Newby Video Card??

Hi guys! Im looking to build a rig of my own. I'm planning on this:

i5 2500k or i7 2600k....not sure yet
G Skill 8GB RAM
Mobo...???? Still not sure
PSU....not sure but Im guessing a 750 of some sort

Im am clueless to what video card to get. At this point I dont plan on gaming. But i do like DVD's Is this enough info to pick a video card? I am looking to build a rig I can benchmark for fun not really for gaming. Thanks!

The best value card for gaming is a 5770 or a GTX 450, 460. How much are you exactly willing to spend?

Since you are not gaming, I would suggest going the H67 chipset route and 2500k so you can use the onboard GPU. Note you cannot overclock with the H67 chipset. If you want to overclock and use onboard, you need the Z67 chipset (or w/e its called. Its not released yet).

Note benchmarking 3D on an onboard GPU isnt any fun. May want to stick to 2D on this rig.

Don't i want the P67 to overclock? The H67 u cant overclock, right? I just looked at the 5770 that seems like a fair price. It looks like I can do a dual monitor set up on the 5770, can I?

for BD playback on a budget and considering you dont game. consider the ati 5450 but with ati the number of cores matters in IQ so i would really more suggest the 5550. that is if your really into the IQ of video... after using it mine for a while the GT430, i cant find any IQ difference between it and the ati 4850 i use to use with PowerDVD/BD for my BD movies. the main reason i suggest those is the ati and nv GPU decoding is more mature then Intels new on-die video. your call the options i listed are rather cheap but on-board is free, might as well try that first.

EarthDog said:

Since you are not gaming, I would suggest going the H67 chipset route and 2500k so you can use the onboard GPU. Note you cannot overclock with the H67 chipset. If you want to overclock and use onboard, you need the Z67 chipset (or w/e its called. Its not released yet).

Note benchmarking 3D on an onboard GPU isnt any fun. May want to stick to 2D on this rig.

Click to expand...

Oh, ED. No, no.

If he wants the H67 he doesn't want a K series CPU. You have an unlocked multi on a locked board. Waste of cash.

My suggestion is a GTX 460, you can find them for 120, and a decent P67 board and a 2500K. If you do a lot of multithreaded stuff like design and editing etc go for the 2600k

Thanks for all your help guys, I really appreciate it! I am taking notes.

Good point n00b...! Price difference is but $30, but still. Get a 2600 (non k) or a 2500 (non k) and an H67 if you dont play games. The 460 is a great card at $150, but if you dont play games, thats $150 that can go to something else (SSD) while using the onboard GPU and an H67 chipset.

I would sooner go with Evil's suggestions of a much lesser card than that 460...

@ Evil - Can you link up where you read that the more cores the better for IQ? I havent ran across that.

ED, it might be different now but it was an older article from around 08/09 if i recall right. ati and nv may have changed thing but according to the article. it show more cores for ati then higher gpu/core speed for NV for increased IQ. if it changed, then i havent seen a recent article covering this. might be something for somone here to take up for a front page article.