Low profile graphics card

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bluemax

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2000
7,182
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KingofComputer - He already HAS an MX-200 and the ATI card would be a step down from that (except for 2D graphics quality...)
I think the LP 8500LE will be the best thing you could possibly get, but it WON'T be cheap! It'll cost extra just because of LP! :|

I hope LP becomes THE standard (or just as much as regular) so we can really see some smaller cases! :)

Just imagine if MFR's were encouraged to make the cards small enough so that you could make any product low-profile by simply unscrewing the full-sized mounting bracket and replacing it with the INCLUDED low-profile mounting bracket.
Any regular card instantly becomes low-profile. :)

Many sound cards, video cards and NICs are already that small, why not simply make it officially "both"? They'd have an instant marketing advantage!
 
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Haphazard

Member
Jan 21, 2001
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Ok folks, what do we make of this. Is this what I think it is ... an LP 8500LE? If so, any ideas on how to get one in the US?

cheers.
 
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bluemax

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2000
7,182
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Looks like the real thing to me. :) Just look for people selling POWERCOLOR cards.... "Powered by ATI"
 
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Haphazard

Member
Jan 21, 2001
75
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It does look like the real thing, doesn't it? Unfortunately, a search on pricewatch generated nada. :( Please don't make me buy a lesser card .... !!!
 
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JonnyJonJon

Senior member
Jan 22, 2002
295
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oh man... just ordered my new pc. :) i ordered an aopen h340d case in black from myaopen.com along with a low profile network card. then, from newegg.com, i ordered a chaintech 7sid micro atx motherboard with 256 megs of smart modular ddr. the video card i chose is the low-profile gainward gf4 mx420, and i ordered a mitsumi floppy. the cpu i chose is a 1 gig duron with a thermal-integration ti-v77l hsf (very short). in addition, i have a creative labs dvd drive to slap in there, and my kds rad-5 lcd just arrived from amazon.com. my keyboard and mouse kick ass too... the logitech black optical wireless stuff. so there it is! my perfect lan box! i'll let you guys know how it goes when i build the thing.

btw... if this thing is too slow for me in the future, i might just hafta get an 8500le low-profile card and a thoroughbred athlon xp (runs cooler with less power... perfect for my case!)

pretty, sweet, huh? any comments, guys???
 
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Haphazard

Member
Jan 21, 2001
75
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Thanx JonJon, please keep us posted. If you hear/see any vendor with US availability, please let us know.

cheers.
 
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bluemax

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2000
7,182
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Well, there's certainly nothing wrong with a Radeon 7500 in low-profile. That's as fast as a GF2 TI/Ultra and a HUGE leap up from an MX-200!! No, it's not an 8500LE, but it's still very good. ;) Might even run cool enough to not need a fan, just a fair-sized heatsink.
 
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JonnyJonJon

Senior member
Jan 22, 2002
295
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yeah, but the lp radeon 7500's are clocked at 230 / 183 compared to 270 / 230 ati retail. i would suppose they'd be perfectly fine at, oh, say... 250 / 200 (they only have 5ns memory). oh yeah... and btw... i remember seeing some guy in the tbreak forums ripping on the 8500 lp card from gigabyte for being so underclocked. he was saying how terrible it was for gigabyte to market such a low-clocked 8500, but he didn't know it's purpose... gaming in a low profile chassis, where it would be king!!! :) anyway... he sed he saw them in some computer store in california, so they must be here somewhere!!! my guess is it'll be easier to find the powercolor, as their cards are everywhere. just gotta wait a lil bit til it's not so brand new any more.
 
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JonnyJonJon

Senior member
Jan 22, 2002
295
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also, i should have my new lp pc built before the end of the week. man, oh man... i've got so many people thinking this is a kool idea. nobody really has pc's like this that aren't terribly crappy (intel integrated video, celeron 500's...). i should start making them and selling them if i could get my grubby little paws on some p4 mobo's, some northwoods, and some 8500's. scouring the internet for kool ideas really does pay off, u know.
 
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Haphazard

Member
Jan 21, 2001
75
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Hey JonJon, do you remember which store the guy mentioned he saw the LP 8500 in? I am in CA and would love to know.

 
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JonnyJonJon

Senior member
Jan 22, 2002
295
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i dunno... actually... i've been trying to see that forum topic again... but tbreak.com seems to be gone... doesn't work anymore.
 
