My Niece and her husband picked up a box I put together for them today. It was based upon my old A7V333, a 512MB stick of generic PC2700, an XP1800 running at 10x166 and my old Radeon 7500. When they came to get it, I had it all set up and running. I fired off 3D Mark Demo and they stood there with their mouths agape. It really is a good performer for the money. Not overclocked, it turned in a handsome 5860 score in the benchmark at the default settings. I think their old PC had a GF2 MX200 or something of that caliber and they were very happy with their investment. I took them downstairs to my personal box, (see signature) and ran the same demo. Theirs and my eyes could not see a difference.
I realize the 3D Mark demo and benchmark are not necessarily indicative of all the demands todays 3D games can make upon a system. These are down-to-earth people who make the PC serve them, not vice versa and I doubt they will ever run a synthetic benchmark, let alone care that my box gets 10,000+ versus their 5860.
As I have always said, if you can't see the difference, don't pay for it and above all, keep in perspective that the purpose of your PC is to spend its time serving you, not vice versa.
Hoot
