geforce 3 brands?

[Odoacer]

okay i am buidling a new system on a very tight budget. I am planning on getting a geforce 3 but I dont know which to get. I really like the elsa brand but its kinda expensive and im a bit leery about getting cards from like gainward or visiontek or whatever... i know its a lot cheaper but im worried about the quality and stuff too. also i really want that GF3-optimized version of giants

Basically I can afford the elsa, but should i just buy a cheaper gf3 then use the leftover money for indulgences like a slot DVD drive, more RAM, better monitor, etc?

 

[DAPUNISHER]

Gainward makes an excellent G3 card that recieves high ratings, and i've been building systems using their products for several years now and not one has been problematic. Please don't let the lack of advertising scare you off, it's why they can offer a high quality product for less.

 

[Odoacer]

Newegg has a deal on the elsa for 329 bucks... a good 20 dollars less than the normal price. The gainward card goes for $283, and i'm tempted to get that...

The thing with the elsa card is that it comes in a retail box but newegg states that it has "no cable", what does that mean? Is it important? My system has a RIVA TNT and i just have to plug it in the AGP slot to get it working so I don't know much in this area.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

no cable means you need your own s-video cable to hook it to your tv, no big deal they are a couple of $ at radio shack. Also, after looking at your choices, I would buy the cardexpert because it also has dvi and vivo (golden sample) and the only thing the elsa seems to have on it is slightly faster ddr sdram(could not find spec on golden sample ddr sdram to verify this)and for 314$ the extra features seem a better value to me.

 

[nicowju]

I like the Gainward GF3 (because I have one). The VIVO features are nice, and the card looks really nice! And it overclocks well