NEWBIE: Needs advice on selecting graphic card
 

Hi,

I recently want to upgrade my ol' P100 classic to P4 class PC. I need
advice for buying a new graphics card.

I've decided to get P4 2.4GHz on Gigabyte GA-8IPE100-G (865PE chipset). Now
I need a decent graphic card for my very tight budget. I'm considering a
card with either NVidia FX5200 or MX4000, or ATI 9200SE or 9250. The
highest chipset that my budget can get is FX5200 or ATI 9250. Specifically,
I'm considering these card (largely because availability, listed by
ascending prices):

1. Cardex MX4000 (lowest price)
2. PixelView MX4000 (2nd lowest price)
3. Albatron FX5200 (medium price)
4. Elsa Falcox 925L (ATI 9250) (2nd medium price)
5. PixelView FX5200 (high price)
6. Asus A9200SE (ATI 9200SE) (highest price)

I'm not a very casual gamer (meaning: I hardly play games) but I intend to
do some (light) 3D works (Lightwave 7/8), and medium 2D works (Photoshop).
I want to get the best value for the money.

I've read some not very encouraging reviews on both FX5200 and/or 92x0
chipsets. Should I get MX4000 instead (Cardex has the lowest price, and
PixelView is on the 2nd place) then wait for for another budget boost
(somehow) and aim at higher chipset cards (like NVidia 6x00 or ATI X
series)?

TIA

Ricky Romaya wrote:
Should I get MX4000 instead (Cardex has the lowest price, and
PixelView is on the 2nd place) then wait for for another budget boost
(somehow) and aim at higher chipset cards (like NVidia 6x00 or ATI X
series)?

Yes I think you should buy the MX and when you spare enough cash buy
yourself a GeForce 6200 or a Radeon 9600 PRO.

btw.2x128 PC2700 is waaay too low for a P4 2.4 I recommend 1x512 PC2700
or 3200.
And why did you choose 2x128 anyway,I thought it was simpler to buy a 1x256?

Glitch wrote in :

btw.2x128 PC2700 is waaay too low for a P4 2.4 I recommend 1x512
PC2700 or 3200.
Heheh, as I said, very tight budget. Furthermore, with p4 2.44 only running
on FSB 533, on a mobo which supports FSB 800, the optimum ram is PC2700
(DDR333 AFAIK). At least that's what the manual said.

And why did you choose 2x128 anyway,I thought it was simpler to buy a
1x256?
Dual channel RAM needs to be physically occupies 2 slots to be activated.
If not, then you have only have single channel.

TIA

Glitch wrote in :

Yes I think you should buy the MX and when you spare enough cash buy
yourself a GeForce 6200 or a Radeon 9600 PRO.

Oh I forgot, which is better, pixelview or cardex? I couldn't find any
reviews on cardex nor pixelview for their mx4000 series.

Ricky Romaya wrote:
Furthermore, with p4 2.44 only running
on FSB 533, on a mobo which supports FSB 800, the optimum ram is PC2700
(DDR333 AFAIK). At least that's what the manual said.


Yup that's correct,but I thought since your mobo supports 800MHz FSB
then why don't take a 800MHz FSB proccessor,the price difference is
minimal and performance upgrade is big.

Dual channel RAM needs to be physically occupies 2 slots to be activated.
If not, then you have only have single channel.



Yes I didi know that but I never saw any 128MB DualChannel RAM.

Glitch wrote in :

Yup that's correct,but I thought since your mobo supports 800MHz FSB
then why don't take a 800MHz FSB proccessor,the price difference is
minimal and performance upgrade is big.

That's right, but only if you count in $$$. In my currency, there's a big
difference between 2.4GHz 533 and 2.6GHz 800 (the lowest FSB 800 cpu AFAIK)
and I just don't like Celeron.

TIA

Ricky Romaya wrote:

That's right, but only if you count in $$$. In my currency, there's a big
difference between 2.4GHz 533 and 2.6GHz 800 (the lowest FSB 800 cpu AFAIK)
and I just don't like Celeron.


I believe that there is a P4 2.4GHz 800FSB,I've seen it in some of the
local shops.

btw.my currency is also not $$$.I live in Croatia and here the currency
Kn relates to $$ as 5.6Kn - 1$.
So the shops should multiply the price by 6 or 6.5 to get Kn but instead
they do it by 9 or even 10.You can imagine how pricey everything gets.

Glitch wrote in :

btw.my currency is also not $$$.I live in Croatia and here the
currency Kn relates to $$ as 5.6Kn - 1$.
So the shops should multiply the price by 6 or 6.5 to get Kn but
instead they do it by 9 or even 10.You can imagine how pricey
everything gets.

Well, I haven't seen a 2.4 FSB 800 in my local shops.

The $$ relates to my currency by a factor of 9,000 - 9,300. I'll let you
imagine the prices...:)