Tuesday, December 05, 2006

New Poota

After much deliberation and rants proclaiming that the time has come to buy a new computer, the day arrived last Friday when I picked up my new gaming rig. We'd decided that another computer would make a good chrissy present fro both of us, and once clearance from the financial manager that "anytime in December would be Ok", things were put into place to get a system by December 1. Me having to travel to Brisbane on that day sealed the deal.

I've been paying closer attention to the graphics card market of late as that was pretty much the only component undecided for my sweet spot system. To SLI or not to SLI seemed the question. I had noticed that the 8800's had just come out, and after a little digging I was sold.
I .. WANT .. ONE !

The mission had changed. Out with all the rational plans, just get me a system that will run one of these suckers! With performance outstripping comparably priced 7950's by over 100%, it seemed that these were definitely the way of the future, and a jump that big has virtually made anything else (even in SLI mode) obsolete.

So, the plan. Get a rig that will run one, with the option of going SLI in around a year's time. Skimp on memory too, as that could warrant a double boost in the future. Everything else sweetspot to make it run. I also had heard good reviews of the Chimei CMV 22', so for 500 bucks it was also on the cards.

Gaming system:
AMD 4600+
ASUS M2N32- SLi Deluxe Motherboard
1 Gig DDR2 Memory
320 Gb SATA2 HDD
Albatron 8800gts
Chimei CMV 22'

Well, absolutely impressed with the screen. Never going back to anything smaller, and playing WoW on anything but widescreen 1650x1080 is going to be painful. Oblivion still decided to crash when ramped up to the max, which I'm pointing the finger at heat issues already, but it happily purred along when dropped down to a more sedate 800x600. TrackMania looks and plays great at max resolution, and the widescreen actually helps seeing corner apexes too. Football Manager copied over Ok too, and although it doesn't trouble the video card, I'm glad the system speeds the game processing up, especially saving (god bless a proper SATAII).

I'm stoked.