what gfx card?
 

my x1950 gave in with a broken fan... and eBuyer is due to look at it tomorrow, but with them out of stock...

my options are:

1. wait a week (or maybe more) for the same card to come into stock (then add 3 days shipping to N.I) the card is here - http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125754

2. or get a full refund and buy another card..

what should i do?

if u have any suggestions please remember it has to be AGP as my mother board does not support PCI-E and also must be under £140 including shipping

get another card. Do not get ati dude. I used to be a huge fan of ATI but they have just fell behind. nvidia is where it is. So more many games and stuff run so much better on nvidia than ati. Unfortinatly, I still have an ATI :( radion 1650 :( Go get a nvidia 8800

why not get a 512mb

cant get the 8800.. too expensive and also its PCI-E which my motherboard doesnt support... apparently the x1950 is the fastest AGP card available... so i mite just get 1 of the other variations of it

i was going to but after looking at the specs between the 256mb and 512mb the 256mb seemed to have better features.. but im tempted to get the sapphire model of the 512mb as they are a good brand

Many reports say that the difference between 512 and 256 is minimal and not worth the extra chash.

well even though i was told i would get the option to either ask for a direct replacement or refund i was refunded straight away lol..

i am going to chose from 1 of the following:


Sapphire X1950Pro 512MB DDR3 Dual DVI VIVO AGP Graphics Card

Gecube X1950Pro 256MB VIVO DVI AGP Graphics Card

i will be ordering tonight so that i can get it asap (wednesday is the earliest for N.I)

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/128027

Better than the card you picked. it may not be faster but ATI lowers quality for speed, so benchmark results are not always truthfull. and anything over 32 frames per second minimum is impossible to actualy see.

I would go with the Nvidea over an ATI anyday because games look better on them. Also ATI doesnt like OpenGL games.

The brands you picked are also so-so and GeCube is bottom of the barrel for top quality. XFX is one of the top brands.

thx for the info m8, just found out im getting money for a new pc from the beautiful selina (hope she reads this...) only if she gets my current one..

which is a sound deal since i can put together a decent one for under £500..

heres the specs for the 1 i plan to build...

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Products & Prices (excluding VAT)

AMD Athlon 64 X2 6000+ Socket AM2 Retail Boxed Processor £83.74
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125202

MSI K9AGM2-FIH Socket AM2 690G and SB600 Chipset 8 channel audio HDMI onboard VGA mATX £37.23
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/127090

Western Digital WD5000AAKS 500GB SATA II 7200RPM 16MB Cache - OEM £52.98
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/124228

Corsair 2GB Kit (2x1GB) DDR2 800MHz/PC2-6400 XMS2 Memory Non-ECC Unbuffered CL5(5-5-5-12) £42.55
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/98710

Innovision 3D 8800GTS 320MB GDDR3 DVI PCI-E Graphics Card £143.78
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/125114

LG GSA-H55NBRL 20X DVD±RW/DL/RAM Inc Nero Beige & Black Bezels - Retail £16.99
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/132146

Extra Value ATX Midi Neon Case with 400W PSU £25.52
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/105235 (using a 550W PSU instead)

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Total cost (with shipping & VAT) - £484.95

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now for the noob questions

1. will it all work together?
2. vista or xp?
3. will a 550W psu be enough?
4. have i forgotten anything?

thx

My opinion: Defenetly XP Pro! But thats me :)

XP Pro owns. Dunno about Vista - but XP all the way!

BTW, if you're satisfied with your card and you're not sure about anything else, just wait a week. If you're really tempted to try something new, get a refund and buy something new...

Chris

Vista is a slow goat...not impressed. Demands way to much...seems like is still runs slow even on these Dual core machines.

Even when on the "Classic Windows" appearance skin?

Chris

i have vista on the laptop and i dont think its that bad, the only major thing thats pulling me to install vista on the pc when i build it is the fact that the gfx card supports dx10.....

could always do a dual boot :D

Never get a new Microsoft OS until after service pack 2 unless it is bundled in a new computer. stick with XP, and if you dont have a home network you can stick with the home version, its the same but without some networking utilities, and there is freeware versions of those that are as good if not much better.

Im glad to see you are going with Nvidia, but may i suggest not going with AMD. good processors, but AMD is not doing anything good since the 64 and looks to be that way for the next 2 years. also that socket is being phased out.

http://www.overclockers.com/home.asp

Read whats coming up and think about getting a mobo and processor that has future upgradeability. If AMD was coming up with something that will compete with Intels quad core then I would highly suggest going with AMD and not intel, but for the next 2 years its Intels ballgame, and in 2 years it could be a good time to swap mobo and processor for a newer one.

Asus P5LD2 SE/C Socket 775 Core2Duo ready 945P PCI-E Onboard Audio ATX
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/123821

Intel Core 2 Duo E6550 2.33GHz 1333FSB Socket 775 4MB Cache Retail Boxed Processor
http://www.ebuyer.com/product/130485

Dont let the speed fool you its faster than it sounds, equal to my P4 3.2 Ghz, and excelent overclockability. Upgrade to penryn next year when the 4Ghz is out?......

Its your choice realy, and im only making suggestions here.

Yah I have heard the same thing about Intel. Seems like they have gained some ground on AMD. I am kind of shocked that AMD isn`t really trying that hard to compete.

I think an upgrade to a new system is a few years down the line for me :0

i thought my system was fine until i saw that 90% of gfx cards that were good are PCI-E.. lol, my board only supports agp and pci

oh well, good excuse for an upgrade... if any1 has any good guides to putting a pc 2gether let me kno :)

i would get vista, since a lot of programs are going to start being vista only. Or run a lot better on vista.

I kinda agree with jet. I do think AMD is a good chip and they are still keeping up imo, but I am more of an intel fan myself

Everything you posted above BB looks to work ok together.

http://www.hardwaresecrets.com/article/145

"A couple weeks from now, AMD is going to release its slow Phenom X4s. A 2.4GHz Phenom X4 is going to get beaten like a rented mule. The Penryn 3GHz will beat it all the time, the fastest Kentsfield will beat it almost all the time, the fastest Intel duallies will beat it on the large majority of non-quad sensitive benchmarks, even the fastest X2 duallies will beat it for the same."

I heard that they were trying to come out with the 4 core processor but that one of the cores was malfunctioning so that only 3 cores would work.

Supposedly someone is going to come out with 8 soon :)