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4w4k3....I checked out the prices on the ATI 9800 Pro and this is the price they are showning on NewEgg.com

ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -RETAIL
$223.00

$189.99 is cheaper than $223.00 the last time I checked.


Other cards I have found on NewEgg.com

MSI ATI RX9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/S-Video, 8X AGP, Model "RX9800PRO-TD128" -RETAIL
$194.00


CONNECT3D ATI RADEON 9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -RETAIL
$202.00


SAPPHIRE ATI RADEON 9800 PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/TV-Out, 8X AGP -BULK
$198.00

I'd rather spend $189.99 at Best Buy...For an ATI Pro

 

To be honest Best Buy will probably be out of stock with that ATI 9800 Pro card, they always seem to be out of stock with good video cards when they are on sale cheap. I'd go for the

MSI ATI RX9800PRO Video Card, 128MB DDR, 256-bit, DVI/S-Video, 8X AGP, Model "RX9800PRO-TD128" -RETAIL
$194.00
On New Egg.com

But again, Check out Best Buy first, ya never know they might just have one in.

 

Quote::::::4W4K3 (Newbie) 31 July 2004 09:38
newegg.com has them ALOT cheaper

That is all I needed to see KEYWORDS (ALOT CHEAPER)

Don't care what the average price is, when Best buy has it still cheaper than New Eggs (Cheapest)(Average) (Highest) Prices on the 9800 Pro. On New Egg the ATI 9800 Pro is $223.....The lower cards MSI, Saphire, and so on 9800 pro cards are still costing more than an ATI 9800 Pro from Best Buy...That is the point I was trying to make.

 

please link me to this card you are talking about...so far all i've found is this http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?id=1051384719568&skuId=5379798&type=product and its $250! thast $56 MORE than http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-127-127&depa=1 . chances are IF they even had a $180 9800PRO, it would be the dumbed down 128bit version, and those arent much better tahn the 9600XT's ive seen. a 128bit version is $180 almost anywhere on the web...bestbuy isnt anything special.

EDIT: i would suggest http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-122-183&depa=1 if you really want to save money. overclocked it should be just as good if not better than any of those 2 9800PROs. 490/900 is the average overclock for that card according to reviews...i wouldnt get ur hopes up that high though. alot of those people lie. still leadtek is a great brand and thats one solid card.
_
_X_X_X_X_X_[small]AMD Athlon XP-M 2600+ (2559MHz)
ABIT NF7-S Rev 2.0 (232*11)
512MB OCZ-EL PC-3200 Dual Channel Platinum (465MHz)
FIC RADEON 9200 64MB 8X AGP
http://www.bandbuilder.com/projektrevolution2004/index.php?ref_code=F53066[/small]

 

They don't advertise the price on the Best/Buy Website for some reason. It was in Last weeks or a week before's flyer that comes in the Sunday paper. I been trying to find the deal online and this is what I came up with.

broadband » Forums » PC gaming Tech » Best Radeon 9800 Pro ...... Actually, I saw this very interesting add from bestbuy: ATi radeon 9800 pro for 179.99 ... Keep in mind the Best Buy deal is $230 before rebates and you have ...

Go to this website.....www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10818900~mode=flat......Copy and paste that site....

 

Found another site talking about the cheap price of the card at Bestbuy.

http://www.bensbargains.net/ktalk/1090167571,17878,.shtml


9800pro $179 (rebates) At Best Buy -> Overclockers Club Forums


That's all I can come up with....I'm sure somebody on this site knows what I am talking about if they get the Sunday paper ever, and as computer Geekers I'm sure they look at the Best Buy Ad

 

Hey Praetor,

One quick question. I am planning on getting a Pentium 4 530 • 3.0GHz • 800MHz FSB • 1MB Cache Hyper-Threading • Socket 775. My questions is what mother board should I get? The P4 is a prescott by the way. Thanks for your help

 

Hello Everyone,

I'm attempting to build my first PC and my plan is to use this machine as a TIVO box and more. The plan is to record my TV shows onto the new PC, then burn them to a dvd or cd then pop it into my dvd player and watch it on a TV. For the TV series that I really enjoy I plan to do some authoring and editing such that I gradually build a set archived on dvds that I can view whenever I like. Also the budget I have for the PC machine is around $500-700 dollars.

Okay with my plans laid out and the research I've done I hope the members here can help...especially mister Praetor...cause that guy seems to know alot about PC building and video editing based on the threads in the different forums I've browsed. He seems to give insight on almost everything.

