9600XT or 9800XT?

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Thomas

Anime-niac said:
AMD XP 3200+ (Retail Box)
Abit AN7 MB
Cooler Master Praetorian (PAC-T01) Aluminum Case
Antec True430 PS
Kingston 1GB 3200 Non-ECC Memory (2 512M sticks)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card
Plus three HDD (bought within the last year) and external devices
from our current computer.
Click to expand...

1) Why the 3200+? It's much more expensive as a 2800+ for example, which is
OC'd without a pain to 3200+ speeds... (get a 333 FSB model). A coworker of
mine, who has almost no hardware experience even got his 2500+ to 3000+
speeds by moving up some settings...
By the way, if you like your machine to last, maybe you should look at the
Athlon 64 :-)

2) Vid card... If you build a machine to last, don't get the 9600... The
9800 is about twice as fast, much more power. If you like to save a little
money, get a 9800 Pro, which is less expensive than the XT, but not much
less powerful, i think. 256 MB is overkill now, and i can't imagine any
games the next year that will need it...

Thomas.
 
We're trying to build a computer that will last at least five years.
That's how long we've had our current (K6-2 350) system and it's just
now getting to the point of not being powerful enough for what we're
doing (especially for the recording and gaming part).
Click to expand...

5 years !
what you are better doing is buying cheaper hardware and upgrade more often
i don't even keep my pc parts for more than 2 years i think, but i'm have a
mad ass pc
you should get a xp2800, ati 9600 sort of system and keep it for 2-3 years
it'll be well out of date by then anyway
 
Save money, get the 9600XT.
For someone that has been using a K6-2 350 for games, the 9600XT should do
the job.
Also an XP2600-XP2800 should do the job for most people.
Motherboard comes with built-in sound, so save money by not getting the CL
sound card

What about DVD player or CD-RW ?

Anime-niac said:
My parents are looking at updating our family computer. The main use of said
computer is Internet, word processing, home databases, processing and burning LPs
to CD, and moderate to heavy gaming. We're trying to build a computer that will
last at least five years. That's how long we've had our current (K6-2 350) system
and it's just now getting to the point of not being powerful enough for what we're
doing (especially for the recording and gaming part). We're looking at the 9600XT
because it's under $200, but the 9800XT seems to offer more benefits as far as
future compatibility with games and possibly software.

Proposed system as it stands now:
AMD XP 3200+ (Retail Box)
Abit AN7 MB
Cooler Master Praetorian (PAC-T01) Aluminum Case
Antec True430 PS
Kingston 1GB 3200 Non-ECC Memory (2 512M sticks)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card
Plus three HDD (bought within the last year) and external devices from our current
computer.

Any advice on which card to get is greatly appreciated.
--
Anime-niac

"You've heard of the Pon-tiac? Well I'm the Anime-niac!"

To contact me either:
1) post a message with "Attn: Anime-niac"
2) or e-mail me at ronnie at ronnie dot freewebspace dot com (you know
Click to expand...
the drill)
 
My parents are looking at updating our family computer. The main use of said
computer is Internet, word processing, home databases, processing and burning LPs
to CD, and moderate to heavy gaming. We're trying to build a computer that will
last at least five years. That's how long we've had our current (K6-2 350) system
and it's just now getting to the point of not being powerful enough for what we're
doing (especially for the recording and gaming part). We're looking at the 9600XT
because it's under $200, but the 9800XT seems to offer more benefits as far as
future compatibility with games and possibly software.

Proposed system as it stands now:
AMD XP 3200+ (Retail Box)
Abit AN7 MB
Cooler Master Praetorian (PAC-T01) Aluminum Case
Antec True430 PS
Kingston 1GB 3200 Non-ECC Memory (2 512M sticks)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card
Plus three HDD (bought within the last year) and external devices from our current
computer.

Any advice on which card to get is greatly appreciated.
--
Anime-niac

"You've heard of the Pon-tiac? Well I'm the Anime-niac!"

To contact me either:
1) post a message with "Attn: Anime-niac"
2) or e-mail me at ronnie at ronnie dot freewebspace dot com (you know the drill)
 
Buy mid range specials where possible and upgrade every 2-3 years.
Make sure the motherboard is quality and the memory is suited to it and the
best you can get on budget.
9600XT is a new mid range card but if you can get a 9600pro on special not a
bad option.
Keep the heat down and the dust out.


Anime-niac said:
My parents are looking at updating our family computer. The main use of said
computer is Internet, word processing, home databases, processing and burning LPs
to CD, and moderate to heavy gaming. We're trying to build a computer that will
last at least five years. That's how long we've had our current (K6-2 350) system
and it's just now getting to the point of not being powerful enough for what we're
doing (especially for the recording and gaming part). We're looking at the 9600XT
because it's under $200, but the 9800XT seems to offer more benefits as far as
future compatibility with games and possibly software.