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JonnyJonJon

Senior member
Jan 22, 2002
295
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oh yeah, and btw, newegg has original radeon ddr 32 meg cards that don't seem to be le's (because of the presence of hyper-z and active cooling), but seem to be clocked a bit lower than retail models. in the pics, they are low profile! :) if u aren't in need of a tv-out, like i am for my dvd watching, then this is a HOT card for 37 bucks. just edit the bios on that bad boy and bring it up to retail specs easily (minimal overclocking), cut the bracket, and BAM! you've got urself a low-profile radeon ddr vid card!

here's the page where u can find info for all their "made by ati" cards (u heard it right... this card is NOT 3rd party!):
"made by ati" info page

and here's pics of the card:
radeon 32 megs ddr low profile

i would definitely have bought this if i didn't have to have a tv-out. only $37!
for 80 bucks tho, i bet my gainward will perform similarly (mebbe a lil bit worse b/c of the 64-bit memory path).
 
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JonnyJonJon

Senior member
Jan 22, 2002
295
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even more ideas!!! ever seen those cases with the full-size pci slots that are sideways, so u need a riser card to put them in place? (the riser card plugs into the pci slot on the mobo so u can mount the cards parallel to the mobo and keep case size slim.) well guess who found an agp flexible riser cable? that's right... it's me. with this, if you have one of those full-size pci slot cases, or if ur crafty with tools and wanna hack your case, u can pop this bad boy in the agp slot, and hook ANY VIDEO CARD U WANT into it. check it out:

agp flexible riser cable
 
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Haphazard

Member
Jan 21, 2001
75
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JonJon, you are on a roll, you madman! ;) Excellent sleuthing!! I agree that the guy at tbreak is not talking about the Gigabyte. Also, that riser is looking pretty good! Still, we've got to find someone selling that Powercolor I posted earlier! That thing looks beyond sweet ... though I still can't find it on pricewatch. Dammit!

cheers.
 
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fitz4521

Senior member
Nov 16, 2001
782
0
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hey guys... gainward mx420 = incompatible with the chaintech 7sid mobo. :( anyway... put it together and turned it on. i got the video error pc speaker beep code. wouldn't boot. tried a radeon 7500 in the chaintech (took the case lid off... not an lp card) and it worked fine. tried the mx420 in my epox kt266a mobo, worked fine. tried updating the chaintech bios and using the mx420 in it... no good. i ended up RMAing the chaintech mobo to get an msi 6390L. looks nicer! even has onboard prosavage8 ddr video to use as a temporary solution if the mx420 won't work in that one (doubt it... running like a champ on my other via board). has onboard realtek network too! RMAed my aopen lp network card as well. plus my thermal integration ti-v77l hsf that was shipped was spinning at 5000+ rpm, despite it's 3800 rpm description, so i RMAed that too. too noisy! man... have i had enough problems??? well... the new system should be better. the hsf i ended up getting is the evercool cuc-610. should be quiet, fast, and i'll have onboard vid if i need it.

EDIT: this is really jonnyjonjon... i'm on at a friend's house... the crazy subscribin' bastard. wow... subscriber is fast. couldn't bear to sign on as my lowly, non-subscribing name.
 
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Haphazard

Member
Jan 21, 2001
75
0
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Ok folks, I might well have found it ... an LP 8500LE shipping in the US! Check this out. The listing doesn't mention low profile. However, the model numbers (at the bottom of the page) match the PowerColor Small Profile 8500 model listing at the Powercolor site. What do you guys think? How should we figure out if it is indeed the real deal?

cheers,
Haphazard.
 
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Plester

Diamond Member
Nov 12, 1999
3,165
0
76
looks like you might of found the holy grail of low profile vid cards! give em a call and find out. wish i had seen these before i ditched my slick little Aopen H300A case.
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
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Nice card. PowerColor make a lot of low profile cards, definitely the place to look.

Make sure you get the -B3 flavor, VGA-on-cable might sound like an unimportant feature, but that's what makes it a dual head, while the -B2 has just one.

regards, Peter
 
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Haphazard

Member
Jan 21, 2001
75
0
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Just got an email back from them confriming that it is indeed a low profile card. Eureka! :D Now where's that credit card ...

cheers,
Haphazard.
 
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gugliotta

Member
Oct 22, 1999
25
0
0
Keep us posted Haphazard if you decide to purchase this card. I'm desperately looking for the same type of card to go into my small HTPC I'm trying to build.
 
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JonnyJonJon

Senior member
Jan 22, 2002
295
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bah! damn! i just got in my msi mx400d-t64. gf2 mx400 with 64 megs ddr and conexant tv-out... low profile. too bad i didn't know the powercolor ones were being sold for so cheap! oh well... there's always room for upgrades later, right? hehe... can't wait for thoroughbreds... they better be compatible with the chaintech!
 
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bluemax

Diamond Member
Apr 28, 2000
7,182
0
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JJJ, you can always sell that brand new card in our own ForSale forums... there must be others who'd LOVE a low-profile MX-400....
 
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