Help Me Build a New PC! :O

[RebelMaren]

Ok, this morning I finally got information on my university loan and I've decided I'd like to build a brand new PC for myself, one that's capable of running PSU at full spec.

I'm never built a PC before myself, but my dads done plenty, so he's going to help me out with the basics, but what neither of us know about is graphics cards. Can any of you tell me about what cards are the best on the market at the moment, or what ones are the best value, and will do what I want of course

The Card will need to be able to play PSU at full spec, that's the main purpose of buying it, but I also want it to be capable of playing newer games, since I plan on playing more PC games, and also being able to play TES4 Oblivion, since I'd like to try the PC version with all the mods.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give me.

[Anti Hacker]

Get an ATI radeon card! Probably at the least an X800. Get a dual core processor if you can, and if possible an AMD Athlon (the alternative to pentiums) because they're usually better for games.

[RebelMaren]

Yeah, I looked at their site and the ATI Radeon X1950 looks like it's their new big thing. If it is it's likely that it'll be the card I get and my dad and I can keep that in mind when he's looking at building the rest of the PC,

so is the Radeon X1950 the best to go for, or was the site I saw a bit dated?

[Anti Hacker]

It's better than an X800, and my X800 runs TES:4 just fine. I'm sure you won't need a more powerful card, but remember you also need processiong power or there's little point in having a great card

[pink]

Eww... don't go with ATI graphics cards unless you like plenty of headaches. My laptop was the first time I've had to use an ATI graphics card instead of nVidia and it's been terrible. So many weird graphics related errors in even simple programs. One that happened most often was this weird "ripple" that would continually go through certain applications I'd run that were using the graphics card.

Personally I've had a much easier time with nVidia cards and recommend looking at a GeForce instead.

[RebelMaren]

Ok so, I'm looking more at the range of Ati cards and seeing what sort of processor I can afford, whilst also checking out the nVidia range.

Anyone care to comment on the problems that pink has had with the Ati products, it seems a little odd to me but I don't know the first thing about all this XD

Since I'm building the PC though, I can build it to work with whatever card I choose

Edit: Adding this here to avoid double post. I'm looking into buying the 'Sapphire Technology Ultimate Radeon X1950Pro 256MB GDDR3 Dual DVI TVO' from Dabs

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Qui...ationKey=0

Thing is, I'm concerned that it only has 256 Mb, would this be ok, or should I look into buying the 1650 with 512 Mb? Any Opinions?

edit2: fixed the link above ^_^;

[Darkwolf30]

I wouldn't go with an ATi card. I use one right now and i hate it. Its just a big mess but i mean it will run PSU fine.

[RebelMaren]

What makes you say that wolf? and what card is it? an older model no doubt but which?

[Darkwolf30]

I have an ATI radeon All-in-wonder and loading the drivers and all that and getting it working sucks alot. But im pretty sure the ATI models out there now might be better.

[Anti Hacker]

Umm, all-in-wonder is teh sux. If you go with the X range of ATI cards they're GOOD. I have had a 9000 and an X800 and they both pretty much rock, their compatibility across games is brilliant.

The portable laptop ATI cards do suck a bit, but what do you expect from a laptop?

Go with ATI. Just get a desktop an go with the X range.