Video Cards, Sound Cards, CPUs -- choices, choices, choices!

I was just about to order my new system, but want to get some thoughts on the video card and sound card.

Video Card - I've narrowed it down to either the BFG Tech Geforce 7800GTX 512 MB OR ATI X1900XT-512. Main use will be Adobe Photoshop, Processing of High Definition Video Signal (from my Sony HD Camera) and SOME gaming.

Thoughts?

Sound Card - the motherboard I am looking at comes with a REALTEK ALC850 8-CHANNEL CODEC OR should I get a SoundBlaster X-Fi Xtreme Music. Main use will be LISTENING to music and SOME gaming.

Thoughts?

Last question: I think I have decided on the AMD ATHLON X2 4400. Is there any reason to consider Intel? If so, which one? Is there any reason to upgrade to an AMD Athlon 64 FX-55/57/60?????

Thanks!

Mike

This is my rig, and I think the X1900 series would make an awesome workstation what you are talking of...

Also the A8R-MVP board has hardware 3D sound processing and sounds great, no need for another sound card.

Lian Li PC-60plus Black Aluminum Case (w/TR-3B Black Thermometer/Fan Controller 3.5” bay)
Opteron 175 (2x 2.2 GHz, 2MB cache, Socket 939, .09 micron, E6 stepping, OSA175DAA6CD)
ThermalTake BigWaterSE 12cm liquid cooling system complete kit
Asus A8R-MVP Motherboard (ATI Radeon Xpress 200 CrossFire, socket 939, SATA2)
HiS X1800XT Graphics Card (625 MHz/700 MHz OC core/1500 Mhz/1600 MHz OC mem, Dual DL-DVI VIVO 512 MB PCIe)
ATI TV Theater 550 PRO Tuner (PCI TV and FM Tuner)
2x 512MB Corsair Micro Xpert DDR RAM (2-3-2-7-2T (spd 2-2-2-5-1T) TwinXP 1024-3200XL)
2x 74gig Western Digital Raptor Hard Drives RAID-0 (WD740GD RAID0 150gig Boot Drive)
2x 250gig Western Digital Caviar SE16 Hard Drives (WD2500KS storage and data)
Plextor 716AL Black 16x DVD/CD Burner (IDE slot loading type)
Antec TP-II 550 Power Supply (550 Watt ATX12V v2.0 PSU)
Dell 2405FPW 24-inch LCD Monitor (UltraSharp Wide Aspect Flat Panel Display)
Logitech G-15 Gaming Keyboard
Logitech Cordless Optical TrackMan
Case Fans (SilenX 120mm intake, Adda 120mm exhaust blower, SilenX 92mm exhaust and SilenX 80mm Fan)

It gets 4,578 marks in 3DMark06 and 9,652 marks in 3DMark05.

Has anyone actually heard the audio quality from the ASUS A8N32-SLI ?? I've read that using the mother board sound card can take processing power away from the CPU. True?

I guess the ATI video card and FX-60 processor are just too new to comment on???

Pardon my ignorance, but what is the difference between the AMD Athlon 64 FX-55/57/60 and the AMD Athlon 64 X 4400/4600/4800 (other than a lot of money!)?? I think the AMD Athlon 64 FX-60 is the only one of the series to have dual core capabilities, but I could be wrong.

It seems to be the the Intel Pentium Extreme Edition 955 has some decent Photoshop and 3d rendering results (using a "best bang for the buck" comparison to the AMD Athlong 64 X 4400). Which AMD or Intel processor is the best bang for the buck??? Thoughts??

Thanks!

Mike

The ATI X1900 sounds like a good choice, but which one? There is the ATI X1900XT, the ATI X1900XTX and the ATI X1900 Crossfire. Confused!

Mike

XFI is nice because it has EAX 5.0HD for gaming, which is a benifit. However it doesn't have DDL for other processing features if you plan on hooking it up to a seperate audio system (or speaker setup-unit). However like Cleeve says if you're not as anal retentive as myself about your audio you'll probably get more bang for your buck out of an Audigy2.

Well if you prefer upconverted and native dolby surround (DDL) over the EAX advantages then go with something with DDL like the Turtle Beach Montego DDL 7.1

That's really your two options as both will work as pass throughs, but the Audigy series will give you better gaming (Audigy 2 up to EAX4.0 ; XFi up to 5.0HD) and a DDL card will upconvert non Digtal surround sound to DDL so you can listen to your MP3s and games in surround directly through the digital input (I know this works on the Logitechs). For the Audigy(s) the processing is done locally and you have to send the info to each speaker analogly (if that's a word).

Really IMO you have to hear DDL to decide whether you like it or not. To me it's like Creative's Crystalizer, some people love it, but I hate it. Then again like I said, For music I'm a purist, just give me high SNR low distortion/cross-talk and great OPAmps and I'm happy. Gaming is different though since it's realieving the pressure from the CPU for audio processing and adding effects/features (not distorting them).

I can't tell you what's important to you.

I have a FX-60, what do you want to know about it? I have a slight OC on it, running at 2.86ghz, on air cooling. Very stable and runs peak at 48C under full stress. And yes it is a dual core processor. Is it worth the extra cash, probably not, but it's nice to have