Albatron 4200 or MSI 4200?

[Dracknem]

Hi, I'm building a computer for gaming, (I own a mac for everyday use), but am building it on a rather limited budget, $600. I am getting the following components:

Athlon XP 2000+
256 MB DDR RAM
Motherboard Asus A7V333 VIA KT333
60 GB Western Digital Hard-Drive
Plextor Plexwriter 16/10/40A
Floppy Drive
Case
Microsoft Optical Explorer Mouse
Any old keyboard.

Now, I was wondering if you all could help me, I am looking at both the Albatron TI 4200 128mb and the MSI TI 4200 64mb cards for this computer. They are both around the price I want to spend ($140) and both have great reviews on newegg.com.

So, what is the popular opinion here? I am looking to play Doom III, UT 2003, Morrowind, AoM, and anything else that I should choose. What card do you all think I should get?

P.S. Anyone recommend a good cast for this system for around $50. Thanks.

 

[Da rock]

i,m very pleased w/my albatron ti4200 turbo. not only does look
great,but it runs like a champ right outa the box.

 

[ryan06]

I'm actually having a bit of a dilemma (sp?) choosing a card, but I'm thinking about going with an MSI ti4200 128mb... Hmm, reading around, it looks like the 128 mb albatron would be good for you, considering you'll be playing demanding games such as Doom 3. I'd wait a bit though for a more experienced answer, since I don't have any experience with either card .

ryan

 

[GeckoBanzai]

The MSI card with its 64 megs of fast RAM is quite capable of playing todays most demanding games with everything turned on. I play Jedi Knight, GTA3, NOLF2, Neverwinter nights and Dungeon Seige with excellent results but I think that there are games coming up that would benefit from 128 megs of ram particularly Doom3.

 

[tenegg]

umm...I would get the AGOIA 1600+ and oc to 2100+ and use the money saved to get the albatron turbo.

 

[Dracknem]

Well....

I've never OCed a chip before. I've owned Macs up until this point. So, if it would be easy I probably could, but I don't know......

 

[tragic_monkey]

oc'ing a vid card is sooooo easy most a lot of manufactures will give u overclocking software with the card. All u have to do is slide a bar along, till it gets unstable running games then drop in 10-20MHz

 

[tragic_monkey]

CPU's are harder, u cud unlock but thats a bit advanced for now, many ecpirienced people don't like it either, but providing u have good ram PC2700 will take you to at least 166MHz (1743, roughly a 2100+) but u gotta make sure u get a board with the right divider or you PCI and AGP wont take it, as u can see this is a lot more complicated but worth it.

 

[ryan06]

Aye, OC'ing video cards is pretty simple... as for programs to use, try PowerStrip. An OC'ing tool comes with the Nvidia drivers also, but you need to unlock it. If you go to the OC3dMark webpage, they have instructions in the tip section ... good luck.

ryan

 

[baqai]

i would suggest going for MSI 128MB card and overclock it, i use Riva Tuner for that, you can get it from www.guru3d.com

 

[tbirdkiri]

i would suggest going for Albatron Ti4200 128 Turbo card and overclock it, I use Coolbits for that, you can get it from Guru3D

hehe, mines running faster then most overclocked 4600's