ATI Sapphire HD 4850 - $94

[TechMafia]

I'm building a new system and am currently looking to buy this ATI Sapphire HD 4850 GPU, based on price/quality, and native hdmi port.

It will mainly be a media center based computer, but I want it to be able to handle the games I throw at it. I was looking at the 4670 before finding this for only $20 more. At this price I feel like I can't pass it up. However, it is my first build and I would like some input about whether this is really as good a deal as it seems to be.

System Build Otherwise:
Intel Q9300 Quadcore CPU
Intel DP45SG Extreme Mobo
4gb DDR3 1333
750w Corsair PSU
About 2.64tb worth of HDD space
some older optical drives...

[My current system runs an Nvidia 7600]

[Masaki 7-11]

Regarding the hd4850, the performance and quality you get for the price is very good; a few friends of mine bought the same video card about a year ago when the price was much higher, but the performance has been very good and they have not had any problems with the card.

Regarding your build, I would take a look at a different cpu if possible, the q9300 is pretty slow, ideally something like the q9550 would be good and sells for about $220. Intel motherboards are of ok quality and are quite stable, however you can get a less expensive board with better features and quality by getting a p45 based motherboard from a company like Asus. You do not need DDR3 ram for the core 2 quad processors, they will not work any better than DDR2, going with DDR2 may also save you money. Unless you are planning on adding another hd4850 to the system in the future, you can take down the PSU wattage to 550W or so.

[TechMafia]

The Q9300 and intel mobo were part of a deal I got last year sometime. So I already had the parts. I was going to sell them, but once the i7 came out it wasn't worth it. I will eventually upgrade to the i7...or w/e else is out there by that point, but I figured I'd just use the parts I had so as to not let them go to waste.

Anything is better than what I currently run in my desktop. AMD dual core (not sure specifics off the top of my head--suffice to say it's old and slow). I bought the ddr3 ram, because that is what the mobo took. The PSU may have been overkill, but it was the only thing recommended in my other thread and there was a decent deal running at the time--so I bought it. If nothing else, it will be useful whenever I upgrade. I may end up adding a second 4850 in the future, if I feel I could use a boost, but that's only in the back of my mind.

I do still currently have a QX6850 available, but am in the process of selling that, as I am pretty sure I don't need it. According to ebay, there is a possibility that I may still be able to sell it for over $400, which would be a profit from when I bought it. Not sure why anyone is still buying it for that price, since the i7's blow it out of the water (I would imagine at least), but I enjoy the idea of turning a profit from the deal I got.

Do you have any recommendations for a decent case? Nothing too high end/expensive, just something to hold what I have, with a little room for improvement, and preferably something with front or top usb or esata ports. (Current Case: Front Usb/audio is broken and I'm not a fan of the door)

Thank you for all of your recommendations, I only wish you saw one of my other threads before now.

[Force Flow]

Originally Posted by Masaki 7-11 Regarding the hd4850, the performance and quality you get for the price is very good; a few friends of mine bought the same video card about a year ago when the price was much higher, but the performance has been very good and they have not had any problems with the card.

I think I paid nearly $200 when it was still fairly new on the market

[jdeb]

Antec 300 case top usb
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811129066

Cooler master 500 RC front usb esata
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16811119192

[MaxRat]

the Q9300 is more than fine for gaming and Media center work...

nice choice on the card...

I have the Palit Sonic editions of the 4850...nice cards