I'll be nice and give fair warning

[bold]wArNiNg WARNING[/bold]

This post will be quite lengthy and should anyone experience dizziness or headaches by all means...stop immediately...and take a break. With that warning given...let the spewing commence.

I'll start out by listing the components that I've found and reasons why I picked that one. Questions I have about a particular component will be asked later. Now onto the listings and reasoning for these parts.

[bold]List[/bold]

[bold]A)Case/Tower for the PC[/bold]

Okay I'll start off by giving credit and a thank you to member, jvwheel, who posted this link in the "The Official Budget-Conscious Dream Machine!" topic.

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc.asp?description=11-156-148&depa=0

This linked helped focus my search on the case I wanted to get.

1) What stood out was the 5 internal hard drives that had the hard drive connections facing towards the side panel, that's a first time I've seen this and is a must have since this will save my nails from breaking

2) The number of fans that it came with was impressive 2 front, 2 back, 1 side, and 1 on top. Power supply at 420W seems adequate enough for my needs...I hope.

3) I'll confess the clear side panel is so pretty and lights up at night. This case does shine the bling bling which is far more attractive than the medieval mono colored desktop that I have. Okay I'll stop being silly...for now.

I've spent a good two hours on this site
http://www.xoxide.com

I clicked the option to display all the cases section and I looked at each case bearing in mind the 3 characteristics that I listed above and my end result is that the case jvwheel listed was still the best that I found.

Of course there is one thing I don't like about the case jvwheel has listed but I'll save that until my questions section in this post.

Cost: ~ $100 USD

[bold]B) Motherboard[/bold]

I realize this selection is really important since this would dictate on what other components I can have.

What I want is a MOBO that will support a

1) CPU that has 800MHz FSB
2) 4 slots that can support Dual-Channel DDR 400MHz
3) 5 PCI slots
4) have room to add at least 3 Hard Drives
5) built-in LAN
6) built-in audio
7) built-in video

Over clocking is something I don't plan to do. I plan to save money by having items #5-7 on the MOBO. This way I can get a decent capture card.

Future upgrades down the road I see are: RAM, Hard Drives, and other PCI devices.

I only know of one good MOBO company and that is Asus...I'm not fan for any products but Asus from what I read people seem to pick this company quite often.

I found the ASUS "P4R800-V Deluxe"

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=13-131-151&depa=0

Cost: ~ $100 USD

[bold]C) CPU[/bold]

I've debated on the performance/price issue on what CPU (Intel or AMD) I should get and still remain within my overall budget. I'm thinking about the

Pentium® 4 2.4GHz (Northwood) CPU PROCESSOR - with Hyper threading
Socket 478 -800MHz Bus 512KB cache

I really wanted a FSB over 400MHz and the 1MB cache was simply more than what my budget would allow. I down sized for the 512KB cache instead. And this CPU supports my MOBO hopefully.

Cost: ~ $150 USD

[bold]D) RAM Memory[/bold]

I want to take advantage of the Dual-Channel support my MOBO will support so I plan to go with a RAM 256MB (2X) DDR PC3200 dual strip kit (512MB total) of some sort.

Brands I've heard and seen in magazines are Kingston and Corsair.

Cost: ~ $100 USD

[bold]E) Hard Drive[/bold]

I plan to work with video files often so for now a HDD that is above 100GB and is 7200 RPM would be good for now.

Serial ATA 150 is something I would consider as a second or third HDD down the road and when the prices go down.

Cost: ~ $75 USD

[bold]F) Optical Drive[/bold]

I need to back up my shows to either dvds or cds so I picked.

NEC ND-2510A 8X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=27-152-023&depa=1

This seems to support the dual layer discs as well. Something I might want to consider if the TV series get really long.

Cost: ~ $80 USD

[bold]G) Capture Card[/bold]

I need to get a decent capture card and from what I read Hauppauge is a good brand.

WinTV-PVR-250 with Remote
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=15-116-602&depa=0

This model has a built-in hardware encoder which should save some stress on my machine.

Cost: ~ 125 $USD


Total of sections A-G: $730 USD

Note it would be nice to shave $100 USD off this estimate price. Open to suggestions of course.

[bold]Questions[/bold]

[bold]A) Case/Tower[/bold]

The only negative I see in the case member jvwheel suggested is it's size

I would much prefer to have a mid-size tower rather than a full-size tower simple because I think it's too big/heavy for me to pick up and move. The situation is I plan to keep this PC in the office room but when it's time for me to record or transfer VHS tapes I'm going to have to move this PC into my room. I see this happening maybe twice a week.

