Best deal for under $80.00.. replace fx5200

[yo4444]

Just as the title asks, what would be the best deal for under $80.00 to replace a fried fx5200? It's for a buddy of mine with a P4 running pc133....Compaq peice of crap....
9550?
9250?
9500np in classies?

Hes got no cooling whatsoever in his case, so it's gotta run stock.. and he's addicted to CS:S and other games..needs to be able to keep up marginally.

[A1Killer]

ummm id say go with the 9600np it should handle the games he plays

[Kalivos]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814131243

9550 I'd say.

[yo4444]

ummm id say go with the 9600np it should handle the games he plays
actually, its a 9500 NP in classies..128Mb.. my bad for the typo

[willkill1337]

Yeah, I'd say definately a 9500NP seeing as it is potentially soft-moddable to a 9500P or a 9700NP.

And hey, there's nothing that wrong with owning a Compaq. I had no money when I bought my PC and managed to borrow £300 off my mother a few years ago to pick up the Athlon XP 1800 with 256mb DDR Ram and onboard graphics.... Oh well actually on second thoughts :D it would be nothing without the 1gig of RAM, 425Watt PSU and the Radeon 9700P I've put in it!

Oh yeah and if I were you I would examine the power supply on that computer as mine came with a 285 Watt Lite-On PSU which just failed to power the system when I added a 9700P and another 512mb stick of RAM, so if it is in the slightest bit unstable after buying installing that graphics card then I would reccomend buying a decent new PSU.

[hUMANbEATbOX]

you could maybe find a 9700pro, either used or refurbed...

[Spade]

i saw a 9700 pro for 79? 70-ish on newegg refurbs , actually two diff off brands of them once. FORCE him to get at least an exhasut fan for his case, takes about two seconds to pop it in, and any idiot can do it. IF he already has that, it also shouldnt be too hard to get a front fan going.. may take some more work though.

anyhoo keep an eye out on neweggs refurbs for a week or so and youll get a good grip of whats out there and $ range.
there are tools you can oc the card with via windows too, w/o extra work, you may get a few (5-10%) bump up in performance just by doing that , over the stock card IF it comes with good enough cooling.

--> Oh yeah and if I were you I would examine the power supply on that computer as mine came with a 285 Watt Lite-On PSU which just failed to power the system when I added a 9700P and another 512mb stick of RAM, so if it is in the slightest bit unstable after buying installing that graphics card then I would reccomend buying a decent new PSU. <-- read this twice.

thanks willkill1337



(barring all of that, jump on a 9600 pro, or hell if its cheap enough a fx56-5800, again IF you can find one)
newegg rocks.

[Zulu-1]

FX5800?
that'll make the PC overheat even more!, they have lawnmower cooling on 'em!

[dicecca112]

FX5800?

Good Luck finding one

[A1Killer]

try to get him an 9600pro heck if i can get my 9800pro fixed ill sell my 9600pro to you lol i just need to get my 9800pro flashed back to stock bios i forgot to back the stock bios up and the ones online dont work with my card since its so new and sapphire makes there own mobos for the cards

[jjv687]

Refurbished 9600 XT.. $80
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102338R

[yo4444]

that xt looks like the best deal so far.. I'll run it by him today and see if he bites. Thanks for all the info guyS!!! Keep it coming, no decision has been made yet!!!

[yo4444]

Will that 9600 xt outperform the 9800 se here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102464R) ??

Or 9600 AIW here (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102345R)

EDIT: Also, there is no room for an intake(front) fan in this case, but there's room or an 80mm in back near cpu. I was thinking of putting a decent intake there and a blower in the pci slot for him, to be sure the new card doesn't fry. Sound reasonable?.. I found this (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16835150006) one with 31cfm at newegg...I have some 80mms lying around too..

And the PSU is a 250 watt Compaq.... I have a 400 allied crap laying around, but don't want to change it if I don't need to.

[HousERaT]

If your friend can part with 10 extra dollars they can get this. A 9800Ultra lite for $90 shipped. Probaby better than anything else suggested.

http://www.actbuy.com/details.asp?item=AT10030-3

[jjv687]

I've never heard of a 9800 Ultra Lite, but it's RAM speed is amazing! I have a 9800 Pro overclocked to 370 MHz and that Ultra thing gets 670 MHz! My default core is something like 374 MHz too.. How is that card so cheap?

Oh.. Just noticed "Availability: Out of Stock". It was probably a mistake listing.

[axhed]

EDIT: Also, there is no room for an intake(front) fan in this case, but there's room or an 80mm in back near cpu. I was thinking of putting a decent intake there and a blower in the pci slot for him, to be sure the new card doesn't fry. Sound reasonable?

actually, no. you want to run that one as an exhaust. if you run it as an intake it will suck the hot exhaust from the psu and blow it over the cpu. the air will come off the hsf, go out through the psu, get sucked back into the case and blown through the cpu cooler again and just get hotter and hotter. i put mine in backwards once and the case and load temps jumped by 10F.

[yo4444]

Even with a bottom exhaust? I know, heat rises, but if the cfm of the intake is a bit lower than or equal to the exhaust, I figured it would create at least some air flow over the vid card by forcing the air*(hot or not) out through the bottom blower. With the way this thing is set up, If I just make that an exhaust, the only air getting in would be from right next to it where there is some mesh(holes in the backplate)so it'll be circulating the air in pretty much the same way.. out from psu and fan, in from vent next to fan and around again.

[jjv687]

Just try the card out and if it gets too hot or you get artifacts, then deal with airflow.

[yo4444]

Another complication...
He said he would like to stay $80.00 or under, but now said he would do up to $100.00 if I found an incredible deal.

I'll keep looking.

[jjv687]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.asp?Submit=list&SubCategory=48&bop=and&type=Refurbished&srchInDesc=9800pro
Take your pick. I like that one for $103, the Heatsink covers the memory chips. It's not the same 9800 Pro as the standard Sapphire brand 9800 pros, it's probably newer. Either that or spend $4 less and get the standard one.

[yo4444]

yeah.. that one for $103 has what looks to be the xt Pcb... maybe I'll flash it for him... theres also a 9800 pro flashed to xt in the classies... hmmmmm

[yo4444]

would you suggest flashing a refurb to xt? Is there any prob with that?

[A1Killer]

no theres no prob with that its just you never know what core it will have it could either have an r350 or an r360 core and the pcb might not have all the little doodads to flash to xt but it never hurts to try the only thing is BACK UP YOUR STOCK BIOS FIRST i didn't and my 9800pro is dead to the world right now

[jjv687]

Well, if an item has been refurbed, it's not what a buyer wanted. So my guess is they bought the card because they wanted the R360 core to flash it to an XT but didnt get it so they returned it.

[PerlAddict]

Not always true ... I bought my 9800Pro off Newegg's refurb bin for $230 over a year ago. It was the cheapest of the three refurbs they had there. I clicked the most expensive, and it was sold out before it was in my cart. Same with the next one. Clicked the magic #3, and my 9800Pro 256MB showed up at my door with an R360 core, Hynix ram, and the XT PCB. One bios flash later and I was looking at the card's built-in temp monitor giving off readings. Ahhhh, sweet Lady Luck, how I do adore thee.

Refurb's don't just mean someone didn't want it and sent it back ... a lot of times the items actually ARE refurbished. =)

I've never heard of a 9800 Ultra Lite, but it's RAM speed is amazing! I have a 9800 Pro overclocked to 370 MHz and that Ultra thing gets 670 MHz! My default core is something like 374 MHz too.. How is that card so cheap?

That's the final DDR speed ... divide 670 by 2 for the bus speed. ;)

[jjv687]

That's the final DDR speed ... divide 670 by 2 for the bus speed. ;)
Yes, yes... I realized that later.. I feel stupid :bang head :)

[yo4444]

Well, either way, it looks as if that 9800 pro refurb is my best bet for him. If it will flash, great, if not, its still a good card. It does look to have the xt pcb tho...

[jjv687]

Don't flash it until your positive it's an R360. I recommend overclocking it to XT speeds first to make sure it can handle it then flash it. That way youre safe

[Knivez]

Definately check to see if it is r360 before you flash. I flashed my r350 and recieved just about no performance gain.

The way I check without ripping off the heatsink, is too load up a Knoppix CD, and as it boots it will show r350 or r360 next to vid card name. Don't know if their's an easier way.

[jjv687]

Everest tells you what the video card core is as well.

[yo4444]

Knoppix?. Everest?? don't know either..

[jjv687]

Just search Google for Everest and download it. When you open it go to Display then GPU, GPU Code Name is the 2nd one down on the list.