got money for christmas, what to get?

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dudethatrocks

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Nov 20, 2008
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I got a bunch of gift cards for christmas, a 45 dollar one for frys and 70 dollars in cash/checks. And im willing to spend a max of 40-50 bucks extra.

Im really interested in better performance for my already pretty nice computer.
So far my build consists of:
Core i7 920 (stock clocked)
Zalman 9900 cpu cooler
6 GB corsair dominator 1600mHz ram
Biostar Ati 4890 1 GB
evga x58 mobo.
300 GB WD velociraptor

At the moment im really interested in cooling the system and cpu better, but also get more performance for gaming.I wanted to know other peoples opinions on what i was going to pick out and whether there is better items etc..
So far im thinking of crossfiring my 4890 with a 4850:
http://www.frys.com/product/5944684?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

and of maybe getting this cpu cooler:
http://www.frys.com/product/6007318?site=sr:SEARCH:MAIN_RSLT_PG

Any advice, should i invest in anything else for my computer? :confused1:
On the video card should i just wait and buy a 5970 when i get the money?
 
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Or, you could get another Velociraptor and put them in RAID 0. That would help with your performance as well.
 
GBear said:
Or, you could get another Velociraptor and put them in RAID 0. That would help with your performance as well.
Click to expand...

Definitely going to do that one, but i dont quite have to $$$ for that yet.
Its $230, and my budget is $160, and it wouldnt make sense to put a 150gb Velociraptor in raid 0 with a 300GB one , because, well it would be like having 2 150's correct?
 
You could (on a cheap cool) buy another 120mm fan or two for your case. Or to change things up a lil, you could even buy a soundcard or new monitor (new gaming keyboard and mouse would be good too if you need to upgrade those). I'm not that knowledgeable when it comes to cross-firing video cards, but if you cross fire, wouldn't the 4890 downclock itself to match the speed of the 4850, and that would negate some of the positive increases in graphics (so instead of a 20% increase in fps, it's only 13%, for example)? Someone would need to comment on that.

Edit: Saw your update. Ignore my advice except for soundcard. That's still a useful idea to think about.
 
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haha, i guess i should elaborate on my build:

CoolerMaster Cosmos S Case
I have a logitech g15 keyboard
razer deathadder mouse
28 inch I-inc monitor 1920x1200 :)
so far ive maxed out all my case fan areas, to add more id have to mod my case
i have a wireless card
a pci squirrel cage fan too
a 25 in 1 card reader or something like that..
and a blu ray disk player
At this point im looking to cool my rig better, because even with the zalman 9900 my i7 sits at 36-42 @ idle, and i havent Oc'd yet, which i plan to soon, and i need to get more powerful gfx too. Thats why im debating getting a 4850 or 4870 or whether i should wait for the 5000 series to come down in price.
Although im intrigued by the sound card idea, but i need a better headset before i do that..and ive got a creative fatal1ty ive order from newegg.
Any other ideas lol?
 
Yeah, definitely get a new sound card.

In terms of headsets, get a Sennheiser headset. There's a variety of them for a variety of price ranges.
 
dont get the H50.........it performs on par as a mid-range CPU HSF and for 80 bucks the only reason to get it would be for just saying you have water-cooling/quitness somewhat

If your gonna spend that much on a cooler get a Noctua NH-D14, best CPU air-cooler out there right now and will easily cool your i7 920 @ 4.0ghz or more
http://www.svc.com/nh-d14.html
THIS THING IS BEAST!!!, you pay a premium for it tho

As for your video card, don't get a 4850, waste of money to CFX that with a 4890....save up your money like me and wait to get a 5970 when the price drops down a bit and they start rolling in-stock and staying in-stock......5970 will drop to the $300's within like a year just like the 4870x2
 
dont get the 4850, if you CF it with a 4890 the 4890 is forced to preform like the lower end card (4850)

if you want to Cf then get a 4890, despite what pew pew says i would recommend the h50, it is a great cooler
 
PewPewBangBang said:
dont get the H50.........it performs on par as a mid-range CPU HSF and for 80 bucks the only reason to get it would be for just saying you have water-cooling/quitness somewhat
Click to expand...

It performs fine. The main thing is having a sweet cooler, that doesn't stick out six whole inches.
 
reflex99 said:
dont get the 4850, if you CF it with a 4890 the 4890 is forced to preform like the lower end card (4850)

if you want to Cf then get a 4890, despite what pew pew says i would recommend the h50, it is a great cooler
Click to expand...

http://www.legitreviews.com/article/1025/6/

im not saying its bad....its just not worth the money
Your paying 80 bucks for something that will perform in the mid-high range of AIR COOLERS......add 2 high-end Noctua fans that go for $20 each and you will get it to perform about even with a Cooler Master V10

As for the Noctua NH-D14 which is the best air cooler on the market now, is massive, comes with 2 Noctua fans already and a custom 140mm one, all for the same price while performing even better than a Cooler Master V10 and much better than a stock Corsair H50.........im just saying spend the money more wisely and get the best performance you can for your money, if you add a third Noctua fan to the NH-D14 the performance becomes even more unparalleled and the coolers just becomes a monster
 
definitely much better coolers out there for the money. just figure out what size your computer can handle and gauge with that what is best
 
Although the noctua sounds nice, i doubt it would fit in my case, my zalman 9900 cpu cooler barely clears by maybe a 1/2 centimeter, because the cosmos s case has that 200 mm fan that goes inwards into the case.
Anyone got any advice for sounds cards, fan controllers (,other neat stuff i can get for my comp?) but within my 130-150 dollar budget?
 
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