08-05-2003 08:31									#31
	Inflate your Upload Space

Yeah, I've heard that. What I meant was different companies each make a gforce4 ti4200...any difference between brands?

	08-05-2003 09:29									#32
	Suffering from ads?

YES.

Try to buy the brand that made your motherboard. If thats not possible always pick one of the 5 from the following. These guys are the only ones who seem to care anymore

ALBATRON
MSI
ASUS
ABIT
SOLTEK

	08-05-2003 09:35									#33
	Support Apolyton buy from Amazon

quote: Originally posted by dudemanjack Case - Antec Model #SLK2600 AMB w/ Antec SmartPower 300W P/S. - $55 (300W should be sufficient right?)

Yup.

	08-05-2003 09:38									#34
	Suffering from ads?

quote: Originally posted by CyberGnu I'm trying to decide whether to buy a 19" or 21" monitor. One of weighing factors would be if I could use the monitor as a TV, that way I could justify spending a little extra on it. Then again, if the cost of the graphics card is going to be as much as a TV, there isn't much point... Except for the DVR function, I guess.

Unless you are talking about LCD screens, otherwise CRT monitors at those sizes are huge and heavy. You will need a very big and sturdy desk.

	08-05-2003 11:01									#35
	Remove this text

I have an 18" viewable screen. It is definately pretty damn heavy, but you don't need a very big desk. Any regular desk will work, but you might not be able to put your desk all the way up against the well.

You can alos put the monitor in the top left corner, facing diagonally towards you rather than have it in the middle of the desk, facing you.

	08-05-2003 12:48									#36
	Put an end to popups!

Certainly you need a desk that's deep enough. Otherwise the screen will be pressing against your face.

	08-05-2003 12:49									#37
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization 2

I have a heavy corner desk, so I'm not worried about that, but thanks. I am considering getting a new desk too, though, since I'm going to keep my old PII 400MHz as a chatbot/printserver while I'm playing on my new one

I'm having a really hard time motivating myself to splurge the extra ~$400 on 2 extra inches, though... But as a computational chemist I can never get enough screen area. At work I use one 19" CRT and one 15" LCD with the resolution set to 1600... And I still feel cramped.

	08-05-2003 12:51									#38
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Now, back to the question: If I want a 128 MB graphic card with a TV Tuner, is the ATI AIW 9700 my only choice?

	08-05-2003 13:14									#39
	Increase Your PM Length

I have a 21", and I love the extra room it provides. Sure, I used to have the monitor up near my face and the keyboard half hanging off the desk before, but now with a new desk everything is excellent.

1800x1024 and even the small text is readable from a distance.

	08-05-2003 13:32									#40
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Answer the poor man's question, dang it!

	08-05-2003 14:21									#41
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

Hehehehe

Thanks, Urban

	08-05-2003 14:59									#42
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization: The Boardgame

CyberGnu,

yes, no nVidia powered accelerators have a TV tuner embedded, so ATI is the only choice.

As for this brand issue when it comes to motherboards, it's plain studpidity. I have during the years had QDI, Intel, MSI, Abit, Asus, Soyo, Gigabyte and AOpen, but it doesn't mean I only buy some specific brand. I recommend reading reviews as they're the best way to get around.

	08-05-2003 20:01									#43
	Support Apolyton, buy Galactic Civilizations

--"300W should be sufficient right?"

Depends how much extra stuff you're putting in there. I'd go with a 400 for safety's sake if you're planning to load up, but if you're not going to be doing much besides maybe swapping out hard drives later you won't need to.

--"A lot of companies make a GFORCE4 video card. Are there any particular BAD ones I should avoid?"

Well, I haven't been following things very closely, so I can't help you there. I'd recommend doing a search for reviews on any of the brands you're considering.

There are big differences between the brands, from what speed memory is used to what kind of RAMDACs are used. Checking the reviews is a necessity.

--"If I want a 128 MB graphic card with a TV Tuner, is the ATI AIW 9700 my only choice?"

