Sub 150 euros gfx

MartMax

Hiya

I think that my old Radeon 9800 is dead now. PC won't boot anymore and by the looks of it diagnostic bracket indicates it cannot initialise the graphic card at boot. So, I am now taking this opportunity to upgrade my PC.

I have been looking around and all confuse with nVidia's GS and GT versions of their cards. I am not much a gamer but I hope I could run Sims, WoW well enuff on Vista. As I am stucked for sub 150 euros budget.

These are the ones that I am looking at:

7300GS - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=323509
7300GT - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=322562
7600GS - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=323510
7600GT - http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.aspx?sku=318606


The most thing I am worried about is the heat and noise! Can anyone please give some suggestions - best value for money .

Thanks

8T8

As your PC had an ATI Radeon 9800 in it that means it used the AGP interface. That interface is no longer used on current computers it was replaced by PCI-Express which all the cards you linked to are of that type.

All this means is that if you have not changed motherboards then your options are a bit more limited in what you can buy with the AGP interface.

This AGP 7600GT is within budget and will handle all the games you mention no problem. Alternatively this ATI X1650XT is the same performance as the 7600GT but has a more quieter cooler installed on it, plus it offers better image quality over the GeForce 7. Additionally ATI's drivers for games are more stable than NVIDIA's under Windows Vista. You can get the slower X1650Pro well within your budget which should also have no problems with the games you outline.

If you have changed to a PCI-Express capable motherboard then this X1650XT which is within budget comes with a passive cooler so no fan = no noise.

MartMax

thanks 8T8,

forgot to mention that i am taking this opportunity to upgrade the cpu/mobo/ram.

Corsair TWIN2X 5400 DDR2, 2048MB PC5400 Kit
Gigabyte GA-965P-DS3
HIS Radeon X1650XT 256MB, iSilence II
Intel Core 2 Duo E6600 2.4GHz Socket LGA775, 4MB, BOXED w/fan

althou i'm not quite sure how long I can wait for the Gigabyte mobo which is currently out of stock! the rest of existing part, i will keep together wt the upgrade. i might also be throwing a new hard drive. i hope that they all will work together.

another worry - how loud is Intel stock fan in comparison with Zalman CNPS7000B-AlCu fan? if the Zalman works quiter, I might just get a clip that will make it works on socket 775.

cheers.

christophicus

teh core 2 duos are quite cool chips and their coolers are not really that loud at all.

8T8

Yeah the stock cooler uses a variable fan speed so when not doing anything it will slow down the fan as there is no need for it to be running at a constant speed but it will speed up when the CPU is under heavy load.

The difference with the Zalman cooler is that it has a manual adjustment so if you wanted to you could force the coolers fan to run at the slowest speed all the time even when the CPU is under load. The Zalman cooler is built to handle such a load so there is no need to worry about it.

If you don't want to wait for the Gigabyte P965 try the Asus P965 instead there are pretty much the same.

MartMax

cheers lads

am gonna place the order tomorrow - i think i will go with the Asus P5B as i am in desperate to have my machine back up and running. May be have the CPU downgraded from E6600 to E6420. i'm not sure if an extra €45 make it worth to stick with E6600. after all, i am not a heavy gamer but i'm sure E6420 works a hell faster and cooler than the ancient Pentium 4 3.2Ghz Prescott that I have now!

Ehehe.

christophicus

Yeah you probably wouldnt notice any differnence between the two.

MartMax

Wuhoo, placed the order on Sunday and got it in the morning today. Must get the parts assembled tonite...

Anti

I hope you didnt order the x1650xt. There are much better cards out there for the same money. but unless you are a huge gamer yuou wont notice the diference !

TerrorFirmer

Anti wrote:

I hope you didnt order the x1650xt. There are much better cards out there for the same money. but unless you are a huge gamer yuou wont notice the diference !

At 122E, and being generally better then a 7600GT, I don't see how that price is anything but a very reasonable one.

Anti

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=544663

121€ after conversion. Add another 20€ for delivery and get almost double the speed !

jonny72

You can pick up a 7900gs at hardwareversand.de for 124 euros.. better than all above cards.. + very overclockable

TerrorFirmer

Oops, especially seeing as I recommened that card not to someone awhile ago...great price though.

And the 7900gs isn't better then the x1950gt. Better in some games, but the x1950 is far better in others. Depends on what you play. I'd probably go for the x1950gt myself..

MartMax

i already had and got the order from Komplett last week. well i wasn't keen ordering from various places and was also trying to avoid delays. afaik, hardwareversand.de requires bank transfer rite? anyway, i have it up and running - X1650XT should do more than enuff for me. thanks lads.

AlmightyCushion

I think someone works for irishpc.com

Anti

Anti wrote:

http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=544663

121€ after conversion. Add another 20€ for delivery and get almost double the speed !

140€ for a 8800gts. Lads thats a fooking bargain !

superfly

its a 1950gt