GA-EP45-UD3R(rev. 1.1) graphics card???

[Baz]

Hi all, I need some advise please, what graphics card would anyone recommend for use with this mobo set up??? (specs below)
 please E-mail me with suggestions at --- bbbazbuilder@blueyonder.co.uk
Thankyou lots,   Baz.......


Model Name : GA-EP45-UD3R(rev. 1.1)
--------------------------
M/B Rev : 1.1
BIOS Ver : F9
CPU Brand : Intel      Model : q9650      Speed : 3GHz
Operation System :       SP :windows 7 64bit
Memory Brand :OCZ Reaper    Type : DDRII
Memory Size : 8GB      Speed : 1066
HDD: 2x 1TB Hitachi Deskstar
DVD:  1 LG blu-ray burner/player, 1 standard burner/player
Case: Antec 1200
Power Supply :A-open 1000 W

[MindLESS]

What are you wanting your graphics card to do exactly?

Media Centre / Games / Server Console
If you're playing games, what kind of game, resolution.

Running Crysis at 1900x1200 and 1024x768 are 2 different kettles of fish.
If you're only running a media centre, then a decent ATI 45xx card or mid-range NV card should handle hardware blu-ray decoding and acceptable low-end gaming performance.
Server Console would require something that can output a signal - a 10 year old PCI card could do that.....

[Baz]

Hi MindLESS, I`ll mainly be using it for veiwing films (not much of a gamer yet) on my 50" plasma, and want the best quality that I can get.
 I was thinking og getting a Gigabyte HD 4870 1GB, BUT I`ve heard that the h/s fan is rather noisy. What d`ya think???
   Baz.....

[Baz]

wasn`t sure___ Nvidia or ATI?
  Baz.....

[MindLESS]

I've not looked into it a lot but from the bits I've read the ATI seems a better media card as it has an audio driver so it will pass audio and video from the onboard HDMI.

Unless you want games you don't have to get that high a spec card.

You can get a decent 45xx or 46xx series card with custom coolers to reduce sound output and still give enough power to decode blu-ray.
Personally I think you'd only need over the 46xx series if you were wanting to do some high res gaming as well.
(Anandtech 4350/4550 review - talks of using these as HTPC cards)
Hopefully now we have more info on what you want others with better experience can help as well =)

As for the 4870 having a noisy fan, these cards have been out a while and there will be some aftermarket coolers you could get for it that are quieter or look for cards that come with custom cooling.

[Baz]

Cheers mate, I`ll take on board what you`re saying when I gat one, I thought the ATI would be better, but wasn`t too sure which would work better with this board.
   Thanks a lot,  Baz.....