Which $200 card?

Please don't bother with the G80 GTS. It's crap compared to the newer G92 GT or G92 GTS. Go for the GT for sure.

I agree with Fueled, don't get the G80 GTS 320MB, The G92 8800GT 512MB will outperform it and it only takes up 1 slot instead of 2.

Nevermind the 1 slot versus 2, I see they threw a different Heat sink on the GT that takes up two slots. either way the GT is still better though.

Agreed. Do not get the 320MB GTS. The 512MB GT will beat it in all benchmarks.

Thanks for the replies everyone. Everyone agreeing makes the decision easy   So now that that's decided.....

I think I read this already somewhere else, but I figure it can't hurt to ask again, Will the card being PCI-x 2.0 have any problems running in the P35-DS3L since it only has PCI-x 1.0 slots?

Nope.

PCIe 2.0 (slots on the motherboard) will effectively double the bandwidth capacity over 1.0 slots. That being said, no card that exists on the market today, to my knowledge, actually uses the full bandwidth of 1.0 slots. Hopefully that clears things up.  

That MSI 8800GT is sweet for $200. Much better than the lousy reference cooler. Nice find.

PCI-Express 2.0 cards are backwards compatible with PCI-Express 1.0 so that won't cause any problems, and I don't know of any card that saturates the PCI Ex.. 1.0 spec yet so you shouldn't see any difference.

Perfect. Thanks a lot for you help  

Get neither of those:
Try this one non-OCed 8800GT with the Witcher game for $191 total

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?nm_mc=AFC-Sl...[/url]

  Nice find!

[/url]    That is less than 100 UK beer tokens , I don't like you no more. (jk)" target="_blank">
    That is less than 100 UK beer tokens , I don't like you no more. (jk)

The game is a nice bonus, but the cooler of the other one would be worth a bit more IMO. I just hate the reference 8800GT cooler.

i agree go with the better cooled msi, the witcher sux anyway.

Speaking of that MSI GT card specifically, I noticed it myself the other day and was curious about it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127329

The cooler looks like it's way better than the reference design, but I don't recall ever seeing one quite like that one. Has anyone had experience with a cooler like this? How good is it?

As for the card itself, is MSI usually known for making good vid cards? In each camp (Nvidia & ATI) I have always felt safe buying from certain board makers (XFX, eVGA for Nvidia and Visiontek and HIS for ATI as just a couple of examples) but I've never heard anything about MSI cards. Most of the time their MoBo's are excellent but does anyone have any thoughts on their GPU's?

For the price, and the fact that it's the 512 version, and the cooler, I'm really tempted to get it. Even though I just got the 3850 512 for myself, my girlfriend could use a new GPU, so I can hand this one down to her and enjoy the GT for myself.  

Heheheheh, stumbled across this last night, and had to order one. Im using an MSI 8600GTS with a similar cooler on it. Works pretty well, keeps the card 45C at idle, low 50's under load, but i have a 120mm side vent blowing right on it. The one on mine only has 3 pipes vs the 4 on this one, and is passive, so I see alot of potential in this one.

As to MSI's rep, there rising quick. Did a quick check just before I bought, read several reviews praising them, and my 8600 runs like a champ.

Hope to see this thing Monday, I'll let ya know how it goes.

http://www.tomshardware.com/forum/248688-33-8800gt-512m...