Damn LJ! Lost my response instead of posting it. Oh well, trying again:
I of course have no knowledge of this subject whatsoever. But Matthew built his own computer last year--and as a 25-30-hour-a-week WOW player and owner of every game system made, as obsessive a gamer as you--it was built with dedication to gaming. I just forwarded your question to him. He likely won't be awake before 4 or 5 o'clock today (2-3 your time), and there's no guarantee he'll get my message before tomorrow or that he'll be inclined to respond to someone he doesn't know personally; but you may hear from him since it's a topic of high interest to him. I'm sure he's got an opinion on the subject!
Wait for the 9800 GX2stitcher2ficcerMarch 24 2008, 01:54:19 UTC
The talked about Matthew here:
I'd say wait for the 9800 GX2. With the kind of rig you're building (Assuming you've got a nice huge monitor to go with it), the GX2 seems to be worth waiting for.
Depending on your target game and settings, there's significant advantage to be had with the 9800 over an 8800 setup. If you just want to be running Guild Wars with the settings max'd out at 1920x1200 though, the 8800 should be sufficient.
One other side note, is make sure you're building this thing with a beefy power supply. The 9800 GX2 sucks around 350 watts under heavy load. So a 700+ watt power supply is to be recommended.
Roomie both builds systems and is a gamer. He says wait for the 9800. The scalabilty will be a lot better so you won't need to upgrade as soon and it will be cheaper in the long run. He also is not a big believer in dual cards. He's tried it both ways and finds that one great card is better.
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I of course have no knowledge of this subject whatsoever. But Matthew built his own computer last year--and as a 25-30-hour-a-week WOW player and owner of every game system made, as obsessive a gamer as you--it was built with dedication to gaming. I just forwarded your question to him. He likely won't be awake before 4 or 5 o'clock today (2-3 your time), and there's no guarantee he'll get my message before tomorrow or that he'll be inclined to respond to someone he doesn't know personally; but you may hear from him since it's a topic of high interest to him. I'm sure he's got an opinion on the subject!
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I'd say wait for the 9800 GX2. With the kind of rig you're building (Assuming you've got a nice huge monitor to go with it), the GX2 seems to be worth waiting for.
http://www.tomshardware.com/2008/03/18/nvidia_geforce_9800_gx2_review/index.html
Depending on your target game and settings, there's significant advantage to be had with the 9800 over an 8800 setup. If you just want to be running Guild Wars with the settings max'd out at 1920x1200 though, the 8800 should be sufficient.
One other side note, is make sure you're building this thing with a beefy power supply. The 9800 GX2 sucks around 350 watts under heavy load. So a 700+ watt power supply is to be recommended.
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