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"Best Graphics card?"

What's the best 'budget' graphics card?

(ie. -£100.)

Are the ATI RADEON 9600's good? Especially for FPS's, like Return to Castle Wolfenstien... Nothing amazing, but good for online gaming anyway.

Or are nVidia the best?

Coin wrote:

> Hmm... In 3 months I'll have... £120+... Soooo... I can buy a
> case and the motherboard. But does it have AGP x8?
>
> 'Cos it would be sooo good if it does.

All of the boards Safedisc provided links to support AGP 8X. All of them.

[URL]http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/sapphire_ati_graphics_cards.html[/URL]

Scroll down to the alien box: Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Lite Retail (GX-035-SP) is £96 inc Vat. Good price, I’ll think you'll agree.

The next one down in the alien box is: Sapphire ATI Radeon 9600XT 256MB DDR TV-Out/DVI - Lite Retail (GX-040-SP £98 in Vat. Now for £2 its not going to break the bank, and I can't see any difference expect for the fact that the £2 more is 256mb and the £2 less is 128mb.

Where’s the catch? What’s the difference? *Get's out credit card*

Thanks

Hmm...

Sounds good to me.

I reckon I can salvage everything from my current PC, monitor, RAM, PCU... Everything bar the motherboard and the case.

(The motherboard is the big green thing with the PCI slots and the RAM slots, right? :D)

Would it be horrible hard to make it? As in... I'd probably be doing it myself. I would have access to the internet via my Mother's laptop, but bar that I would be sooo alone.

Hmm... In 3 months I'll have... £120+... Soooo... I can buy a case and the motherboard. But does it have AGP x8?

'Cos it would be sooo good if it does.

Performance Enhancement Technology? That doesn't sound right for the abbreviation PAT does it.

Hmmm.

Performance Acceleration Technology. That’s what I meant. ;-)

Well I kinda’ toyed with the idea of replying to this. It was a case of if I could be bothered, but been as I have now slated someone (see below) for not knowing about motherboards, I figure it only right I put forward some constructive help.

The best P4 motherboards are based on the Intel 875i chipset – this was know as the Canterwood chipset in pre-prod. Boards featuring these chipsets are the highest spec Intel boards you can get.

Check out these links…I have an Abit mobo and would recommend them to anyone, as they are stable and have good user features in the bios. The Abit mobo is the first link below. Having said this, all the links below take you to motherboards I would have no problem buying.

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=117443&cks=PRL

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=117443&cks=PRL

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=117982&cks=PRL


However, if the 875i is a bit rich for your blood (although to be honest the prices aren’t to steep these days), and you want to save some cash, the chipset below is called the Intel 865. This motherboard was called the Spingdale chipset in pre-production.
It has the same primary features, Dual Chan DDR RAM support, X8 AGP, supports the 800Mhz FSB of the newer P4s and have the same stability etc. The main differences are that the 875 chipsets tend to have more onboard features, plus the 865 chipset doesn’t have what is called PAT, which is Performance Enhancement Technology – this is an Intel system that basically optimises the use of the system RAM to give lower latency times and more efficiency. You don’t need special RAM to use this and it works silently. Having said this, a 865 based motherboard isn’t going to me that far behind a 875 – so my advice would be to base your decision on the features you from the motherboards and it’s price, rather than whether it’s a 875 or 865 chipset. Chances are that is you have around £100 to spend and you want features like Gigabyte LAN, RAID functionality, you’ll probably end up choosing a 875 anyway. Although if you aren’t so bothered about this kinda’ stuff and want to save some cash, an 865 will be fine. Actually some 865’s do have RAID etc, so it may just come down to the PAT technology and the price.
Anyway here are some links to the 865-based chipsets…

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=117721&view=detailed

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=118256&cks=PRL

http://www.komplett.co.uk/k/ki.asp?sku=121260&cks=PRL


Anyway, there is a bit to get you started. All links go to Komplett.co.uk – usually one of the best places for low prices and they have good service. I have used them a few times before.

Bob_The_Moose wrote:
> Motherboards are complicated. Choose wisely, grasshopper.


You think?

Maybe you should consider getting a PS2 :-p

Coin wrote:
> Noo...
>
> Pentium 4...

Ah, my knowledge of Pentium boards is poor im afraid.

Motherboards are complicated. Choose wisely, grasshopper.

Noo...

Pentium 4...

If its an AMD Athlon processor you have then you can't fault the Abit NF7 v2.0 nForce2 for £50.