Proposed system as it stands now:
AMD XP 3200+ (Retail Box)
Abit AN7 MB
Cooler Master Praetorian (PAC-T01) Aluminum Case
Antec True430 PS
Kingston 1GB 3200 Non-ECC Memory (2 512M sticks)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card
Plus three HDD (bought within the last year) and external devices from our current
computer.

Any advice on which card to get is greatly appreciated.
--
Anime-niac

"You've heard of the Pon-tiac? Well I'm the Anime-niac!"

To contact me either:
1) post a message with "Attn: Anime-niac"
2) or e-mail me at ronnie at ronnie dot freewebspace dot com (you know
Click to expand...
the drill)
 
Anime-niac wrote:
Click to expand...
1) Why the 3200+? It's much more expensive as a 2800+ for example, which is
OC'd without a pain to 3200+ speeds... (get a 333 FSB model). A coworker of
mine, who has almost no hardware experience even got his 2500+ to 3000+
speeds by moving up some settings...
By the way, if you like your machine to last, maybe you should look at the
Athlon 64 :-)
Click to expand...

Only if you consider $70 much more expensive. Plus when you add in the cost of
the new HSF that would be required for the overclock, that puts the price about
even. We'd like to go with the 64, but the local dealer we're getting everything
from has a limited selection of 64 motherboards right now.
2) Vid card... If you build a machine to last, don't get the 9600... The
9800 is about twice as fast, much more power. If you like to save a little
money, get a 9800 Pro, which is less expensive than the XT, but not much
less powerful, i think. 256 MB is overkill now, and i can't imagine any
games the next year that will need it...

Thomas.
Click to expand...

The 9800 Pro 256MB is only $20 cheaper than the XT. The 128MB version on the
other hand is under $300. Is there any real difference other than memory between
the two Pro versions?
--
Anime-niac

"You've heard of the Pon-tiac? Well I'm the Anime-niac!"

To contact me either:
1) post a message with "Attn: Anime-niac"
2) or e-mail me at ronnie at ronnie dot freewebspace dot com (you know the drill)
 
Save money, get the 9600XT.
For someone that has been using a K6-2 350 for games, the 9600XT should do
the job.
Also an XP2600-XP2800 should do the job for most people.
Motherboard comes with built-in sound, so save money by not getting the CL
sound card
Click to expand...

I'm guessing you missed the part about recording LPs and burning them to CD.
What about DVD player or CD-RW ?
Click to expand...

We already have an external CD-RW. We'll probably get a DVD+-RW this summer.

<snip>
--
Anime-niac

"You've heard of the Pon-tiac? Well I'm the Anime-niac!"

To contact me either:
1) post a message with "Attn: Anime-niac"
2) or e-mail me at ronnie at ronnie dot freewebspace dot com (you know the drill)
 
5 years !
what you are better doing is buying cheaper hardware and upgrade more often
i don't even keep my pc parts for more than 2 years i think, but i'm have a
mad ass pc
you should get a xp2800, ati 9600 sort of system and keep it for 2-3 years
it'll be well out of date by then anyway
Click to expand...

I've been complaining for the last two years that we needed a new computer. But
my parents control the money so they decide when it's time to update the family
computer.
--
Anime-niac

"You've heard of the Pon-tiac? Well I'm the Anime-niac!"

To contact me either:
1) post a message with "Attn: Anime-niac"
2) or e-mail me at ronnie at ronnie dot freewebspace dot com (you know the drill)
 
Anime-niac said:
Only if you consider $70 much more expensive. Plus when you add in
the cost of the new HSF that would be required for the overclock,
that puts the price about even. We'd like to go with the 64, but the
local dealer we're getting everything from has a limited selection of
64 motherboards right now.
Click to expand...

Well, i clock my P4 2.6 to 3.25 with a cooler thats not much more powerful
than the stock cooler :-) But, for an AMD, i hear the stock coolers aren't
that good. I always bought the Spire coolers for the AMD chips. Made many
people happy with them; quite quiet, and VERY cheap (9 euro = 9 dollar)
The 9800 Pro 256MB is only $20 cheaper than the XT. The 128MB
version on the other hand is under $300. Is there any real
difference other than memory between the two Pro versions?
Click to expand...

The 256 MB version has DDR-2. WHich is not really an advantage, since i
think it's running at the same speed. I'd go for the 128 version of the
Pro...

Thomas.
 
Anime-niac said:
I'm guessing you missed the part about recording LPs and burning them to
Click to expand...
CD.

But surely you only plug that in through the Line-in socket? Which you would
get with a mobo with sound built in.


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<))°> sc®umble <°((><
Click to expand...
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Anime-niac said:
I've been complaining for the last two years that we needed a new computer. But
my parents control the money so they decide when it's time to update the family
computer.
Click to expand...

All the more reason to get the 9800XT. If your parents think a 350 Mhz
machine is just NOW getting too old than gaming isn't on THEIR priority list
so get the most powerful rig you can now because you'll be using it for a
long, long, long time. :)
Click to expand...
 
