Too many options

Are Nvidia trying to win the battle with ATI by flooding the market with too
many cards?!

Okay, I'm putting together a new system which may or may not be used for
games. Not sure yet. So, it's PCI-E, and I don't want to spend too much just
in case the system gets put on server duties. Nevertheless I'd like the card
to be the equivalent of my ATI 9800 Pro, if possible.

So, any particular recommendations as to what might suit, and what to avoid,
including which manufacturers.

Note: it's gotta go into a microATX case so can't be a monster, passive
cooling would be a bonus, and DVI is essential.

I expect my requirements are incompatible - cheap but good! Still, any
guidance is welcome.


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/mel/

np: silence

/mel/ wrote:
Are Nvidia trying to win the battle with ATI by flooding the market with too
many cards?!

Okay, I'm putting together a new system which may or may not be used for
games. Not sure yet. So, it's PCI-E, and I don't want to spend too much just
in case the system gets put on server duties. Nevertheless I'd like the card
to be the equivalent of my ATI 9800 Pro, if possible.

So, any particular recommendations as to what might suit, and what to avoid,
including which manufacturers.

Note: it's gotta go into a microATX case so can't be a monster, passive
cooling would be a bonus, and DVI is essential.

I expect my requirements are incompatible - cheap but good! Still, any
guidance is welcome.



A 6600GT PCI-E is faster than an 9800 Pro AGP, so it's a good match.
Currently they're going for cheap as well (about 130 USD), and have dual
DVI.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150098

Now for the motherboard, you can get a dirt cheap but reliable NForce
6100 board. They're socket 754 and a Sempron core is fairly low heat.
You could probably passively cool it with just a heatpipe and case fan.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813138266

You're looking at a fairly good system, especially for an HTPC or
server. Also note that component adapters are fairly cheap and this
would make an excellent system to hook up to an HDTV as well.

"deimos" wrote in message
...

Okay, I'm putting together a new system which may or may not be used for
games. Not sure yet. So, it's PCI-E, and I don't want to spend too much
just in case the system gets put on server duties. Nevertheless I'd like
the card to be the equivalent of my ATI 9800 Pro, if possible.

A 6600GT PCI-E is faster than an 9800 Pro AGP, so it's a good match.
Currently they're going for cheap as well (about 130 USD), and have dual
DVI.

Yeah, having done more rummaging around it looks as though a 6600GT is
slightly better than a 9800Pro, with the 6600 slightly worse, and the 6600LE
much worse. It's also reasonably priced so if I decide it's not what I want
I can ditch it.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150098

Now for the motherboard, you can get a dirt cheap but reliable NForce 6100
board. They're socket 754 and a Sempron core is fairly low heat. You
could probably passively cool it with just a heatpipe and case fan.

Ah, the motherboard and CPU is already chosen - it's rather different to my
AMD64 desktop in that I've gone for a dual-core Intel configuration. But
then I like diversity, which is also [one more reason] why I want an Nvidia
card for this system. It may yet end up as being just a server - which is
what I intend it to be for - but if it performs well I'll make my current
desktop the server instead.

/mel/