New Video Card

[CSFM]

I am getting a new machine up and running tonight:
Athlon XP1800 Processor
MSI 6330LE5 Motherboard
640 Meg SD133 Ram
Creative SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1
Pioneer DVD
Sony SCSI CDR/RW
19" Acer Monitor
Canon 1220U Scanner
Canon Ixus V Digital camera

I use will be using this machine for my home entertainment unit... ie. Mp3's, CD player, cable internet, DVD player, and for editing and storing photo's for personal use and for web site development. I don't play a whole lot of games so I don't need anything to special in the video card department.... most of this gear is coming out of my older machine that has the Matrox G400 in it. I have been quite happy with this card but I am looing at getting the ATI Radeon 7200. Is this card a good choice? I have installed one of these last week for a friend and I am wondering if it is suitable for my needs... I am yet to use his machine apart from when I built the thing (I haven't been able to get him off it!) so I haven't been able to test the card out.
I have read the PDF file from ATI and it all looks to be suitable... but I am looking for someone who has had one of these cards... for reassurance.

Ohhh... I am going to be running Win2K on this machine as I have done on my older machine (It is a P3 733Mhz, IWill VD133 MoBO... blah, blah.....)

Thanks!

 

[sMashPiranha]

The Radeon is a good choice. But if I was you I would go for a 7500. The 7500 uses DDR memory whereas the 7200 is only SDR. I have a 7500 at home, damn good card and I'm very happy with it.

 

[CSFM]

Oh well... too late. I bought the 7200 last night. Biult the computer last night and I am very happy with the Video card!
Just can't get the SB Live to work though. The on board sound wont disable and I can't get into the BIOS on start up to doulbe check that I disabled it. (Which I am sure I did anyway) The system stops responding when I press DEL to enter the BIOS... You got any ideas? I have posted this in the Motherboard forum already to see if I can get some ideas... But feel free to respond here if you have any ideas to share

 

[anime]

un plug the sblive off the system first.
Check if there's a bios update to your mobo. And find if there's any option under bios to disable it. If you still can not find it,... you can go to amdmb.com forums and post your question msi forum.

 

[CSFM]

Check if there's a bios update to your mobo. And find if there's any option under bios to disable it. If you still can not find it,... you can go to amdmb.com forums and post your question msi forum.

I did all this... I updated the BIOS and still no luck. I can't actually enter the BIOS at all.

I am going to remove the card al together tonight and see if I can't get into it then... thanks for your input!

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< I am getting a new machine up and running tonight:
Athlon XP1800 Processor
MSI 6330LE5 Motherboard
640 Meg SD133 Ram
Creative SoundBlaster Live! Platinum 5.1
Pioneer DVD
Sony SCSI CDR/RW
19" Acer Monitor
Canon 1220U Scanner
Canon Ixus V Digital camera

I use will be using this machine for my home entertainment unit... ie. Mp3's, CD player, cable internet, DVD player, and for editing and storing photo's for personal use and for web site development. I don't play a whole lot of games so I don't need anything to special in the video card department.... most of this gear is coming out of my older machine that has the Matrox G400 in it. I have been quite happy with this card but I am looing at getting the ATI Radeon 7200. Is this card a good choice? I have installed one of these last week for a friend and I am wondering if it is suitable for my needs... I am yet to use his machine apart from when I built the thing (I haven't been able to get him off it!) so I haven't been able to test the card out.
I have read the PDF file from ATI and it all looks to be suitable... but I am looking for someone who has had one of these cards... for reassurance.

Ohhh... I am going to be running Win2K on this machine as I have done on my older machine (It is a P3 733Mhz, IWill VD133 MoBO... blah, blah.....)

Thanks! >>

Actually, given that you're not playing games too much and that you're into web development, I would choose a Matrox G450 or G550. BTW...don't get SDR memory on your system, for the love of God. Cut down to a 1700+ and buy an nForce or KT266A mainboard so you can get DDR.

 

[CSFM]

I stuck with the SD ram because I already have soooo much of it. I have 896 MB of this stuff and I couldn't part with it. I have read that it is only a 10% difference in speed... money is not really a factor... I just found it hard to part with it. I am going to reset the BIOS tonight after I try taking the card out and starting again. It is a bit of a pain in the butt having to do this within 24 hours of installing the new board!

I am going to leave the old machine with 256MB ram.

I will one day in the very near future upgrade to DDR ram (or what ever is the flovour of the month in 18 months time). I have read alot into this and correct me if I am wrong (please) there is only about 10% difference in speed between the two. I am going to pump the FSB up to 140Mhz... I think the SD ram can take it.

 

[sMashPiranha]

Well CSFM, even without the DDR memory that should still be a good system. Yeah your right about the 10% speed difference, Athlons don't really thrive on the extra memory bandwidth like the P4 does with the RDRAM. And as long as your not going to play too many games the 7200 should be fine compared to the 7200.
Good luck!

 

[CSFM]

Thanks mate!

I got it going last night in about 10 mins. I reset the CMOS and I could get into the BIOS again... somehow the on board sound had turned itself back on and Windows was trying to run two sound cards! Which I am afraid to say, just wont work! LOL

So after turning it off I restarted and away she went. It detected my sound card and all is going well. One thing I have to get going now is the Live! Drive (Remote control) Which for some reason isn't being detacted by Windows at all.

It is very fast... Personally it is my first AMD machine and I am very impressed... it has taken them 3 years or more to convince me to buy one of there chips for personal use (I build them for other people and clients all the time).

Nice work AMD I am very happy with the performance lavels of your XP1800+... Thanks!!