Do you not get the fact that the parents have resisted upgrading for 2 years
after the PC was no longer gaming viable? In THIS situation, planning an
intermediate upgrade ignores the reality that it ain't gonna happen. Get
top-o-the-line now because based on prior history you won't get a dime to
upgrade.
 
It's called 'badging'.

-
JTS stood up at show-n-tell, in (e-mail address removed), and
said:
 
You should have saved money and got a P4 2.4C. I got mine running at 3.36.
I think Intel is putting the same processor in 2.4, 2.6, 2.8, 3.0Cs.
 
Anime-niac said:
My parents are looking at updating our family computer. The main use of said
computer is Internet, word processing, home databases, processing and burning LPs
to CD, and moderate to heavy gaming. We're trying to build a computer that will
last at least five years. That's how long we've had our current (K6-2 350) system
and it's just now getting to the point of not being powerful enough for what we're
doing (especially for the recording and gaming part). We're looking at the 9600XT
because it's under $200, but the 9800XT seems to offer more benefits as far as
future compatibility with games and possibly software.

Proposed system as it stands now:
AMD XP 3200+ (Retail Box)
Abit AN7 MB
Cooler Master Praetorian (PAC-T01) Aluminum Case
Antec True430 PS
Kingston 1GB 3200 Non-ECC Memory (2 512M sticks)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card
Plus three HDD (bought within the last year) and external devices from our current
computer.

Any advice on which card to get is greatly appreciated.
Click to expand...

amd xp 2500+ overclocked to 3200+ speeds (can be done with the retail
heatsink as they're the same as a proper 3200 one), or and amd64 3000+.
XP3200+ is way overpriced now.
Abit NF7-s, it's a better board than the an7 and the onboard sound is
excellent or a amd 64 board.

The 9800 xt is easily better, but is much more expensive, but the
savings from a cheaper processor should make up the difference.

James
 
That's a loooooonnnnnnnnnnggggggg time to hold on to a K6-2 350. It's going to
be tough trying to future-proof your PC these days though. If I were you I'd
concentrate on 64-bit AMD systems. The Athlon XP is a dead-end architecture
now.
We're trying to build a computer that will
last at least five years. That's how long we've had our current (K6-2 350)
system
and it's just now getting to the point of not being powerful enough for what
we're
doing (especially for the recording and gaming part).
Click to expand...


-Bill (remove "botizer" to reply via email)
 
Don't buy an ATI 9600XT based video controller unless it is a genuine retail
ATI 9600XT, as most other "builders" that are using the ATI 9600XT chipset
have not fully followed the ATI reference design, used old PCB's that were
"in stock"
to rush product out for Christmas holiday, and have not enabled the ATI
"OVERDRIVE"
feature.

I too was "duped'" by C.P.Technology Co., Ltd. aka/dba in United States as
Power Color USA Corp. in purchasing a R96A-C3T in a new system I had built
by Future Technologies International, Inc. (FTI), Great Neck, NY about two
weeks ago, who is an "authorized" distributor/reseller" Power Color
products.

The cost to me between the Power Color R96A-C3T and a genuine retail ATI
9600XT was less than five dollars, but I went ahead with the Power Color
Product since it seemed to have a better bundle. I was not aware that there
were any differences in the cards, as Future Technologies International,
Inc. (FTI) web site (as do most other resellers) still to this day state the
fact that the Power Color R96A-C3T has "OVERDRIVE", as does C.P.Technology
Co., Ltd. Main web site, only in the last week has the Power Color USA Corp.
web site quietly removed the statement about the Power Color R96A-C3T having
'OVERDRIVE" ability.

Anime-niac said:
My parents are looking at updating our family computer. The main use of said
computer is Internet, word processing, home databases, processing and burning LPs
to CD, and moderate to heavy gaming. We're trying to build a computer that will
last at least five years. That's how long we've had our current (K6-2 350) system
and it's just now getting to the point of not being powerful enough for what we're
doing (especially for the recording and gaming part). We're looking at the 9600XT
because it's under $200, but the 9800XT seems to offer more benefits as far as
future compatibility with games and possibly software.

Proposed system as it stands now:
AMD XP 3200+ (Retail Box)
Abit AN7 MB
Cooler Master Praetorian (PAC-T01) Aluminum Case
Antec True430 PS
Kingston 1GB 3200 Non-ECC Memory (2 512M sticks)
Creative Labs Audigy 2 ZS Platinum Sound Card
Plus three HDD (bought within the last year) and external devices from our current
computer.

Any advice on which card to get is greatly appreciated.
--
Anime-niac

"You've heard of the Pon-tiac? Well I'm the Anime-niac!"

To contact me either:
1) post a message with "Attn: Anime-niac"
2) or e-mail me at ronnie at ronnie dot freewebspace dot com (you know
Click to expand...
the drill)
 
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