Choice between two machines

T

tiking

New Member
Hi. I have a choice between two exceptionally fine machines.They are the desktop Hp pavilion d1160 and the Laptop Hp pavilion zd8000. I intend to use either one for gaming and editing. It's pretty hard to make that choice as the laptop as 17' widescreen and packed with hardware.

The desktop comes with a geforce FX6800 256MB graphic card PCI express. I hear this is a damn good card. Excuse my french. ;)
The laptop comes with the ATI mobilty Radeon X600 pci Express. What a choice. :rolleyes:

Any directions?? THanks
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
1. Neither are 'exceptional' they are both OEMs.
2. You need to choose between a desktop and a laptop, after that choice is made, selecting within that set becomes easier :)
 
T

tiking

New Member
Thanks for replying but you have totally confused me. First of all. What do you mean both are OEM and they are not good? Are you saying they are crap cards.


so a good card should cost up to 3000 dollars to be considered an exceptional card :(
 
Cromewell

Cromewell

Administrator
Staff member
OEMs are companies like HP/Compaq, Dell, and the like. Personally of the 2 I would take the desktop becuase the x600 is a very weak offering compared to the nvidia midrange cards (not that the 6800 is a midrange card).
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
The desktop comes with a geforce FX6800 256MB graphic card PCI express
Click to expand...
Is this PCIx16 because it's PCIx16 natively (i.e., 6800GT/U) or is it PCI-expressed because of the 'influence' of HP? :)

so a good card should cost up to 3000 dollars to be considered an exceptional card
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On the contrary, $3000 video cards -- and they do exist, for most people, will be utterly useless. Lack of proper (or in many cases, any) DirectX/OpenGL support as well as anally-retentive shaders will eliminate such cards for any gaming capacity. Those $3000 video cards are designed for workstation stuff (i.e., animation, design work etc)
 
T

tiking

New Member
"Is this PCIx16 because it's PCIx16 natively (i.e., 6800GT/U) or is it PCI-expressed because of the 'influence' of HP?"

According to the specs its a PCI Express card Here is the link to the motherboard that resides in the box: http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/...c=en&lc=en&product=442363&cc=us&printable=no&



The specs for the Desktop d1160 desktop are:

3.4GHz P4 550 (800MHz) HT
1024MB DDR2 SDRAM (533Mhz)
2 x 160 GB SATA (7200)
An extra removable 160GB (USB 2.0) UATA (7200rpm) drive
1 dvd 16x player
1 dvd+/-RW/+/-R/R9 etc
nvidia geforce FX6800 256MB, PCI Express
Sounblaster Audigy 2 Zs
and a whole lot of extra

The specs for the laptop:

3.2GHz P4 HT
1024 MB DDR SDRAM
100GB UATA100(4200rpm) drive,
17' widescreen
ATI Radeon X600 pci express 256MB graphic card
and lots of extra.
 
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Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
nvidia geforce FX6800 256MB, PCI Express
Click to expand...
Again, my comment about the PCI-expressness of this setup in addition to noting that very few 6800s come in 256MB flavours ... worth looking into

As for the desktop, i'm quite impressed HP is shipping DDR2 boards, OEMed or otherwise .... the deciding factor would be the price.

With the laptop, while the X600 unit is a respectable card overall, its certainly not a gaming setup. Now i used the word 'unit' specifically ... if the X600 is a discrete card then this changes things plenty (although i wouldnt count on it being discrete)

Edit:
God i hate HP/Compaq websites ... no (useful) specs anywhere in sight ... a bit of searching reveals http://www.google.ca/url?sa=U&start=1&q=http://www.vinga.com/dokument/HEM_PC_Q4_2004.pdf&e=42 ... the model number is d1160.se (page5)


Again the value of the system is dependent on the cost
 
T

tiking

New Member
Okay. Then may I ask what the difference between your card and the FX 6800 pci Express card? You seem to say that this card is some what useless amoung all cards. At least this is what I getting from your comments.

I'm not too sure about what particular flavor off this card except what I get from the specs. I mean, I don't know how clear of a specs you want.
It says it is a nvidia geforce FX6800 256MB. Is this not enough? I'm sorry but maybe I'm not getting you right. :confused:
I'm guess that this card has no place in the gaming world.
 
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Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
Then may I ask what the difference between your card and the FX 6800 pci Express card?
Click to expand...
1. The fact that it's PCI-Express (6800s arent supposed to be PCIExpress yet)
2. If you do have a 6800GT (which is available in PCIExpress) then thats a good thing
3. The difference? 25/300 MHZ and an extra 4 pipelines

You seem to say that this card is some what useless amoung all cards. At least this is what I getting from your comments.
Click to expand...
You get wrong. :)

I mean, I don't know how clear of a specs you want. It says it is a nvidia geforce FX6800 256MB
Click to expand...
Lol you dont have to worry too much. Regardless of whether it be 6800 or 6800GT/U its a solid platform. It's just that if you look at http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=property&DEPA=1 ... there arent any cards matching those specs of course if you change it to AGP or 6800GT then we start finding things .. but since your motherboard is PCIx16 only then the only plausible path is that its not a 6800 ... which hopefully means its a 6800GT/U which is good for you (of course, like mentioned, HP, being a major OEM, might have been able to exert some influence to get 6800s in a PCIExpress flavor ... thats something you need/might-want to email HP about)
 
T

tiking

New Member
Okay thanks. I'll see if I can e-mail them and get some info on this. BTW, the link you posted doesn't lead to the info you wanted me to see. I'm curious, what does OEM stand for? I'm sorry for being ignorant.
 
T

tiking

New Member
Thank you. :)
One thing. So if the motherboard as only slots for the newer pci cards than the specs fot the graphic card is wrong, right?
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
So if the motherboard as only slots for the newer pci cards than the specs fot the graphic card is wrong, right?
Click to expand...
No, if the mobo supports PCIExpress then the video card fits that slot ... my problem is.. that video card doesnt exist.
 
T

tiking

New Member
Okay. I totally agree with you because I too tried to do a search and couldn't find that particular card. So maybe I am lucky that this will be a true pci express card. :)
 
Praetor

Praetor

Administrator
Staff member
I know. Traditional OEMs dont give you discrete video. 'books featuring them cost in the ballpark of $4000
 
J

jonathan71730

New Member
custom gaming rig

Having been where you are now i would take about 1 month and do some heavy reading on access to bios/overclocking if ur a gamer etc looking for speed and look into quality ram not value ram etc and i like your choice of video cards but,considering there's nothing on the market a 9800xt can't run
I would save some money and add extreme latency ram ddr3 etc and i would try to get 2 "74" raptor hard drives and have it configed to raid 0 with a quailty sound card and a good headset and you can find alot of these things on EBAY 20% cheaper than retail value but, only deal with people with a high
customer review with alot of sales behind them and if your using strictly for gaming i'll give you another tip go with AMD they are better at gaming as Intell is for running multiple work related tasks and as for my credientials i dont have any i have learned all this the hard way and through reading
and have 6 years off online gaming under my belt mostly counter-strike and sfirstperson shooter games goodluck and hope i helped you but,i definitly would'nt go with HP/Dell/Compaq/Gateway etc if anything i would look at buying a bare bones system and building my own and make sure if you plan to overclock you take into account that cooling isn't always cheap unless ur an innovative person. goodluck.
 
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