Picking your brains

[strikerty]

Ok im gonna put everyone that reads this to work . LOL

I bought the Asus AX800 Pro recently from newegg and when i got it there was a capacitor missing off the board . . . matter of fact it fell outa the static bag when i opened it . well needless to say i was a little upset, considering now i have to rma it , which in Neweggs defense they paid for return shipping.

however now they are refunding my 200 bucks cause they dont have any more of those cards in stock . . . . SO . . .
I want all of you that read this to tell me for 200 bucks what the most bang i can get for .. . well . . . 200 dollars.

If you can find that card for 200 bucks , which ive looked and i can't , then great if not recommend a comparable board for the same amount of money , ive been looking at the sapphire x800 GTO and it looks to be very close to being the same at the pro . . . im just not sure how close they are .

SO . . how about some opinions guys, i got 1 week before my RMA gets there , or about so i got a week before i get my money back and have to make up my mind . . . decisions decisions decisions .

Course there is the other side of the coin also , for 200 dollars i could stay with my 9700 pro and upgrade my 64 2800+ to a 64 3700+ Clawhammer , because IF i upgrade my card now , considering i have an agp slot and not PCI when i buy a new board and processer later on , i will have to buy a new video card also because i will have PCIE board . will that kind of processer upgrade give me a sizable performance increase? I dunno just some ideas lol
I like hearing other people opinions
oh and thanks ahead of time .

 

[Rugger]

You could try to get a lesser card and OC to 800XT performance, try to get them to replace with a card of comparable performance (nothing below an X800XL), or get them to upgrade to X850XT for your inconvenience. If you don't ask, then you definitely won't get the X850XT. The worst they can say is no and then you're in the same boat...

 

[strikerty]

tried that it didnt work

 

[Rugger]

It was worth a shot! Will they let you wait for another X800XT? It's hard to believe you found one for $200...

Otherwise you'll have to take a look at the X800GTs to get under the $200 mark unless you find a great deal on an X800XL. Neither will perform as well as the XT.

 

[strikerty]

well it was a refurb thats the reason that it was 200 but ive had good luck with refurbs before the card im using now is a refurb , guess my luck ran out , and it wasnt really a XT it just could be soft modded to an XT it was a Pro
but you probably already knew that

 

[cleeve]

1. Keep your Athlon64 and overclock it. Doing otherwise would be wasted money and potential.


2. A comparable board would be an X800GTO, but you'd have to overclock the ah heck to get the performance of the X800 PRO. Still, it'd be close.

Better yet would be a Sapphire X800GTO2 if you can find one, not sure about the availability of those anymore.

An X800XL or 6800GT would be better, but probabbly out of your price range.

You're AGP, right? PCI express X800's seem to be cheaper on pricewatch...

 

[strikerty]

well from all i have looked at . . . its either a X800 GTO or a 6600 GT , and i think the GTO would be faster there . . . and yes i have AGP so dont rub it in , it makes me sick to see the price difference between PCIE and AGP , course then again i thought about maybe buying a PCIE MB and getting an X700 Pro for the 200 bucks . . . then could upgrade in 6 months or so to a X800 XT or even a 1800 but dont know if the X700 would outperform my 9700 Pro

 

[Turv]

Im still currently on AGP, and i spent ages looking for a 6800GT. Which are no longer in production i beleive.

After looking at the costs, it worked out cheaper in the long run to upgrade my Mobo and processor and buy a PCI-E card than it was to buy an AGP card and then have to upgrade later.

 

[strikerty]

yeah but still an all will it benefit me to buy a 60 - 70 dollar board and a 130 dollar x700 PCIE . if its not gonna be any faster than the vid card i have there is no sense in upgrading till i can go whole hog

 

[cleeve]

. . . and yes i have AGP so dont rub it in

Rub it in? Hell, I've got an AGP card, and I don't plan to upgrade it for a long time, yet.

What I *will* do - and soon, probably - is get an ASROCK 939dual-sata2 that has both AGP and PCI-Express videocard ports.

That'd be perfect for you, too, if you had a socket 939 Athlon... but if you're AGP you've probably got a socket 754.

Foiled again!

 

[strikerty]

haha yes but your 6800 Ultra far outperforms my 9700 Pro . . .
i dunno , just dont know what to do at this point maybe ill just tell the woman its too damn bad , im spending more than 200 dollars and get this
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Manufactory=&PropertyCodeValue=679%3A9552&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=696%3A9639&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&PropertyCodeValue=0&description=&MinPrice=&MaxPrice=&SubCategory=48&Submit=Property
probably end up getting this tho
http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=326817
oh well i have a week to wait anyhow before i can decide . . .