Suggestions on Vidio Cards

[Argilus]

Alright. Right now I'm building my on computer. Although as much as I want to have it completed the flow of funds isn't happening as quick as I would like it too. Anyway, to my question, I just bought a K7 Triton AGP8x/Dual Channel DDR Motherboard yeah, supports AMD athlon. So, bought also a 2600+ AMD Athlon XP processor. I will be buying two sticks of DDR 512's of Ram, and a 80 gig SATA hardrive. I've got a fairly nice Tower, with 8 fans in it. So now you know the specs, I was curious about Video cards

I was going to buy a 9800 Radeon All in wonder pro, but it's really expensive so maybe a 9700 all in wonder. I had suggested that but heard they heat up all the time and then they fry them selfs. sooo..... What about a MSI> or anything else ATI? I just need some good reviews on stuff with video cards. Yes, I plan to play games alot, and with some of the new games out *cough* DOOM 3 *cough* I want to have a well enough computer to last me.

 

[Zero Shift]

If you want the best performance from a video card, you should get the Radeon 9800.
And if the All-In-Wonder card is too expensive, why not get the Pro instead? Do you really need the extra bells and whistles on the All-In-Wonder?
For the manufacturer, welll.....Be it FIC, MSI, Crucial...All the reviewed incarnations of the 9800 seem to be the same as the ATi-built one, but with a sticker stating what company 'made' it.
And as for system cooling, 8 fans sound like plenty.

Oh yeah, the XP 2600+ is probably one of the most overclockable CPUs in existance, and you have cooling aplenty in your case, so...

Just some things to chew on.

 

[tufreeh]

definately go wid a baseline radeon 9800 pro .. i got mine off www.buyxg.com for only 303 $ (powercoler).. and prices drop every day .. the manufacturer brand doesn't really make that much of a difference and is equal if not better then big name manufacturers ...

 

[Martin]

As far as I know, the Powercolor Radeon 9800 Pro has its core/memory frequencies toned down from the original ATI reference specification, but it can be resolved with a little overclocking.

The GeForce FX cards aren't really recommneded at the moment until its performance issues in Half-Life 2 get resolved, so I'd stick with the ATI for now.

 

[roho]

8 fans? Why? That many WILL NOT improve cooling and may well increase instability (HVAC engineer, amongst other skills), get a cae with fewer fans and less drain on the psu. NEVER EVER buy case with that many fans (how do you think fans work in an enclosed space?)!!

Right this may sound the opposite to what you are thinking BUT stick woth me, buy something cheap but DX9 compatable to start then upgrade it in 6-12 months time! Why? Because you will leapfrog overall current cards AND spend less money AND have 2 cards (one of which will be much more powerful than the best available today) at a lower cost AND have a backup OR a good base gfx card for a new pc...its your money, think about it!

 

[Argilus]

Well, I didn't buy it like that, I just bought it from a friend who even I think had more fans in his newer tower. He had to many because of I dunno really so he gave me all of his, I think this tower orginally came with 6 but who cares, right now. I'm still a bit confused. I really do like the replies though, thought I was going to get some really sly/sarcastic answers.

 

[Argilus]

So you really think I should remove some of the fans? honestly, It's a realy tall new tower and things seem to be really accessible but if too crammed yeah, I'll take some out. What about some Cd-roms? Need Dvd, burner but I don't want to spend to much. Any suggestions, yeah and still wanting answers and thoughts to the Video card.

 

[d94]

dvd burners are cheap nowadays
I got one from www.tigerdirect.com for $90 and its 4x and made by benq

 

[roho]

Obviously I don't know you pc's case (and where the air inlets and extractor fans are in the case) but 8 fans seems like way to many to me.

What you need to is cool air coming in as close to the base as possible in a diagonal line opposite to the extracing fans at the top of the case. If a case has fans extracting near the bottom (or below the main sources of heat) and/or on the same side as the air inlets the cool air can short circuit leaving the hot air (what you are trying to remove) moving at a slower speed. Compound this with having too many fans (and not enough fresh air inlets) and the fans can cause reduced pressure in the case. So if the case has less pressure the cpu fan has LESS air to cool the cpu which causes overheating.

Ever wondered why taking the side cover off of a pc can cool it down? Well its (usually) because of badly positioned fans/air inlets robbing the cpu fan of air, as soon as the covers off the cpu fan gets a supply of fresh air with which to cool the cpu... Add in the extra power (and therefore heat) required to run the additional fans and you can run into all sorts of probs.

Ask yourself this, why did your mate put two extra fans into the case in the first place?

By the way I have just read that ATI will be bundling HL2 with the latest 9800 (as soon HL2 is ready and possibly before its launched proper), also both ATI and Nvidia will be releasing new cards based on new gpu's early next year. So as I said above think carefully about when you buy a gfx card, its not very funny to see your expensive card drop 50% in value just weeks after you paid for it!

 

[kboy]

Keep the Fans!!!