Which All-in-Wonder to buy?

  • Thread starter Thread starter J.Clarke
  • Start date Start date
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J.Clarke

On 2 Oct 2003 15:01:35 -0700
I want to purchase an All-in-Wonder card and would like some advice as
to which one to buy. My needs are pretty simple:
- primarily to allow me to get rid of my TV (small apartment)
- TiVo-like features would be nice
- not much gaming (I have an XBox)
- WinXP Pro combatibility
- built-in sound would be nice, otherwise I'll buy a $50 soundblaster

I don't want to spend more than $200, so the latest and greatest are
out. Any thoughts on what the best bang for the buck is?
Click to expand...

None of the all-in-wonders has built in sound--don't buy a $50
soundblaster, buy a $50 Turtle Beach Santa Cruz if you're buying a $50
board.

Any current-production All-in-Wonder will give you pretty much the same
capabilities--they all work with the current driver set and that's where
most of the functionality comes. Best bet right now would be to wait a
few weeks for the 9600 All-In-Wonder to ship--won't quite hit your $200
price point but it will come pretty close. If you don't want to wait,
then your best bet for under $200 is the 9000 All-In-Wonder.

You don't say what you have now--there may be other alternatives.
 
I want to purchase an All-in-Wonder card and would like some advice as
to which one to buy. My needs are pretty simple:
- primarily to allow me to get rid of my TV (small apartment)
- TiVo-like features would be nice
- not much gaming (I have an XBox)
- WinXP Pro combatibility
- built-in sound would be nice, otherwise I'll buy a $50 soundblaster

I don't want to spend more than $200, so the latest and greatest are
out. Any thoughts on what the best bang for the buck is?

thanks,
eric
 
You basically are looking at the Radeon 9000 All-in Wonder. The next model
up is the 9800 AIW: $449.
 
J.Clarke said:
On 2 Oct 2003 15:01:35 -0700


None of the all-in-wonders has built in sound--don't buy a $50
soundblaster, buy a $50 Turtle Beach Santa Cruz if you're buying a $50
board.

Any current-production All-in-Wonder will give you pretty much the same
capabilities--they all work with the current driver set and that's where
most of the functionality comes. Best bet right now would be to wait a
few weeks for the 9600 All-In-Wonder to ship--won't quite hit your $200
price point but it will come pretty close. If you don't want to wait,
then your best bet for under $200 is the 9000 All-In-Wonder.

You don't say what you have now--there may be other alternatives.






--
Click to expand...

Thanks for the ideas. As for what I have now...nothing. Its a bit of a
story if you're interested: I got a "good deal" on a Compaq with no
sound or video boards - just on the motherboard. I bought a Cornea
monitor with a TV tuner built-in thinking that would suffice for my TV
needs, but the TV picture quality is horrible - fuzzy with freakish
colors. The XBox looks like crap plugged into it, too. The analog
computer mode on the monitor is perfect though, so my thinking is I'll
get a card like the All-in-Wonder and not mess with the monitor's TV
settings at all. If I'd known this from the start I would have saved
$100 and gotten a cheaper monitor without the tuner, but live and
learn.

My other problem is I blew away the Win XP Home that came on the
Compaq and installed XP Pro, but when I went to Compaq to get drivers
for the sound, video and USB controllers I was told they weren't
available. They obviously have them because they ship them with new
units, but they don't make them available for download, in effect
telling me I can never upgrade my OS. but that's another problem, and
another lesson learned - never buy a Compaq/HP product again. From now
on I'll just build my own systems.

Thanks for the advice on the Turtle Beach, too.

eric
 
On 3 Oct 2003 16:23:19 -0700
Thanks for the ideas. As for what I have now...nothing. Its a bit of a
story if you're interested: I got a "good deal" on a Compaq with no
sound or video boards - just on the motherboard. I bought a Cornea
monitor with a TV tuner built-in thinking that would suffice for my TV
needs, but the TV picture quality is horrible - fuzzy with freakish
colors. The XBox looks like crap plugged into it, too. The analog
computer mode on the monitor is perfect though, so my thinking is I'll
get a card like the All-in-Wonder and not mess with the monitor's TV
settings at all. If I'd known this from the start I would have saved
$100 and gotten a cheaper monitor without the tuner, but live and
learn.

My other problem is I blew away the Win XP Home that came on the
Compaq and installed XP Pro, but when I went to Compaq to get drivers
for the sound, video and USB controllers I was told they weren't
available. They obviously have them because they ship them with new
units, but they don't make them available for download, in effect
telling me I can never upgrade my OS. but that's another problem, and
another lesson learned - never buy a Compaq/HP product again. From now
on I'll just build my own systems.

Thanks for the advice on the Turtle Beach, too.
Click to expand...

If you can identify the sound and video chips on the motherboard then
you may be able to find drivers from the chip manufacturer. Just to
double-check, does the machine have an AGP slot? Some with onboard
video don't, which is why I ask--if you don't have an AGP slot that
limits your options.

What's the model number on the Compaq?
 
DaveW said:
You basically are looking at the Radeon 9000 All-in Wonder. The next model
up is the 9800 AIW: $449.
Click to expand...
Or the Radeon 9800SE AIW. Which cost considerable less than a full blown
9800Pro AIW.

IMHO his best bet is the 9800SE AIW. It provides full DX9 support, decent
gameplay (on par with a 9600Pro), has the same TV/video capabilities as the
9800pro AIW at an affordable price.
.... and if he can enable the 8 pipelines then it's a bargain at the current
going rate.

Manu T
 
eric said:
I bought a Cornea
monitor with a TV tuner built-in thinking that would suffice for my TV
needs, but the TV picture quality is horrible - fuzzy with freakish
colors.
Click to expand...


The one question here is, was the monitor completely at fault or is there
also a cable TV quality issue? I'll warn you now that the AIW much prefers a
strong, clear signal, and even then won't look as good as a "real" TV (but
still more than acceptable).

- Daniel
 
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