[Rich-M]

Originally Posted by tssman

Does BFG make good cards? I've never understood why Nvidia makes the chips but other company's put their touch on it and sell them.

Yes Bfg is fine....Nvidia is a chipset maker and I guess they have no interest in manufacturing the whole card .

[Compiler]

Nvidia doesn't have the infanstructure to resell, manufacture, repair and support cards. Then there would only be one source for the card.

This is why:
(A) ATI lost a lot of market share to Nvidia - because only ATI used to design/make/sell ATI video cards - when Nvidia exploded onto the scene in 1999 with the TNT series of cards.

(B) 3DFX - They had about a dozen manufactures selling Voodoo 1, 2 and Banshee cards. But 3Dfx bought STB (a well known video card maker in Texas) to manufacture actual cards which were the Voodoo3 cards. Doing so, 3Dfx said "screw you" to their oem partners... who only switched to Nvidia's TNT2 cards. The entire PC market (hardware companies) ripped 3Dfx up. Out advertised, etc... 3Dfx spent resources promoting their cards - rather than designing... coming to the market with a 16bit display output video card when Nvidia was pushing 24bit was a problem.

So today, we have 1-3 companies that actually manufacture cards (Nvidia makes the GPUs) and then either some companies have cards manufactures to spec (high or low quality) - others may finish the cards in their own factories... then the choose thier cooler tech (either Nvidia standard or other) and "paint" the cards and select the output ports they want. So a company like XFX may have 4 versions of the 8800GT with minor differences. Some are double spced cards, some have S-video output... some have dual DVI, etc etc

So for the most part... it doesn't really matter on the brand. The performance is the same... mostly. Some are clocked faster (maybe with faster RAM chips) than others which means more costs. and of course warranty and support. So you can get a 8800GT for $150~250, depending on what you want and willing to spend.

[tssman]

Yeah that makes sense. If you have a power supply that has a top fan you need a vent in the top of your case right?

[Triple6]

The fans are usually in the back or bottom of the PSU, I haven't seen any that have the fan in the top.

[tssman]

Wow, I see that now, they just like to turn them upside down for the pictures to show off the nice big fan. I feel dumb! xD

[tssman]

Ok this is what I've got
https://secure.newegg.com/NewVersion...itle=Build+001

[Rich-M]

Looks good to me except I would look for a better dvd-rw is all. Plextor on the high side or Pioneer at street prices are much better quality.

[Compiler]

I'd get two matching drives... they will (A) Look better as matching drives (B) The price difference is $10 (C) If/when one of the drives fail - you have another burner to use.

$30 Pioneer = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827129020
or

$27 Samsung = http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16827151153

Both drives are SATA... with XP SP2 or newer, you'll be able to boot off these drives.

[tssman]

Ok I got 2 of the Pioneer and dropped the other two drives other than that I think thats what I'll go with. Is the stock cooler enough, or should I get that Zalman fan.

[Triple6]

The Intel stock coolers with the C2D processors is good enough unless you plan on doing extreme overclocking.

[Compiler]

Yep Yep on the cooler.

[tssman]

Ok, now I just need to find a case. Newegg ran out of the Antec Duo.

[Compiler]

Antec Duo?

Never heard of such a case.

[jamesx121]

what about PNY cards???
the first card I ever bought was PNY. so I have always stayed with them

a old Ge5200 pci 128mb card. my gateway mobo didn't even have a AGP slot.
very first computer.
I did have a Commodore 74 when I was in school.
talk about antique!!!!

how does PNY stack up against everybody else??

[tssman]

Sorry, I meant the Antec Solo. It was out of stock at Newegg for like an hour. I found a different Antec Case that I like more though.