I'm about to buy Geforce 9800 GX2 (need some help)

[captainil]

Hi guys I'm about to buy GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB and I have couple of questions. any help will be appriciated.

At first, this is my computer:
1) AMD Opteron 165 Denmark 1000MHz HT Socket 939 Dual Core Processor - Overclocked to 2.46GHz
2) DFI LANPARTY UT nF4 Ultra-D Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra ATX AMD Motherboard
3) G.SKILL Extreme Series 2GB (2 x 1GB) 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 500 (PC 4000)
4) THERMALRIGHT XP-120 CPU Cooling Heatsink - Retail
5) Rosewill RP550S-2MK ATX 2.01 550W Modular Power Supply /Black - Retail
6) SAPPHIRE 100150SR Radeon X1900XTX 512MB GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card - Retail
7) Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD2500KS 250GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s Hard Drive - OEM

Now here are my questions:
1) Does my system supports the GeForce 9800 GX2?
2) What cooling device should I buy for this card to avoid high temps?
3) Should a better video card need to arrive soon which worth waiting?
4) Should I add/change something to my system? memory or something?
5) The reason I buy a new card is because my last card which was (X1900XTX) was f0cked up because of electrical blackout and my warranty was over so I couldn't fix it. What can I do so it won't happen again with my GeForce 9800 GX2?

What should I choose:
XFX PVT98UZHBU GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3
Core Clock:700MHz (vs. 600MHz standard)
Memory Clock: 2100MHz (vs. 2000MHz standard)


BFG Tech BFGE981024GX2OCXE GeForce 9800 GX2 1GB 512-bit GDDR3
Core Clock:680MHz (vs. 600MHz standard)
Memory Clock: 2100MHz (vs. 2000MHz standard)


EVGA 01G-P3-N897-A3 GeForce 9800 GX2 SSC 1GB 512-bit GDDR3
Core Clock:675MHz (vs. 600MHz standard)
Memory Clock: 2100MHz (vs. 2000MHz standard)

They are all about the same price.


Please help me out guys.
Thanksss.

 

[JamesXP]

Incase of blackouts you should get a Good UPS.


But I wont not get a 9800GX2 for an old athlon 64 system, it would be way overkill unless you are gaming at like 5000x4000

 

[smokie mcpott]

The CPU will be your bottleneck, even with a single 8800gts g92. i would buy a good single card, and a good UPS...

 

[ou_phidelt]

PSU is also a bit suspect for that card.

 

[ratbuddy]

It's a newegg brand PSU heh, that's a little scary. What's the 12v rail/rails rated at?

I wouldn't buy ANY of those pre-overclocked models you mentioned. I've never seen a GX2 bench where it couldn't hit at least 700 core, and most go much higher. When you buy a pre-OC'd one, you are taking a risk that it wasn't capable of being binned higher and won't perform as well as one that wasn't binned at all. If those ones you posted are the highest clocking versions offered, this doesn't apply, of course.

At any rate, don't pay more for a factory OCed 9800GX2.

Definitely go for BFG or EVGA. There are new cards coming out in 2 weeks, and those are the only 2 companies that will let you step up if the new cards end up faster. I'd skip XFX this time around.

 

[captainil]

Thanks everyone for replying.
I decided to buy a whole new system. I'll probably be back with some questions ;>

 

[ghost_recon88]

I would take the $525 you were gonna spend on a 9800GX2, and build yourself a new computer with a cheap video card. Then when the new ATI and nVidia cards are released next month, you can pick up one of those.

Edit: Just saw your response, good choice on your end