what to do what to do

[Omardeth]

Ok here is the deal . my father in law wants me to build him a new system . no big deal . he told me i could spend what i wanted . but i explained to him i can speand alot lol so we settled on 1k . i don't need a monitor . i am pretty much sent on an asus a7n8x-e deluxe board , xp2800 , cd burner , cdrom , floppy/cardreader , apsire case and a gig of ram . the thing i am kinda stuck on is the video card . i was thinking either a fx5900 or an 9700 or 9600pro/xt all 3 can be had for around 200$ and that what i have budgeted for the video card . he doesn't do much games other than the train game railroad tycons so even a straight 9600 will be fine for him . what ya think i should do . he isn't gonna play fps games so frame rates aren't a problem with those cards at all .

i have a 9600xt comming tomorrow from newegg that i got for my sons pc so i will see what the quality will be all about wwith the ati's first hand , being i don't own one .

but what you guys think i should put in there ? ohh i get to keep any money over the top also .

I personally wouldn't do anything w/ 'FX' in the title.

Why not go for a GF4?

[Omardeth]

well would like to have something alittle future proof if ya know what i mean . a ti4200 would be fine for him but i have the budget for better . and there is nothing wrong with some of the fx cards .

[Mike]

Well everything about the computer is good, but why spend the extra money if he's not going to really need it? Ask him what he thinks, maybe he wouldn't mind having that extra bit of cash...

[Omardeth]

he has no idea what is what . i might go with a 9600 pro , 9600 or fx5700 they will all do what he needs with ease .

[Mike]

I love my Radeon 9000 Pro, I will end up getting the latest and greatest - eventually

The 9600 Pro isn't a bad card, and it shouldn't cost too much, either.

[originel]

yeah, i'd also say a 9600 pro as well. something we don't care about, but he might is that in general the ati's are much quieter than the FX cards.

btw...i agree, the FX cards are good cards now that they've gotten the kinks worked out.

[Omardeth]

i am kinda leaning that way or the 5700 maybe . just thought i would ask and see what others think

[Starfury_2260]

the 9600xt is a better deal then the 9600 pro. you get free hl2 voucher, so you gotta figure out $50 of the price for that. of course if you buy it oem you dont get hl2 which would be silly.

[Christian-Comp]

After the 42.xx drivers, and the poor performance of the nVidias, I'm going to wait until I hear some positive reviews along with a newer revision of their core chipset. Until then, I'm staying ATI. Although the 5700 looks sassy, I'm just not ready to trust nVidia anytime soon.

I checked a few of the retail 9600xt boxes. Only a few of them actually say Half-Life 2 on it. A lot of the retails only offered some Tomb Raider stuff. The xt only has a few more fps than the pro card, is it really worth it? I mean, if the card has the HL2 and its within 50, id say great, any more... id think about it first.

10 out of the past 14 TI4200 have been duds, dying from 3 months to a year. I really liked the 4200, but they don't have a good history with me of lasting long.

IMO.