Video card or TC tuner????

Discussion in 'Hardware' started by ltb-p5wd2, Jul 19, 2009.

  1. ltb-p5wd2

    ltb-p5wd2 Private E-2

    Here is my current build.

    P5WD2 Premium
    Pentium D830
    Dark Knitght CPU Cooler
    Powercolor Radeon X800GT
    4 gigs of Patriot PVS24G6400LLK Ram
    Maxtor DiamondMax 10 6V300F0 300GB Serial ATA (3.0Gb/s) 7200RPM Hard Drive w/16M
    Seagate 1.5T Hard Drive for media storage
    BenQ DVD+RW
    Asus CDRW-DVD
    Lian-Li PC6070 Plus Case-Stock fans
    Corsair HX Series CMPSU-620HX
    Samsung 215tw 21" widescreen monitor, Win-TV PVR500


    Should I stay with the X800GT video card or should I upgrade. I want to spend less than $100 since this is an older system. Is there much benefit to upgradeing my video card. I don't play games on the PC anymore. Just use it as a media center, photo editing and web surfing. Any suggestions???
     
  2. paradoxdream

    paradoxdream Private First Class

    the 8800 will do just fine for these for a long while to come

    get a TV tuner I waited for ever to get one and Its one of the best things I ever did makes Media center Soooooooooo much better
    Being able to pause and record live TV and listen to FM radio is just cool as hell. Not to mention that when ever i record a Program I can re encode it to what ever I want (AVI, MKV, MP4, DVD, etc.) put seasons on to dvd or an external drive with out having to be limited by Copywrite crap MOST other DVR's come with
     
  3. ltb-p5wd2

    ltb-p5wd2 Private E-2

    I already have an analog dual tuner. I was thinking maybe something like this-GIGABYTE GV-R435OC-512I Radeon HD 4350 512MB video card or a digital dual tuner.
     
  4. paradoxdream

    paradoxdream Private First Class

    If you have Digital Tv (or at least some digital signals) then I Would go with the digital Dual tuner
    Because If you not gaming or doing some advanced video editing I don't see a better video card making much of a difference ( that you will notice) but a better tv tuner will make a noticeable difference it tv quality

    As far as the X800 to view Video / pics / internet and to edit pics it should handle this effortlessly
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2009
  5. dlb

    dlb MajorGeek

    Being an NVidia fan, I'd upgrade the X800 to a Geforce 9600GT. Most are under $100 and they have an EXCELLENT price-to-performance ratio, better than the HD4350 by a long shot. For under $70, you should look at the Geforce 9500GT. It's probably the best 128bit card on the market and will provide superior performance for all things video for a non-gamer, but it will also do some gaming too (but as we all know, gaming video cards can really be quite spendy).
    Geforce 9500GT cards at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=9500GT
    Geforce 9600GT cards at Newegg: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Ntk=&CFG=&SpeTabStoreType=&srchInDesc=9600GT
    Some cards even come bundled with free games or have rebates or free shipping.... look at this card, a 512mb 9600GT. It includes two free games (World of Warcraft and Call Of Duty 4), free shipping, and a $20 mail-in rebate!!! It totals out at $69.99, and when you register the video card with the manufacturer, you get a LIFETIME warranty!!!! (at least I think you get the lifetime warranty; I bought a GTX260 from this same manufacturer and got a lifetime warranty when I registered within 30 days, so I'm assuming they have the same policy for all their video cards)
     
    Last edited: Jul 19, 2009

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