we´re talking 19" to 22" You could just get a 4770.

This would even be ok for light to med. gaming.

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Matthew1990

Yeahh get the most powerful desktop GPU to watch movies.....


I'd suggest go with ATI since they seem to beat nVidia as far as media is concerned. Maybe 4770??? Low power usage, plays games, won't over heat.


However, you will be wasting money getting i7 and expensive motherboard nad 750W Antec and Antec 900 case and 6GB of RAM. Most gaming rigs don't have that specs.

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tyonna

I just wanted the best or at least close. Along side of a lot of paperwork and watching movies he also does music and web design. But I was mainly building it to be able to take on whatever he may through at it and last long.

tyonna

I have not bought the monitor yet....i plan on buying one around 20 - 23''

Backwoods166

That is a nice build. High-end graphics cards are mostly for gaming. And, to be honest, you can play any game on the market right now with a medium level card. A 4870 1gb like this saphire card (164.99) would be a great choice for a medium to high level card that is not to hard on the wallet. If you still feel you are spending to much then you could down grade to a NVidia 9800GTX+ (134.99) for very little performance loss. For the "around a $100" price point I would probably go with a 4850 like this card at 109.99. If this is still to much there are more options for less money but you will also be putting in a graphics card that does not match the performance of the system. Good luck!

Edit: Even if you wanted to go with a high-end 5850 or 5870, they are out of stock pretty much every where

Edit#2: You do not need aftermarket cooling for your CPU. The CPU comes with a stock cooler that is adaquet at stocks speeds. If you plan on overclocking (running the CPU above stock speeds) then you would want to purchase an aftermarket cooler.

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tyonna

Thanks you helped out a lot, but you said i wouldn't need the aftermarket cooler unless he was going to be overclocking, what is that and how would i know if he might be? without asking cause it's obviously a surprise

Backwoods166

The vast majority of computer users are not going to be overclocking. Overclocking is strickly a computer enthusiast activity. And basically what it is is changing the settings in the motherboards bios to get a CPU to run at higher clock speeds than it was set to originally. A good analogy would be car enusiasts who put after market parts on their cars like turbos and super charges in order to get higher horse power and torque. Furthermore, it is rather easy to purchase and aftermarket cooler later on if that is what he wants to do. If I were you I would not worry about it at this time. Not having one doesn't really detract from the gift even if he was going to be overclocking.

__________________
Q6600 G0 SLACR...........MSI R4870 1g (852/995)
1.275vid @ 3.4Ghz........AC Freezer 7 Pro
3.6Ghz(Bench).............Seagate 250gb/VRaptor 160gb
Gigabyte UD3R..............Antec NeoPower 650w Modular
4gb G.Skill 1066............Antec 900