It's a question of choice.

[DKant]

Alright so I've got 2K to spend and a crappy rig for a wife.
(PIII 866 with 192megs and an 810E board. Duh)

So apart from upgrading my RAM/Net_connexion I've got two choices:

1)Get a PCI based gfx card. (yes yes I know. But there's no way I cld get an AGP based board and new procy plus some RAM and a new cabby and a card for 2K, right? )
2)Get a decent soundcard+headphones.

So first up, is there a decent PCI card for 2K (or a little more)? And even if it's decent, is there any point in buying it?

Secondly, is there a good soundcard+hp combo for under 2K? I need some good bass and voice reproduction on it since I'll primarily use it for watching movies. Needs to be light as well.

(EDIT: Read abt the Philips SBC HP200 in this thread. What's the price? And how many channels does it support? BTW, all these q's for 2K. I must be crazy. Neway. )

And third, which of these two is the better choice? Or are both so crappy that I cld rather spend it on movies and a few games.

 

[DKant]

Bump.

 

[grinning_devil]

PCI cards are out of the arket scene m8....so even after sum search u may find it .. but personally they r crap....

best option nd advice will be wait for sum more time,get ur piggy bank balance to rise nd buy a descent PC at around 20k-25k...!!

 

[enoonmai]

Well, I seem to remember a PCI video card based on a GeForce2 chipset that was retailing around the same price as a GF4 MX440. Its been an eternity since I saw this, but I think it was either XServe or MediaTech that were shipping it here. You might want to contact them directly, since I lost the XLS sheet they sent me with the product details.

As for the Philips headphones, once again, I never enquired about the price, but the SBC HP200 is stereo output and from what I heard, quite good in bass reproduction.

As for your question on whether its worth buying that PCI card for around 2k, well, unfortunately thats for you to decide. If it were me, I wouldn't simply because the performance it would offer would be miniscule, and since you cant use it for gaming anyway (at least none of the post-2002 games) and considering how a brand new FX5200 retails for just 1k more, it would be a really bad decision. So I would invest the money into the soundcard/headphones and convert into a music box or something. Then, again, that was just my $0.02.

 

[DKant]

best option nd advice will be wait for sum more time,get ur piggy bank balance to rise nd buy a descent PC at around 20k-25k...!!

I know. But unfortunately the best option ain't the most viable one. And it takes time for piggies to grow that fat!

As for your question on whether its worth buying that PCI card for around 2k, well, unfortunately thats for you to decide. If it were me, I wouldn't simply because the performance it would offer would be miniscule, and since you cant use it for gaming anyway (at least none of the post-2002 games) and considering how a brand new FX5200 retails for just 1k more, it would be a really bad decision. So I would invest the money into the soundcard/headphones and convert into a music box or something. Then, again, that was just my $0.02. Very Happy

A valuable and "resonant-with-my-thoughts" $0.02. I had that sinking feeling of "oh-hell" right when I was typing that q. But my hopes rose when I saw a Radeon 9250 PCI (for arnd 4500 or sumthin') on one of the price lists here. But..oh hell!

But (damn my optimism )..considering what an 810E is capable () of, wouldn't a PCI card still do some good? Atleast for older games that require h/w TnL? Or 32 bit color support. Stuff like EtM? Or the first Splinter Cell? With a PIII and 192megs o' RAM, u can't play HL2 or DIII anyway!

 

[enoonmai]

Oh yes, it would definitely do quite some good and then some more, since I know people running Doom 3 on GeForce 2s (although they're AGP) But 4500 for the 9250 PCI is just too much for comfort, in my opinion. The GeForce 2 PCI variant I was talking about was in the 2-2.5k range. I dont know if they still have it around though. I will call up a couple of hardware dealers and find out tomorrow, though and let you know. But dont get your hopes up. Its getting increasingly rare to find even an AGP4x card these days.

 

[DKant]

Well obviously I'm not going to spend 4500 on a PCI gfx card (I can't get 2500 xtra from my parents for getting a gfx card! ). But that was just an example. Thanx neway.

And pls do tell me if u find that gf2.

 

[rachitboom2]

Go for PCI based GF4 MX440.
Best for you

 

[DKant]

The price is perfect alright. But wht abt the fact that some games specifically say that "GF MX440 ain't supported"? (Of coz considering what cld be played on a PIII rig anyway, it mightn't matter much, but still...)

 

[NikhilVerma]

The price is perfect alright. But wht abt the fact that some games specifically say that "GF MX440 ain't supported"? (Of coz considering what cld be played on a PIII rig anyway, it mightn't matter much, but still...)

First of all there is really no use buying a PCI based GPU... Really a waste of money...

And I don't know of any game wich specifically doesn't support "MX440" ... If a game doesn't support then it means it utilizes some advanced PS or shading whic are absent in your GPU...

 

[enoonmai]

@NikhilVerma: While games dont exclusively condemn the MX440, there are tons of games that dont support the GeForce MX cards. I think thats what DKant was referring to.

@DKant: Well, it would be pretty crazy to even try to run those games on the PCI variant unless you want to turn off every graphics setting, lower the resolution to 640x480 and suffer a horrible lag. That is what would happen even if the game supported the MX series cards. You shouldn't have any problem playing pre-2003 games at low resolutions and most of the effects turned off. I would advise you to spend on the soundcard/headphone instead. For the 4500 that you would end up spending on the card, you can add a barebones TV tuner card in and use it as a Media Center solution of sorts, in conjunction with your existing music system.

 

[DKant]

Yea well, but I repeat that the 4500 thingy was just an example. All I'm ready to spend on it is 2500 bucks 'n' odd. And anyway it's only pre-2003 games that I even intend to play. Or dream of playing, if u like it that way. Anything after that can't be played with 192 megs of RAM and an 866MHz procy in any case. That's why I was stressing on the PCI card.

To make things clearer, I'm only going to use it to play games that would otherwise run on an 810E, but at ultra-slow framerates, or just refuses to start, but would run otherwise bcuz it just required h/w TnL or 32 bit color support. That's all. I'm not even fantasizing about DIII or HL2 here. Oh hell, or even NFS : UG for that matter.

Guys plz talk relative. Don't think about the 915's or the 865's or even the 845's when ur going "PCI is hardly better than Integrated." We're talking abt an 810E here.

So the choice is made.

Thanx a ton everyone.