Low-end system advice

Nik7304 · Post by **Nik7304** » Sat May 07, 2005 3:27 am

I recently won a "multimedia PC", which turns out to be a Celeron 2.66 MHz Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo P (Micro-ATX), with nice holes right over the CPU fan.

In either case, as it has no graphics card (how can a "multimedia PC" have no graphics card?), I was planning to get one and just needed some advice on this. As most graphics card are CPU-limited, what sort of card should I go for? I was thinking of an nVidia 6600 GT 256MB, but would that just be pearls inside a swine?

Any help is appreciated.

/Nik

kesv · Post by **kesv** » Sat May 07, 2005 3:47 am

Nik7304 wrote: As most graphics card are CPU-limited, what sort of card should I go for? I was thinking of an nVidia 6600 GT 256MB, but would that just be pearls inside a swine?

You probably mean top of the line gfx-cards are CPU-limited

In any case you have to consider what you are planning to use the pc for ? A fast card will help achieve acceptable framerates on a slower CPU. The 6600GT is a good choice if you want to play the latest games, however I don't think that 256MB of memory is neccesary (your call). I would suggest going with a passively cooled card.

Gigabyte is offering a passive 6600GT as seen on this thread: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=20310

There is also this thread with some advice on other passive cards: http://forums.silentpcreview.com/viewtopic.php?t=21208

Nik7304 · Post by **Nik7304** » Sat May 07, 2005 4:17 am

Thanks Kesv,

The passively cooled Gigabyte looks interesting. I would mainly use it for gaming, mainly stuff like Star Wars: Galaxies, World of Warcraft, Dawn of War and such. Hopefully, it's a temporary fix before I can get a proper Athlon 3800+ system instead, so a cheaper option is probably best.

If the memory isn't going to be a huge issue, I'll go with the 128MB version (have a 32MB GeForce 2 Go at the moment...).

Thanks again, very useful advice.

/Nik

tay · Post by **tay** » Mon May 09, 2005 1:18 pm

This advice may be offend you in its noobness, but don't buy an AGP card right now if you plan on building a good DIY system in the near future.

Nik7304 · Post by **Nik7304** » Mon May 09, 2005 10:35 pm

Tay,

Thanks, I see your point, with PCI-E around the corner. I've given it a lot of thought, whether or not to spend unnecessarily.

My problem is that without a decent card in it, the machine will be worthless to me. So I figured I'll go for a mid-end card, and as I didn't pay for the computer itself, I should get my money back on it if I sell the whole thing once I'm ready to build something decent.

Again, thanks for the input though.

/Nik

Low-end system advice

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