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Cheap vid card suggestion

Last response: in Graphics & Displays
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I am building a comp. for my father-in-law and am trying to figure out what video card to get.

Specs so far:

Antec case and 350w power supply
MSI KT3 Ultra2 mobo
Athlon XP 1700+ retail
Lite-On 40X12X48 cdrw
Samsung floppy
WD 80GB Special Edition 7200 hdd
256 Samsung pc2700 ddr ram
Linksys nic
Microsoft XP home

Total so far $619 delivered from newegg.

He doesn't play games and just basically needs to surf and run office. I know the processor and mobo are maybe more than he needs but they were relatively cheap for the performance and I decided to get the nicer WD hard drive with 8 Mb cache. I am going to use onboard audio but am trying to find a relatively good, cheap video card. Any ideas? Also, any critisism/suggestions to the above setup welcome. Thanks.

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Nice picks. My only criticism is the harddisk. Most people won't notice if a harddisk is a tad bit slower, but they will notice price.

My recomendation is get a cheaper harddisk, and get a Radeon 9000 $70 or a Geforce 4 Ti 4200 $??, your choice.

Pain is the realization of your own weakness.

WTF, if hes not gonna game, he aint gonna need a GF4. I reckon a GF2 MX would do fine for surfing the web. Im a gamer and that card is still quite good enough for me. It annoys me so much when people say that anything less than a GF4 is not good enough for web browsing nowadays!!!

My sig's faster than yours, and it overclocks better too....

Nice picks.

A Riva TNT2 M64 is good enough for web surfing and office apps. You can get MSI Riva TNT2 M64 32 MB for $38 at Newegg.

If you feel that you need something better than TNT2 M64, then buy MSI GeForce2 MX400 64 MB. $58 at Newegg. Without TV-out.

Both cards are now available at newegg.

<b><font color=red> Long live piracy! </font color=red></b>
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I wouldn't recommend a Nvidia eyekiller for anyone over 40, the signal quality can be bad especially with the cheaper cards, leading to eyestrain and headaches.

Also avoid ATI cards from cheapo manufacturers.

Quite right GF2 IS fine for todays apps and even some decent gaming, but GF2 is on its way out. If this guy ever decides to start gaming (like my 65 year old Grandfather did), it'll be down the road when the GF2 is inadequate.

Amazing to me is the requirements for Deer Hunter, a simple game many older people I know like play, but can't handle on their PCs. Thus my recomendation will stand at Radeon 9000 or GF4 Ti4200.

P.S. Radeon 9000 is less than a GF4.
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It annoys me so much when people say that anything less
than a GF4 is not good enough for web browsing nowadays!!!
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Pain is the realization of your own weakness.
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