Building up a LAN gaming house

[danielshoes]

Hi, folks. It is becoming very common here in Brazil the "LAN houses", where the teens spend a lot of time and money playing games like Counter Strike among many others. I am planning to build up one with 20 machines and one of my main doubts was related to which video card to choose. After analysing the market, I found out that a good choice would be a "generic" GeForce4MX, due to an accessible price and reasonable performance (remember, I am not in US, so parts are more expensive due to the import taxes...).

The fact is that I would like to ask you if you think that there is another value gaming video card that I should consider purchase, instead of GeForce4MX, i.e., with a better cost/benefit. Am I doing a good choice?

Thanks in advance!

 

[CubicZirconia]

The geforce 2 gts will offer similar performace at lower costs (at least in the US).

 

[danielshoes]

Maybe... but comparing the GF2 GTS to a GF4 MX44O, I still think that the last is a step ahead in terms of generation and runs cooler (even without fan = maintenance free). What about Radeon value line? Nothing as value as a GF4 MX440 offering the same performance?

 

[RyanB18]

Well here in America the Radeon 8500's are slightly cheaper than the G4MX line. If it is the same or similar there, I would highly recommend getting the R8.5k as it kills the G4MX in performance and playability of future games.

 

[MournSanity]

Geforce3 Ti200!!!

 

[CableDude]

I'm not sure what prices are where you live, but a Radeon 8500LE is an awesome card for what it costs. (here..)

 

[spanky]

in the US... gf3 ti200 prices are pretty close to the gf4mx440 prices. so are the 8500's.

 

[CubicZirconia]

gf3 ti200 prices are pretty close to the gf4mx440 prices. so are the 8500's.

Assuming the prices in Brazil are similar, both the ti200 and the Radeon 8500 would be better choices than the gf4mx440 (or any gf4mx).

 

[danielshoes]

Well, I am also considering the fact that NVIDIA chipsets are adopted by a lot of no-named OEM manufacturers that compete with well known giants MSI, ABIT, ASUS, etc... offerring a very similar product by an expressive lower cost (and the quality is not that bad...). So you go to the bakery on the corner and purchase a "XING LING LING Hiper Super GF4 MX440" by almost half $$$ that you would spend in an ASUS GF4 MX440. But when we talk about ATI... we talk about ATI only, because they do not sell the chipsets, they sell the entire board. So, any Radeon based card is more expensive that the generic NVIDIA card equivalent. That is why NVIDIA chips dominate the low cost market here.

Is there something too bad regarding the GF4 MX series, some technical detail, that I should analyse, that could mean a strong downside, jeopardizing the near future game playing? Something that could justify avoid this product and switch to a higer grade board?

 

[spanky]

we talk about ATI only, because they do not sell the chipsets, they sell the entire board

that is not true. ati now allows 3rd party oem's to use their chips to manufacture boards. giga-bye, hercules, & saphiretech (spelling?) are among a few i can think of at the moment...

 

[Schnieds]

Check out the ATI Radeon 9000. There is an Anandtech review here and a Tom's Hardware review here

I would recommend finding a 3rd party 9000 pro for a couple of reasons:

1. It gives much better performance in most benchmarks than the GF4 MXs.

2. It supports DirectX 8, which your patrons will want in the future for gaming. If you go with a GF4MX now, you may save a few bucks a machine, but when a DX8 game comes out that everyone wants to play you will either have to upgrade your cards (a lot of $$$) or your users will go somewhere else.

 

[danielshoes]

Ok, I didn't know that ATI was licencing their chipsets. Good to know it. The only problem is that Radeon 9000 has just launched and there are no parts available in the market. I believe when it arrives here it will still be priced higer than the GF4 MX440, but maybe it worth the investment. Thanks to everyone for the inputs!