Some advice

[dave4900]

Hi,

I am looking for advice on what I should do as I have not been looking at hardware for a good 4 years.

My current specs are :

3.4 Intel Prescott
Abit IC7 Max Motherboard
1Gb Crucial Ballistx DDR
Nvidia FX5700 Video card
PSU -Hyper Type R 580w
74gb Raptor drive (operating system)
+ various other Sata and a 500gb USB 2.0 drive
OS - Ubuntu 8.04

The only game that I play is World of Warcraft, since the latest patch its not running too great, I was originally trying to pick up a cheap Gainward GS 7800+ from ebay but I have not seen one go for a sensible amount of money to date.

So basically I am looking for a budget PCI express build to do the job as it seems worth spending a bit more and upgrading CPU, Memory, GPU and motherboard compared to spending £100 - 150 on a graphics card on an old system. (My case is ok and I am hoping my psu is still ok)

I dont want to spend more then £500 really if i can help it.

Thanks in advance

Dave

 

[aevm]

Try something like P5Q Pro (or GA-EP45-DS3R), HD 4850, E8500, 2x2GB DDR2-800. In the USA that would be about 120+160+200+70 (US$). Hopefully it comes to less than your budget even if you guys have higher prices. With this combination and your PSU, youc an even add a second video card later.

I'm assuming your case is well cooled. The HD 4850 and in fact most recent graphics cards need it.

 

[dave4900]

Thanks for the advice, the board and processor look nice the only factor would be that ATI cards are not very well supported in Ubuntu/ linux based OS'S and there would have to be a major reason for me to go back to a windows based OS which at the moment I can't see any reason to at all.

So Nvidia cards only unless anyone can tell me otherwise ?.

 

[aevm]

All right, then look at something like eVGA 750i FTW and 9800GTX+ (so you can add second 9800GTX+ later if needed).

I have no idea if ATI or nVidia is best for Ubuntu, TBH. Hopefully somebody has tried it and can tell us, because I'm planning to give it a try too.

Are you playing WarCraft on Ubuntu??? If yes, are you using some kind of emulator, or is it an actual Linux version of the game? Just curious...

 

[dave4900]

Thanks again i'll take a look at that, I have looked myself and there are so many different cards I appreciate the advice.

It is however well documented that Nvidia drivers are way ahead of the ATI for cards for Linux that much I know.

Yes I am playing Wow straight from Ubuntu via latest version of wine, it was running better then it had in windows previously, it's still running now since the update but it seems more sluggish and I know its down to my video card as it is very old now.

Thanks

Dave

 

[mtyermom]

So if it's through wine it is, in fact, emulated and not native, correct?