Video Card/RAM

[mantisalien27]

I was wondering what kind of vid cards would work with my motherboard. (Asus A7V-VM AMD Athlon-PECM, 900 mhz) I'm looking not to exceed $150 in price. Just what is the best card that I could get that would be compatible with that motherboard. Right now I've got a Geforce 2 MX 400 (32mb)

Also what do you think of this RAM? Factor in the price as well.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-217&depa=1

 

[Mr5oh]

Depends, what do you use your computer for? For $150 you could really get a pretty killer video card, but this may be a little bit overkill for your setup. Unless maybe you are planning on upgrading in the future?

This is a recommmedation that I made to another person here on the board, that was looking for some good/cheap stuff:

This is right at your $400 limit, but is pretty much a complete system. Also you should note that the giga-byte does not come with on-board video, so you will need an video card. Your best bet if you want to stay on a budget is to get on eBay and pick up a GeForce4 TI-4600 or even a TI-4400 with 128 MB Ram. The TI-4600 can be had for $50-60, I have seen the TI-4400 for $30-40 on eBay. These cards are a little old, but if you do some research you will find these are still good cards, better than most new ones. The TI-4400 is just marginally slower than the TI-4600, but I think the price makes it a better choice. These cards are diffantly better than stuff like the 5200 Geforce4 (another budget card). I still use a TI-4600 card in my gaming machine, and so far run every game I have in 1280x1024 with all graphics at full (This on all current games out so far, still waiting to see about Doom3 though).

Maybe it would be best to save some money on the video card, by going with a little older card or used, and update the rest of the setup a little. At my local computer store a gigabyte motherboard and AMD 2500+ XP chip Combo will run you $150.

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[Mr5oh]

Also what do you think of this RAM? Factor in the price as well.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-146-217&depa=1

I am running Mushkin PC3200 and not have any problems. I never recommed by cheap generic ram, but obvisuly Mushkin is not generic and really makes pretty good stuff. That Mushkin has a CS of 2.5 which is very acceptable, not everyone needs Cosair Memory with 2-3-2-6 timings, not even in a gaming machine. Sure it will run a little faster, but it is like this:

I'll use my Mustang for an example, I got 90% of my power pretty cheaply ($5000 in motor, me doing labor), however to get that finaly 10% of what the 302 was capable, was going to be another $3000-3500, just not worth it to me, I wanted a good street machine, not a all-out race car.

So in other words, I think that RAM would be great, its good RAM, lifetime warranty, and you really can't beat the price.

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[mantisalien27]

Alright, I will definetely get the RAM. As for the video card, I will use it primarily play games, but I don't expect it to run anything like Doom 3. Are there any other places that you could think of that I could get a vid card like that from? I've had a few bad experiences with Ebay in the past.

 

[Mr5oh]

Since Nvidia has some many new cards out it is really hard to find the older ones. You can get them new, but they are considerably higher than eBay:

<A HREF="http://www.store.yahoo.com/glob2000/msigeti12ddr.html" target="_new">http://www.store.yahoo.com/glob2000/msigeti12ddr.html</A>

However, I believe that price is just to high.

eBay does have fraud protection and such (I have had to use it once before). I still think that eBay is your best bet, buy only from a seller that has good feedback, and something that is garunteed not to be DOA.

<A HREF="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40161&item=5113062520&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW" target="_new">http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=40161&item=5113062520&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW</A>

The above auction is from a seller that has 555 feedbacks, 100% positive, this would be a great card to look at. The cards I saw on there are going for $30-$40, you can't really beat the cost to performance ratio.

Also if you check these cards really did pretty good in the Doom3 benchmarks. They are more than capable of playing any game out there, on Enemy Territory my 4600 sits at a very solid 90 FPS.


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[Mr5oh]

Just as a notice, I thought some more about that ebay link, I posted, I decided to bid on it. If for some chance you end up seriously wanting it, let me know, and I will stop bidding on it, or sell it to you for what ever I win it for.

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[mantisalien27]

Wow, that is one heck of a deal. However, I think I'm going to hold off on getting a video card right now and get another hard drive instead. Right now all I've got is a 30 gig. My main gripe with ebay (besides getting stuff that stopped working a couple weeks later) is that I just don't like the bidding system. But I'm down with the 'Buy it Now' option if there is any cards that have that. I'll take a look around. My question is considering that motherboard (900 mhz if I didn't already mention it), what is the best card I could get that would work smoothly with it, and Nvidia or Ati?

 

[Mr5oh]

Probably not the answer that you wanted, but really any card would work. Most of the new cards are 4x compatiable. Even something like a GeForce 5700 with 256 MB of memory is 4x compatiable and is available at my local computer store for $150.

It's really hard to tell you what would be best just because there are lots of variables. Obivusly you won't be playing some games due to your 900mhz, so maybe even a 5700 card is probably overkill, however you may not have to buy another card anytime soon again.

For best results just don't buy anything at the bottom of the product line. Right now, (I think you said you budget was $150), that 5700 would be a killer card, even though probably overkill for your system.

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[Mr5oh]

You might want to try asking this question in the Graphics Cards forum, I think you will get a better response there. Seems to be more people checking that board.

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[mantisalien27]

Alright, Thanks so much for all your responses. I appreciate it.