Decisions

[zental]

Okay, so heres my dilema. I just lost my old video card, a radeon 9500pro. I'm attempting to RMA it but I don't want to wait that long without a video card.

I saw the saphire 9800pro on sale for $220 at newegg, and its the bulk/oem, same clocks as regular ati, and its the red one. So my question is what do you guys think? go or no go, I'm trying to be wise with my money, but time is also an issue here. If I do get this card, and then also get a fixed card back from my RMA, or a replacement(its discontinued), then do you think i'd be able to sell it on like ebay or something and get part of my money back. I really didn't need to upgrade my card, it was still good.

Then just a side note, I'm also thinking about ordering the X-dreamer II case off xoxide.com and also getting the volcano 12 heatsink. What do you guys think of those for my barton 2500+? I was running pretty warm on my barton with stock so I figured I should upgrade. I was up to 60c last night at a lan party playing games, thats stock speeds and heatsink.

Guess I just want a second openion b4 I spend my money.

-The Zent
Barton 2500+,Abit NF7-S V2, Fortron 350W, 2x512 Geil pc3200, ATi Radeon 9500pro

 

[zental]

pls

-The Zent
Barton 2500+,Abit NF7-S V2, Fortron 350W, 2x512 Geil pc3200, ATi Radeon 9500pro

 

[pauldh]

Ah, I upgraded from an ATI 9500 Pro to a Saphire 9800 Pro. I am happy with the decision as although the 9500 pro was a very good card, it didn't really allow for AA/AF at 1280x1024. The 9800 pro definatetly has more power in that regards. Of course 3dmarks and aquamarks went up, but that was expected. That said, if you can get by borrowing an old card for a few days, not a bad choice either if you were totally happy with the 9500 pro. I personally won't be ebaying my 9500 pro as it won't bring in what I would want for it. I will use it in my LAN box, and I may offer it as an upgrade when I sell a system to someone interested in gaming, and get a little more back out of it than ebay. SO to me the upgrade wasn't a waste, it just improved the performance on 2 systems.

I have a Coolermaster Aero 7 in my XP2500+. I am thrilled with that heatsink. At stock speeds, I can play games with the RPM turned down enough to not be able to hear it over my 2 case fans, which are also low noise models. But when it comes time to overclock, turn the knob and crank up the fsb, it keeps things very cool. Expensive heatsink, but looks great, and can be either super quiet or cool, or anywhere in between. I like it better than the volcano 9 in this system, but that is also a nice quiet cooler, but tends to be a bit noisier to keep this XP1600+ cool.

ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 512MB Corsair TwinX PC3200LL, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt