Pre-modded Radeon 9500 into 9700 Pro $199

[cursor]

I thought this was pretty interesting. Ed's been talking about how some people have been having trouble getting the mod to work--this takes the guesswork out of it, I guess, but you only get a 30 day DOA warranty...

link to vendor: http://www.bulletpc.com/Qstore/p000293.htm

review @ pimprig: http://www.pimprig.com/modules.php?s=&name=Sections&sop=viewarticle&artid=108

OH resellerratings: http://www.resellerratings.com/seller2838.html

9700 pro is $311 shipped @ newegg. They don't sell a 9500 with 128mb ram. 64 mb version is $141.

Seems like a pretty good deal to me--I'm a fraidy cat with circuit board mods and would let a pro do it for me if I had the chance.

What do you guys think about this?

[Sn0rKy]

dam.. thats good..
i heard overclocked stuff.. shortens life span..

[Lithan]

LOL theres the exact same thing on ebay WITHOUT the ramsinks, softmodded without the bios flash (an oem 9500 that was tested with softmod no other differences). For like 250$ last I checked.


Edit: $230 and change.

[Mike K]

I don't think that's a Pro card.

[cursor]

Originally posted by Mike K
I don't think that's a Pro card.

No, it's not a Pro card. It's a 9500 plain jane, but they mod it to work as fast as a 9700 pro.

[SLO]

Originally posted by cursor


No, it's not a Pro card. It's a 9500 plain jane, but they mod it to work as fast as a 9700 pro.

Don't they mod it to go as fast at the 9700 non-pro? The 9700 pro has better memory (2.8ns vs 3.3/3.6ns). The 9700 non-pro has the same memory as the 9500 non-pro (some of the newer one are comming out with 2.8ns mem though, underclocked Pro?).

[Lithan]

My 9500 from newegg Did 368/310 (didn't have a flawless mod though)
A review I've seen on the 9700 pro said their 9700pro did 358/340. As the ram is speced higher than that Im guessing they got a low quality example. But still, these 9500's cores from what I've seen, easily reach 9700 pro speeds. The Ram, of course can't compete... but it does do good enough that this card should beat a 9700pro at stock. Of course after the fact you only get a 30 day warrentee, you have to wonder why You don't just grab a refurb 9700 pro on newegg for $30-$50 more, and get a card that is competitive at stock and Should easily beat the 9500 by a decent margin when overclocked.

If you were gonna pay $25 to get bga sinks for the card anyway, I would definately recommend getting this card over an untested 9500... but for some reason, 200$ for a video card that ISN'T the fastest card out there seems too much for me.


Note: I Might eat my words and buy one in a few days. But until then I say just get a refurb 9700 pro.

[GT2000]

I have to admit, this thread caught my attention, heh. I'm still content with my Ti4200, but on the other hand, I'm always interesting in getting something better when the $ isn't a factor. If anyone does purchase this card, then please do share the results!

But my current frame of mine is to wait until the GFFX is out to see how those actually perform, keep an eye out at the newegg refurb bin for a 9700 pro, and to see if there are any price drops on new 9700 pros, so, I'm just sitting back and watching for now.

[confusionfactor]

I would definitely consider that if I had the cash for it. I'm stuck on a 64MB geforce ultra card. Know any sexy suga mamas? lol.

[Lithan]

Geforce fx barely beat 9700 pros, don't beat them in some instances, eat assloads of power, put out assloads of heat, have a loudass cooling system, and cost assloads of money. At least thats what I've gathered from the previews I've read.

[Sn0rKy]

Originally posted by Lithan
Geforce fx barely beat 9700 pros, don't beat them in some instances, eat assloads of power, put out assloads of heat, have a loudass cooling system, and cost assloads of money. At least thats what I've gathered from the previews I've read.
plus the thing takes 2 slots.

[TheFrag]

Originally posted by Sn0rKy

plus the thing takes 2 slots.

in lithan's words:
"It takes assloads of slots" :p

[Sn0rKy]

Originally posted by TheFrag


in lithan's words:
"It takes assloads of slots" :p

the fan looks co0l!

[-=A][A=-cazman]

Heh sure it may look cool but what performance increase does it have? I have a GF4 Ti4200 128 right now and I like it alot since I can OC it really well. Now that aside I would've liked to see the GFFX really smoke the 9700 pro but the fact is it rarely beats it in most benchmarks. So would you pay 400 dollars for a video card that barely beats out a 250 dollar card that runs cooler and lower noise? I know what I'm going to do hehehe.

[biatchslappa]

i emailed them with a couple questions i had- might be of use to you guys...
to bulletpc tech- sent at 8:32pm on 2/3/03
hope you might clear up a couple questions i have regarding this card.
1. when it says that it is resistor modded i assume this means that it has been soldered (hard modded)?
2. does hard-modding the card make more immune from ati driver update problems?
3. only warrantied if it is doa (must return in 30 days). so this means that if i get the card and it works for 2 days then burns out i'm outa luck? or do i
have 30 days warranty? how can I be sure that if I get the card and don't install it the same day i recieve it that you will honor the warranty?

thanks for answering these questions as they are pertinent to my purchasing decisions.

will

reply from bullet pc at 8:41pm 2/3/03 (wow u believe that response time? incredible)
Greetings,

1.) Yes it's been soldered. Hard modded.
2.) Yes since the card is flashed as well it's immune from any driver
updates
3.) No, If the card blows up. :-) Or basically burns out within the 30
days, return it. It's quite impossible to burn out the card. If the card is
overclocked to high it just simply won't function. The 30 day warranty
starts when the card leaves our doors. So I'm sorry if you only have 30 days
from the time the card leaves our facility.

Tech
Bullet PC

________________________

I'm thoroughly impressed by their customer service (pre-purchase) hope this doesn't border on promoting a site, pm me if it does. thanx

[Sn0rKy]

that co0l..! if only i had the money..

[KGH]

So this is the card , R9500 for $158 http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=320702
paid $41 bucks to get it modded so i can be as fast as the R9700 ( not PRO ) or lil bit better :)

now only one question left to worry about :

how long can this modded card last ??


and btw according to what I read it can never be as good as R9700 Pro but slightly better than R9700 which is very darn good ..save $80 bucks if you do it urself

[hacgumyu]

so once it mod to 9700 pro, no more driver for it? stuck 4ever?

[deathstar13]

hey guys is this no longer available?
i need a good GFX card in a few weeks and this is the best route ive seen.
ive combed there site and the first linky in dead.ideas?

[cursor]

Looks like that's because the price came down. May have to go to www.bulletpc.com and look for it, but I found the card here:

http://www.bulletpc.com/Qstore/p000292.htm

[x-kid]

yea it says on the front page of www.bulletpc.com that they are out of stock on the modded version. that other link it just that the card is unlocked, that's why it's cheaper, so you can overclock it which means it's just the 9500 that they flashed to a different bois so you can overclock the 9500.

kevin

[deathstar13]

im kinda confused now.
i take it the hard modded ones are the one with 9700 perfomance and they are no longing doing that?
but i can buy a 9500 thats been flashed so i can oc it.but without tha hard mods it wont reach 9700 pefromance?

if i gotta hard mod it i might as well go buy a plain one and do everything myself. i doubt id wanna solder on it so i just might not even mess with it.

[Lithan]

Sapphires are unlocked default. So they are selling a $159 card for $179

[deathstar13]

Originally posted by Lithan
Sapphires are unlocked default. So they are selling a $159 card for $179
ty as im not the most well versed person on ati stuff.it is a hard card to find at the moment now tho.