I know some you might suggest that I leave the PC in my room...but it's a matter of preference or maybe not to disrupt the feng shui I have in my room. I like to keep the tech stuff in the office along with the other work separate from my bedroom

Q_A_1)
This brings to me my question I have on the case...can anyone recommend a mid-tower that has the 3 characteristics that I mentioned earlier?

[bold]B) Motherboard[/bold]

The only concern I have here is that the Asus P4R800-V Deluxe I listed has two flaws.

Q_B_1)
The link I provided had reviews from customers who bought this MOBO and they all had the problem of the single SATA hard disk install is quite problematic. If I'm going for a HDD that is ATA100, 7200 RPM I should be okay right?

Q_B_2)
I read from one customer review that was posted by N/A on 6/17/2004 4:31:50 PM.

"The second annoying thing is that this mobo cannot use all RAM slots for PC3200 in dual channel. You've got to have PC2700 max for that. Although, you can use two slots for Dual PC3200."

This sounds like a major issue. If this is true then I would have to pass on this MOBO. Since I have 2 slots free which I had planned to insert two more DDR PC3200 strips later down the road.

If this is the case can anyone give recommendations on some other MOBOs that meet my requirements that I listed in the previous section?

Q_B_3)
This last question I had on the motherboard selection is how wise is it to pick a MOBO that has built-in video and sound? All I expect to do on my PC is view and listen to videos I stored on my PC and in some cases do some authoring to merge/edit video before burning to some optical media. Guess what I'm asking is am I expecting to much from a built-in video/sound on a MOBO?

[bold]C) CPU[/bold]

Q_C_1)
I plan to buy a retail version of the CPU and I read that it comes with a heat sink and fan. I don't plan to do OC. I know the capture card that I plan to get will generate sufficient amounts of heat but I'll place a PCI slot fan blower near that. Should I be worried that the included heat sink/fan will be suffice to prevent over heating of my CPU?


Member Nephilim said this was a good CPU fan in the The Official Cooling Thread

Thermaltake Polo 735:
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=35-106-042&depa=0

It seems that it's overkill for my needs but then again what do I know about CPUs over heating hence I'm asking the pros

Q_C_2)
How about thermal glue? If I need it what kind there are several types/brands I saw last weekend and how much should I buy?

[bold]D) RAM Memory[/bold]

Q_D_1)

This question is really about if I got my info right about dual channeling with RAM, CPU, and MOBO. If my MOBO and CPU supports 800MHz FSB and if I get 2 sticks of DDR 3200 (400 MHz), do those two sticks of RAM equal 800 MHz which makes my system run in it's peak form?

Q_D_2)

I was looking at the Kingston dual kits. I found two of them.

Kingston ValueRAM Dual Kits 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3200
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-141-413&depa=1

Kingston HyperX Series Dual Kits 184 Pin 512MB(256MBx2) DDR PC-3200
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=20-144-113&depa=1

I remember Praetor in another topic, discussing RAM and saying something about 2-3-2-6-1T or some funny combination of numbers like that. Low and behold the Kingston HyperX series have these strange numbers.
To top it off the Corsair brand have these similar kits.

Can someone please explain RAM containing these 2-3-2-6-1T numbers and how they are better than the other kind besides "they just are" kind of answer? Meaning what is the logic behind this scheme?

Which brand should I get?

[bold]E) Hard Drive[/bold]

Q_E_1)

I'm at lost when it comes to the specification on my MOBO description:

IDE: 2 x UltraDMA 100 by South Bridge up to 4 devices
1 x UltraDMA 133 by SiS 180 RAID Controller supports two hard drives

Serial ATA : 2 x Serial ATA by SiS 180 RAID Controller

RAID: SATA & ATA 133 RAID 0/1/0+1

Can some please explain how these three categories relate to the HDD setup I can have in my PC or when I plan to upgrade?

Is it just a matter of buying the right type of HDD, connecting it into the right slot on my MOBO, and letting the MOBO detect it?

I plan to start of with a 100+ GB, 7200 RPM HDD, from there what recommendations would be good as a 2nd and 3rd HDD purchased?

[bold]G) Capture Card[/bold]

Is there any other features I should be worried about that the card I listed up above doesn't offer for the projects that I will be doing?

