Decision time

Ok, have a chance to buy 2 USED Evga 9800GT with a Koolance water block on each card and the price for each card is $75.00 to $150.00, depending on the bidding.

-or-

the NEW Evga 9800GT Superclocked Edition for $124.12 each, aircooled.

Which way would you go. Keep in mind that I have the capability for 3 way SLI.

well it looks like you've choosen the card and all you need is to decide on which way ya wanna go with the cooling! now is the rest of system water or air and then go with which you prefer

Well, BFG 7800s are going for $70-$75...so 9800s should go for more, but bidding on last gen interface cards which are getting hard to find from current gen cards may be hard to judge. I think the 9800s should go for cheap on 2nd thought, cuz current gen cards on the budget end are $150 new. I dont know how well a 9800 compares in performance to current budget cards. What PCIe version do you have?

Flak Monkey wrote:

Well, BFG 7800s are going for $70-$75...so 9800s should go for more, but bidding on last gen interface cards which are getting hard to find from current gen cards may be hard to judge. I think the 9800s should go for cheap on 2nd thought, cuz current gen cards on the budget end are $150 new. I dont know how well a 9800 compares in performance to current budget cards. What PCIe version do you have?

Right now, I'm running Evga 8800GTs superclcocked in SLI. However, the new boards do run the 9800s since they are DDR3. Atop of the line new gen card actually runs about $450+.

Dom, I have am running a liquid cooled processor when I get it up and running. However, I also have a 200mm side fan on the case that will be running as well so the ability to air cool is there. I do not overclock my pc very much, usually just to the next level of performance. Plus, I'm thinking of trying 3 way SLI to see if it's better. The major problem is that of "used" vs "new"...........

hmmmmm

with all that graphic power you should be able to play fairly fast and seamless...

that might give you a advantage over us other players!

maybe we put hex on you cajun style and make cards work like 2mb cards!.....yeah thats the ticket!

[looks thru desk pile.....where's that voodoo hex curse book bound in skin?shuffle push] Ok I find then get wife to do her witchy woman hex on you deamon!

Well, new would carry a warranty and that piece of mind... but continuing the water cooling to the GPUs would be nice as well.

I know top end cards these days are 450-600, but that's the GT 400 series.. I'm talking the budget end of GT 250 or 260 line. I dont know how they compare performance wise to each other. A 9800 is up there in the 9000 series. I'm too laze to look up performance charts of the 2..

I think the 2 with the water blocks should go for cheap as new ones are about the price you are looking at. So, do you want the warranty for the extra ching?

Well, I did a side by side of a 9800 GT and a GT 250 and the newer 250 seems to be better. I dont know the specs of of the superclocked 9800, but the stock side by side has the 250 on top...and it is relatively the same price as the 9800 on newegg (depending on memory and maker) Something else in the chart is that the 250 is 3way SLI capable, but the 9800 is not. Now I don't know if OEMs have made their 9800s capable of that or not, but that's just what the chart says...if you pondered about doing that some day. A quick copy and past of the technicals of each on Nvidia's site will tell you more.

Something else to ponder... BFG carries a lifetime warranty on their cards. There are some on Amazon for $80...(9800 GT OC) if you want to save some money and get the warranty to boot... Actually, just looked, it's new and from TigerDirect. Even better.

Yep, that's the problem I'm running into with the cards. I did the comparison side by side on the 8800GT OC and the 9800GT OC and they are identical. Some of the reviewers state that the 9800 is the 8800 with a bios upgrade. As to the 200 series, I was originally aiming for them, but they are dual-slot cards and I need every slot I can get since I need 1 pci slot for the sound card, 1 pci-e slot for additional SATA hookups, and the last pci slot for a USB hookup.......I guess I'll keep the money in my pocket and keep on using the 8800GT OCs instead of questionable upgrading to the 9800s. sigh