Simviation Forums

I'm still running my P4 3.8 machine with an Ultra 500W and BFG GeForce 7900GTOC card.  Tigerdirect had a good deal on a PNY GeForce 8800 GTS 640MB GDDR3 PCI Express SLI Video Card coupled with a Ultra X-Finity 800-Watt SATA-SLI Ready Power Supply.

Am NOT moving to V$sta for at least another 6 mos if not longer.  I believe sales are not going to be anything close to what even their lowest estimates were, and that will cascade down and across to all the retailers for all the new stuff one needs to run V$sta. I expect massive discounting, especially with the housing-induced recession we are entering.  So, that extreme edition or even quad-core may not be quite so out of reach in about 6 mos.

However, that being my plan, I and sticking with XP for the moment and won't get the DX10 eye candy for now, but I figured the video card would still be an improvement over what I have.  And, I will need, eventually at least, the higher power supply. Should I put it in my current unit because I hear these cards suck a lot of juice and something about the rails (which I don't understand)?

Anyone else purchased one of these cards and installed it your (Intel) XP machine?  How did it do?

Just return both. The PSU you bought is unstable, and PNY cards have horrable memory.

Cheers
Caemron

Really?  Crap. Guess it was "too good to be true."   What other brands would you recommend?  I like the modular style PSUs.

Cam is correct in his assesment

This may be a bit much and you can cut to the chase if you like, simply clicking the links at the bottom for the parts I recommend. In case you may be interested in learning about power supplies, how to choose one and what to watch out for, I have elaborated a bit here

Hello Nick,

Thanks for your very thorough education on PSUs/Rails/Etc....I had no idea there was so much to it.  Here are my current specs:

Pentium 4 3.8 GHz (model number 570)
Intel D915PBL Motherboard
2 GB Kingston DDR2 533 MHz
800 FSB

In addition to FSX, I am going to be doing a LOT of video capture and editing in the future, so I'm going to set up an SATA Raid0 with new SATA disks.  Right now I'm using an Addonics converter to use my IDE disks on this motherboard which only has one IDE port!

Anything else you can recommend I certainly appreciate.  Thanks for your help.

[quote]Hello Nick,

Thanks for your very thorough education on PSUs/Rails/Etc....I had no idea there was so much to it.

PNY cards have horrable memory.

What makes you say that?

PNY cards have horrable memory.

What makes you say that?

The fact that PNY cards use PNY memory, which is one of two memory to stay away from at all cost.

Cheers
Cameron

PNY cards have horrable memory.

What makes you say that?

The fact that PNY cards use PNY memory, which is one of two memory to stay away from at all cost.

Cheers
Cameron

What's wrong with PNY memory? I've read nothing but great reviews about them on newegg:

***-------> http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6814133188 <-------***

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6820236110

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6820178095

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6820178094

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6820236112

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6820178134

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6820178133

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Custratin ... 6820236115

I've yet to encounter any problems with my PNY card.

Unless you prove to us (besides your own opinion) how PNY is poor, your statement is biased.

Would you like the pictures of the box of failed K-Byte, PNY, and Kingston sticks that I've pulled out of peoples systems that I have sitting in my room?

I also laugh at the n00b who takes newegg reviews as legitimate information.

Cheers
Cameron

Would you like the pictures of the box of failed K-Byte, PNY, and Kingston sticks that I've pulled out of peoples systems that I have sitting in my room?

Wow...that answers nothing.

I also laugh at the n00b who takes newegg reviews as legitimate information.

No, we laugh at people who place words with numbers. But then again you're only 16...

Anway, Newegg is a multi-million dollar business that thrives on customer reviews. That's what makes it so great! Thank god for those reviews! There are a lot of legitimate people on there who give great tips, advice & specifications Newegg sometimes leaves out. It's great to have feedback from hundreds or thousands of people who purchased the same thing you're about to so you can make your own reviews. And for someone who laughs at Newegg sure does praise it in their sig.

Having a box full of dead RAM from three problem companies prooves nothing? Right

As for the customer reviews, yes some are good, but most are bad. Most of the reviews completely skew the actual preformance of the parts. Yes there good for things like cases, monitors, and printers etc, but RAM, Motherboards, Processors, GPUs etc don't even look at them. Go to hardware sites and look at actual results, and not just some kid psyched that the cheapest kit of 2GB PC3200 allows him to play BF2142.

Again, PNY is horrable memory. Its unstable, dosn't clock well, and dosn't like extra heat or voltage. PNY is only good for the minimalist who just needs something as a temp fix. If you're looking for value RAM because you are on a budget, Corsair Value is the way to go.

Also I notice you have a PNY 8800, tried overclocking it? Oh wait thats right, out of all the cards tested, PNY did the WORST!

Cheers
Cameron

Having a box full of dead RAM from three problem companies prooves nothing? Right

As for the customer reviews, yes some are good, but most are bad. Most of the reviews completely skew the actual preformance of the parts. Yes there good for things like cases, monitors, and printers etc, but RAM, Motherboards, Processors, GPUs etc don't even look at them. Go to hardware sites and look at actual results, and not just some kid psyched that the cheapest kit of 2GB PC3200 allows him to play BF2142.

Again, PNY is horrable memory. Its unstable, dosn't clock well, and dosn't like extra heat or voltage. PNY is only good for the minimalist who just needs something as a temp fix. If you're looking for value RAM because you are on a budget, Corsair Value is the way to go.

Also I notice you have a PNY 8800, tried overclocking it? Oh wait thats right, out of all the cards tested, PNY did the WORST!

Cheers
Cameron

how is it in the majority of posts the Counter Terrorist always has an arguement??

but i personaly wouldnt touch a PNY card. my friend got thorugh 3 PNY 5900's (on of the high end 5 series not sure) in just under a year. was not fun for him.

Having a box full of dead RAM from three problem companies prooves nothing? Right

It could prove a lot of things. DOA, inexeperience from end-user, OC'ed beyond it's limits, etc... You're not telling us how they die. You just bash them because you can't push them to the limits like you can with other brands, but by all means that doesn't make them bad.

As for the customer reviews, yes some are good, but most are bad. Most of the reviews completely skew the actual preformance of the parts. Yes there good for things like cases, monitors, and printers etc, but RAM, Motherboards, Processors, GPUs etc don't even look at them. Go to hardware sites and look at actual results, and not just some kid psyched that the cheapest kit of 2GB PC3200 allows him to play BF2142.

Another biased statement. RAM, Motherboards, Processors & GPU's are the most reviewed items on Newegg if you haven't noticed. Why wouldn't people look at those?

Again, PNY is horrable memory. Its unstable, dosn't clock well, and dosn't like extra heat or voltage. PNY is only good for the minimalist who just needs something as a temp fix. If you're looking for value RAM because you are on a budget, Corsair Value is the way to go.

And this is coming from someone who voids warranties and collects dead RAM?

Also I notice you have a PNY 8800, tried overclocking it? Oh wait thats right, out of all the cards tested, PNY did the WORST!

Yes, I have overclocked it. And yes, it was extremelly stable. But I have not pushed it to it's limits due to my PSU which I'm currently working on. And if it doesn't reach the numbers I expect, I would still be happy because I highly doubt a couple more incriments would give me that much of a jump.

Cheers
Cameron

I noticed you have one hell of a rig. At your age I had Packard Bell DX2 66 MHz with 8 megs of ram. My brother and I saved up to buy it. I'm willing to bet your parents bought you your system because I don't know that many 16 year olds who walk around with thousands of dollars in their pockets unless you have one hell of a job I don't know about.