No, you can get that in an nVidia if you want. Asus makes a VIVO line (Video In/Video Out), for instance, and they do have a 128 MB Ti4200 in it.

Wraith
"I love you cold, unfeeling robot arm."
-- Zim ("Invader Zim")

	08-05-2003 22:53									#44
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

He talked about a TV tuner, not just VIVO.

	08-05-2003 22:59									#45
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

Might I also suggest Windows XP? It seems a shame to spoil the ship for hapenny worth of tar. I'm assuming of course that you are using an older O/S.

	08-05-2003 22:59									#46
	Support Apolyton, buy Civilization III: Complete

ATI vid cards blow!

	08-05-2003 23:55									#47
	Support Apolyton, buy Alpha Centauri

Oh, I'll definately be upgrading my O/S. I have Windows 98 SE. Being a student, I can buy WinXP professional upgrade for $88.

	09-05-2003 10:09									#48
	Support Apolyton, buy GURPS/ Alpha Centauri

quote: Originally posted by Sava ATI vid cards blow!

...nVidia cards out of the water.

	09-05-2003 11:38									#49
	Inflate your Upload Space

"Monitors at those sizes are big and heavy"

Still using my 32'' Gateway Destination...

(only for games though, at 800x600...)

	09-05-2003 12:16									#50
	Remove this text

God how can you badmouth ATI, nvidia?

There bloodlust for each other keeps Vid card prices down.

IMO, Nvidia is mainly a better product. But ATI could win my favor, we will see how the 9800 goes

Last ATI I owned sucked ass. But that was a ATI RAGE PCI Turbo that came in my old compaw. That was 6 years ago

	09-05-2003 12:17									#51
	Support Apolyton

The 9800's been out for some time, fg.

	09-05-2003 12:22									#52
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

umm catalyst drivers? Just cuz somethings out doesnt mean **** or anything about its future. If the drivers suck you just have an expensive doorstop. (Example: VooDoo5500)

umm and if a month is a long time...umm..

Hardware is only half of the graphics solution, there needs to be good driver support for a product to excel.

	09-05-2003 12:25									#53
	Increase Your PM Length

Nice save attempt.

	09-05-2003 12:26									#54
	Support Apolyton

I have nothing against ATI. In fact my future system that im saving up for this summer. Im no NV fanboy


Intel p4 3.06 ghz
gigabyte GA-8KNXP(800mhz FSB, dual DDR etc)
2 gigs ddr400
ati 9800pro
seagate 240gig SATA hard drive
Creative audigy 2 sound card

Will include the 9800 pro.

actually i dont need SATA. Im stilll thinkin that one through.

edit: type

	09-05-2003 19:09									#55
	Avatar Enlargement: We've got the solution

Go with SATA, for the cables alone I would do it

	09-05-2003 20:26									#56
	Browse Apolyton AD-FREE

Serial SCSI

	09-05-2003 20:33									#57
	Put an end to popups!

Why, there is no need for SCSI for home-pc's.
The newest IDE have 10.000/TpM and AFAIK are still cheaper then the SCSI ones.

	09-05-2003 21:10									#58
	Support Apolyton, pre-order Civilization IV

Serial ATA

My new motherboard has it (even two connections for external Serial ATA drives), but I can't utilise it as there's no drives available in Finland for the moment (for some odd reason).

	09-05-2003 22:15									#59
	Put an end to popups!

quote: Originally posted by alva Why, there is no need for SCSI for home-pc's. The newest IDE have 10.000/TpM and AFAIK are still cheaper then the SCSI ones.

The cool thing about SCSI is you can daisy-chain 15 devices to a single channel controller. Unlike IDE, the protocol has virtually no CPU overhead. Even though Ultra160 has a top transfer rate of 160MB/s and SATA has 150MB/s, SATA could never achieve that speed with a 20%-25% CPU overhead.

	10-05-2003 07:35									#60
	Remove this text

SCSI eh...i should try it. Ive never used a SCSI HD only IDE. I imagine an awesome speed difference