Newb seeking a PCI-E solution... What's a good inexpensive PCI-E w/DVI?

[one7]

I just got Mom a new PC... one of those Dell outlet deals plus a brand new Dell 1905fp 19" LCDs. Easier on her aging eyes, ya know... Problem is, I've got it running on the onboard 8mb of shared video with an analog VGA connection... so I imagine I'm not getting the best out of that 19" of LCD real estate. The graphics slot in this PC is a 16x PCI Express.

I'm not familiar with PCI-express and what the options are out there, but I'd like to pick up a cheap one for this system. Obviously, this will not be gaming or graphics-intensive, I just want to be able to use the digital connection and to get the most out of the resources that are there already.

I searched the Hot Deals forum a few times, but didn't turn up anything. Can you recommend a specific budget PCI-E card? Do you know of any hot deals on these right now?

Thank you for your help!
-Mark

 

[Matthias99]

The lowest-end PCIe cards are the ATI X300(SE) and the NVIDIA 6200. Both generally come with DVI-out. These are not real popular cards, since gaming performance on them is not great. But either will work just fine for desktop use.

 

[EightySix Four]

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-102-513&depa=1

That one, the Nvidia 6200's can take some of your system memory which = not cool. That's cheap and should do the trick.

 

[one7]

Thanks for your help, folks... I'll look into the x300(se).

 

[imported_Kensai]

Originally posted by: Matthias99
The lowest-end PCIe cards are the ATI X300(SE) and the NVIDIA 6200. Both generally come with DVI-out. These are not real popular cards, since gaming performance on them is not great. But either will work just fine for desktop use.

I'd say that the 6200, non TC is faster than any x300.

 

[one7]

Sorry, Kensai... what is Non TC?

 

[Melchior]

nothing. You'll see no differences.

 

[mwmorph]

non tc means non turbo cache, a fancy phrase for "this video card steals system ram to run because it sucks". sorta like an onboard solution but you actually paid extra for it.

 

[gobucks]

turbocache (and Hypermemory, which some new X300SEs use) basically feature a small amount of pysical memory (16MB, 32MB, or 64MB) and uses main memory for the rest. For example, I think the 64MB version pretends its a 256MB card. The idea is like cache versus RAM. The most important data is stored on the physical buffer, and the rest is on the slower RAM, which takes much longer to access. This works because PCIe has MUCH more bidirectional bandwidth than AGP. It works, but the performance hit is way more than the money you save (usually $10-20).

Anyways, I recommend an X300 (non-hypermemory) or a 6200 (non turbocache). 6200 is faster and supports better features (hardware MPEG2/WMV acceleration, shader model 3.0, etc.), but the X300 is usually cheaper. A 6200 is about as fast as a 9600 non-pro or 5600 non-ultra, if you need a rough comparison, while the X300 is slightly faster than a 9200 or 5200.

 

[Pete]

I don't think his mother will care about gaming performance or even losing some system memory, so I'd say just get the cheapest one you can find. Maybe you can buy one of the X300SEs that come with Dell PCs from a Dell owner that's upgraded to something better. I'd check the FS/FT forum, or post a WTB thread in there. And there's always eBay.

Actually, I'd also look for the card to have just a heatsink, no fan. That's one less thing to break and/or be noisy (and, in my limited experience, video card fans tend to do both, early and often).

 

[one7]

Yeah, hardcore gaming is defintely not an issue for her, lol... Bejeweled is about as intense as it gets. I haven't picked up a card yet, I'll see what I can find in a non-TC 6200, I think. Since her system only has 512mb RAM, it's probably best not to be sharing it for video. Then again, right now it's running on shared memory anyway (albeit only 8mb)...

Again, I appreciate all of your help. This forum's a great source of information.

 

[imported_Hi]

this is the cheapest non-tc 6200

 

[one7]

Originally posted by: Hi
this is the cheapest non-tc 6200

Thanks for the link. Here's a refurb Chaintech... it doesn't look like it uses TC... 256mb/128bit for $62. Am I missing something on this one?
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=14-145-109R&depa=1

They also have a 128mb/64bit refurb for $60...

I searched Newegg for '6200' under video cards, and these are the cheapest I see that don't have "Turbo Cache" in the listing...

 

[one7]

I just checked the item #'s on the $60 refurb 128/64 and the one you linked to, Hi (great handle, heh.) Same product number, except for the r at the end (I assume for refurbished.)

Is it a bad idea to get one of these as a Newegg refurb? Any stories, good or bad?

Thanks again!