(POLL) i'm at a crossroads... ati products

[imported_thedoctor]

Greetings...
I haven't posted on here in over a year and everyone was very helpful back then, but i forgot my login stuff so i had to make another account... but lets get to it

I'm either going to buy:

ATI Radeon 9600 XT graphics card AND ATI TV Wonder Pro (tv tuner card)

OR

ATI All-in-wonder 9600 XT graphics card (includes tv tuner on it)


At first I was leaning towards separate cards... to split up the processing per card...
but the all-in-wonder card says it has "Hardware MPEG Encode Assist" which would speed up/reduce the file size of any captured video...

Both options would cost the same

the a-i-w comes with a remote (not a big deal cause i have a wireless mouse which could do the same)

and the a-i-w is also a little tiny bit faster of a card... but even though the tv tuner card doesnt say anything about assisting encoding doesnt mean that it doesnt help just to have it as a separate card...

the a-i-w would also run hotter (most likely)


WHICH OPTION SHOULD I CHOOSE?????????

System specs:
windows xp pro
ECS KT600-A Mobo
AMD Athlon XP 2600+ (Barton)
333 FSB
200 Gig hard drive space
1 gig of DDR400 ram (pc3200)


Thanks for any advice

 

[imported_thedoctor]

bump

 

[shimsham]

go seperate. that way you can upgrade one at a time, instead of having to buy an aiw each time.

 

[JBT]

Originally posted by: shimsham
go seperate. that way you can upgrade one at a time, instead of having to buy an aiw each time.

agreed.

 

[Brian48]

Tha AIW's have always been problematic with me and friends that I know who bought one. As mentioned before, the TV Tuner adds a lot of heat and being this close to the VPU doesn't help. Also, should the Tuner fail (and they do), you're stuck with RMA'ng the whole card instead of just replacing the Tuner itself.

I wholeheartily recommend a separate, stand-alone TV Tuner/Video capture card over an AIW.

FYI, both BestBuy and MicroCenter chains are having a sale on ATI TV Wonder VE's for only $29.95 (after $20 instant rebate).

 

[Schadenfroh]

dont get the AT tv cards, i have heard bad things about them, get a 9600xt with a leadtek tv tuner, you wont be able to upgrade a AIW without tossing your tv card away, even tho the AIW card is quite good