I know this is a long post but I didn't want to be a member posting "OMG I want to build a new PC and it has to be cheap please help" kind of post. Just to recap the way I structured this post was

1) State my goal of this new PC
2) Define a list on what parts I have interest in and reasons why
3) Questions on parts I'm not sure of and would like some advice in.

I've been researching for the last 2 months. This site seems very informative and would appreciate any advice members may have.

Thanks

P. S. If it isn't too much to ask...please be gentle it's my first post on this forum and my first PC that I plan to build

 

OMFG
My head's spinnin' from that post.
Slow down Nellie!

 

that deal expired last month...its back up to $250 at bestbuy now. but like this guy said;

they are probably trying to get rid of the 128bit cards (i know there not sapphire brand but ATi released them as well...actually alot of brands released them b4 they realized they were 128version. sapphire are the only brand that OFFICIALLY apoligized for it) all over the web u can get a 9800PRO 128bit for $180 or less...until they sell out cuz they dont make them anymore. that probly why bestbuy doesnt advertise them...there all out! lol. http://www.dslreports.com/forum/remark,10542286~mode=flat <sapphire apology

 

Sorry about that superflex

I guess it was a....tad too long.

I'm surprised other members haven't posted any more comments regrading my post.

Maybe I posted in the wrong thread. Well hopefully I didn't scare them off

 

No problem AlyssaC.

That's one hell of a first time post. You have definately put some thought into your choices.

I'm sure you didn't scare anyone off. People here eat that shit up.

A thought on your case.

The casters dont swivel and it costs too much, but it sure is sweet.

Welcome to the forum >

 

Thanks superflex for the kind welcome...glad to know you have recovered from my initial post

The pics you posted of that case looks really cute especially the wheels.

Nephilim I wasn't expecting to leave you in awe and giving moi a gentleman's complement *blushes*.

Thanks for taking the time to answer my questions. I can really tell you like your case btw you described it...it's special I'm sure

Okay was it coincidence that both of you just so happen to list Lian Li brand cases

Lian Li seems to build quality cases from what I gathered when viewing there web site. Unfortunately the price is out my overall range limit and both cases didn't come with power supplies

Okay I spent another two hours looking for a mid-tower case on newegg and turned up empty again. The raidmax I listed is still the top choice so far that's within my budget.

Maybe I can just plop that big hunky case on a cart...hehehe that's a great idea now that I think about it. *pats superflex on the head for those pics/idea*

Well searching for the mid-tower case has tired me out...off to get my beauty rest.

*blows Nephilim's sore fingers a cool relief of air...see I didn't forget about your fingers*

 

HELP ME!

Sorry, need a bit of help, fast.
I have been looking round and i have decided on an Athlon 64 3200+ (because it steps up to 1mb) i have also been looking at mobo's and i have found some different opinions. So far i sort of have a toss up between the asus K8V -and- abit KV8. However i found that Praetor suggested a asus A8V (not 754?) and an asus A7N8X-E. I also, just this second found the asus K8N-E Deluxe. Help me please with which might be best. I am not going to be OC'ing (yet! Once i learn how, maybe) I would like built in sound with Glan as a must. Wifi not so important. I have been looking at all of them, and if anyone has any idea off the top of their head, i would appreciate the advice! Thanks!

 

Dkarn,

Maybe I can help clarify the situation. The Athlon 64 3200+ is a socket 754 chip. Both the Asus and Abit K8V's are also socket 754 using a VIA chipset.

The Asus K8N-E Deluxe is also a socket 754 board using a nVidia nForce3 250 chipset.

You really can't go wrong with any of those boards. The difference in chipsets for Athlon 64 (754 pin) is minor and usually the boards just offers different feautures (i.e. wifi, dual lan, better audio codecs).

You are right in the fact that the Asus boards beginning with an A or S (i.e. A8V or SK8V) are for socket 939 or socket 940.

The A7N8X-E is a socket A board for Athlon XP.

I don't think you could go wrong with either brand or either chipset (VIA or nVidia). If you go the route of the nVidia chipset, make sure its nForce3 250 and not an older nForce3 150.

Cheers!

 

That helps alot, many thanks! Just one more little thing (isnt there always one?) What would be the best type of RAM for that, I know 3200 DDR. It is the waffle about things like buffered and non and ECC ect. The mobo's website's offer a list of recommended manufacturers but not what type of ram to get... i hate getting confused over all this. I might just wait till PCI-Express and BTX come out. (well i know i wont coz i dont know when that is, or how good it will be. OR THE COST... ARRG!) Sorry... minor rant over confusing computer blarg.