Best video for web surfing & Linux compatibility

[bupkus]

I'm building a pc for my brother. He only surfs the web or maybe some office software. I was going to order the G550 OEM Matrox with 32MB DDR from Newegg for him, but someone local suggested the ATI RADEON VE.
The cpu will be a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ w/ 256MB DDR all on a bed of VIA KT266A chipset.
Suggestions please.
I personally have the G450 w/ 16 SDR ram.

 

[sMashPiranha]

How bout giving him your G450 and upgrading yours to a G550/Radeon?
Also, does he really need all that power just for running linux and web surfing?

 

[bupkus]

Good point about that power issue, but how can I drop the price without without dropping out into a much weaker system.
I kinda thought the XP 1700+ was a sweet spot for price/performance.

Oh, I just remembered... both he and his daughter like to download .mp3's and burn audio CD's. Their current Pentium Pro is pretty slow for that, and is being retired to a business desktop so they need a new pc anyway.

What setup would you suggest for .mp3 to .wav and surfing and business apps?

Not being snotty, but what do you mean by G550/Radeon?
None of us game and I don't know the edge the G550 has over the G450 for 2D usage.

The Radeon? Which one? Can you suggest one that would have good 2D support in W2K and Linux and be cheaper than the G550?

I've been using Matrox for years and I like their drivers/software although I never did buy that 2nd monitor.

 

[bupkus]

ttt

 

[Bengt4]

Man, the card you're looking for is a cheap GeForce 2MX 200 or even a MX400. If you don't game, this card rocks for it's great performance/price ratio.

It's 2D performance is very good even on 19 inch monitors, it supports all important modern APIs (OpenGL, Direct 3D), it has very good drivers for Windows and Linux (including of course, a x-client from nVidia). If they pretend to play a old game the MX200 will rock too.

I know that the Matrox G-400 and up are better 2D performancers, but in reality, for Web surfing and Office programs, even on 19 inch monitor, there's no visible difference - for most people.

My opinion: buy him a cheap (but good) MSI or SOYO KT-133 with Savage 3D video and sound (both onboard). Pair it up with 256MB SDRAM, a Duron 900+ processor, a 20-40GB HD and a LG 16X burner, a Realtek 10/100 NIC, install Win2K Pro, and you're done. Really, a AMD Athlon XP 1700+ w/ 256MB DDR with a KT266A board for WEB SURFING and OFFICE Aplications it's just a waste of money and computacional power. I bet if you build both systems (my config and yours), your brother will NOT find any differences between them. I BET =]

But the price difference will be noticiable... =]