A good Graphics Card that's not PCI-E?

Advantages: AGP Support - Will run most modern games - reasonable price
Disadvantages: Now quite outdated - If you have AGP, you might be better getting a new computer

...4600. This was for it's time a top of the range card, but was now seriously showing it's age, and due to something to do with shaders (I'm very good with computers, but some of the jargon still goes right over my head) that it wouldn't support, it shouldn't have played Oblivion at all, hence the need for the hack. I decided to purchase a new card, with a budget of around £100. The problem was though my computer had an AGP port, whereas most new cards were PCI-Express, which restricted me. After some enquiries, including on the Oblivion forums, I came across the GeForce 7600GS. This seems to be one of the best card available from nVIDIA with AGP support, whilst other's were available from ATI I was unfamiliar with them, and the ones that did seem better were also more expensive, often considerably more expensive than their PCI-E counterparts...

C-J-C 01.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Inno3D GeForce 7600 GS

The ATi HD 4870 X2 is a powerhouse... but is it really worth it?

Advantages: Powerful, excellent value
Disadvantages: Only good at higher resolutions

...The 4870 x2 has been here for a few years now, and has certainly made a place for itself among the graphics card market, rivalled only by possibly-over-the-top cards such as Nvidia's GTX 295, and recently, ATi's own HD 5870 (which is also the first DirectX 11 card on the market). Setting up The card is huge, taking up the space of two slots (which is to be expected of current cards) but also being long. I found that it fitted nicely in my Full tower case, though one should detemine the size of their case before buying the X2. In my opinion, if you are buying the 4870 X2, you should get a full tower anyway, as the cooling requirements must be considered as well. The card requires two PCI-E power connections- so be sure that your Power Supply is 'compatible' with the X2. The card uses the PCI-E 2.0 interface, which boasts higher...

jag1993 27.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Sapphire RADEON HD 4870 X2

A cheap and efficient graphics card.

Advantages: Easy installation process, Extensive connectivity options, noiseless.
Disadvantages: Some features work better with Vista operating system.

...software (Avivo HD Technology, ATI Power-Play Technology etc.) comes with Installation CD. # It supports maximum resolution of 2500X1600. # It works with both Windows Vista and Windows XP operating system.(Though it is Vista certified graphics card, still it supports all the released versions of XP operating system such as XP-64 bit, XP Media centre edition and basic windows XP) # It has extensive and latest connectivity options( DVI , VGA and HDMI port) # It is compatible with Microsoft DirectX10.1 version.(It helps the user to get faster response and better gaming experience) SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS : # It requires a PCI-e slot in motherboard to plug-in with the system. # It also requires at least 1 GB of system memory in the system. (Though in my personal experience, it better to have at least 2GB memory installed in the system to...

Gladiator007 05.11.2009 · Read review
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Review of Sapphire RADEON HD 4650

HIS Radeon HD 3850 IceQ 3 Turbo

Advantages: Fast card, 512MB GDDR 4, PCI-e 2.0
Disadvantages: Quite large card takes up 2 PCI slots in case

...This graphics card is recommended. It is not very expensive at all compared to other graphics cards. It runs games very smoothly at a high resolution such as gears of war. This card also scores highly on 3D mark. Only real issue is that it is quite a big card, and had to squeeze into my Standard ATX case. It has overclocking functions built in, in the ATi catalyst control centre and runs normally at only 45 degrees centigrade. The graphics card has a large intergrated blue fan with not only looks good but cools effectively and quietly. 512Mb of GDDR4 speed memory is more than enough to play most games, this graphics card contains the latest tecnology in cards such as the pci-e 2.0 spec....

pongpongwu 15.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of HIS Radeon HD 3850 IceQ 3 Turbo

Good Stable Board

Advantages: Good, stable, fast, reliable
Disadvantages: Watch for RAID driver, USB problem with Philips VOIP phone

...I have been using this board for a while now, and overall it has been as stable as a rock using vista ultimate x64. Drivers and BIOS's from Gigabyte are quite frequent, although make sure to get the correct RAID driver for the appropriate BIOS as it has changed over releases. Overall good piece of kit for the money :-) and is still supporting the latest AM2+ Phenom II processors, I have been using mine within an Athlon 64 X2 Black edition, and has also been overclocked stable since the day of purchase with no problem to report. The layout has is good and has supported all matter of expansion cards that I've used. Including a PCI-E Tvcard. Watch for USB support with VOIP phones though....

rwilcox5891 18.02.2009 · Read review
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Review of Gigabyte GA-MA790X-DS4 - motherboard - ATX - AMD 790X

Great Board

Advantages: Effective
Disadvantages: PCI-E Slot Positions

...This is am amazing motherboard. It supports the older AM2 series and AMDs new Tri/Quad cores, the Phenom series. The RAM dual-channels right next to each other and its got a nice 8 channel HD sound. I'm going to skip to the downsides, then finish the upsides. The top-most PCI-E slot won't let you seat a large card like my 4850, the heat pipes are in the way. The other thing is that it doesn't have dual LAN, would of been nice but you get what you buy. Another negative on this motherboard is that it's not exactly suited for large video cards, the middle two cut off some of the SATA ports. Other then those negatives, the rest of the board is awesome. It overclocks very, very good and just as a side note some of the options require you to press + or minus instead of hitting enter....

kcR34P3R102 26.09.2008 · Read review
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Review of MSI K9A2 Platinum - motherboard - ATX - AMD 790FX

A great ASUS motherboard

Advantages: Lots of ports/features, price.
Disadvantages: Slow to pass bois post

...I brought this from ebuyer a few months back, for my new system build. I wanted a motherboard which had plenty of features/ports etc, without braking the bank, and this does just that. With 4 USB port, 7.1 surround sound audio card, 4 rear USB ports + 2 headers, Printer Port, and even 2 PCI-E 16X for SLi and 2 PCI-E and 2 PCI card slots, which is a good use of the slots available, with the PCI-E sure to be used more in the future, with it's smaller and faster slot. So, after unpacking, I found there to be a lot of accessories with this board, keeping up to ASUS's standards. I applied the headers to the case and installed the motherboard easy enough, connected everything up etc. and it was up and running. After setting itself up, I was able to install the operating system. The board had no problem installing the Sata hard drive and disc...

joefireline 24.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of ASUS M2N-E SLI - motherboard - ATX - nForce 500 SLI

896MB XFX GTX 260

Advantages: very powerful, will play games in big resolution.
Disadvantages: uses alot of power, very big card.

...The XFX Geforce 260 is the card to get for high end gamers. This supports direct x 10 and will play every game out there. this is a very big card in which is very nice for windowed cases to look through and see the card. this card comes with instruction manual, driver cd, and a card that can be hocked onto door nob. this card requires 2x 6pin pci-e power cable. this is allot of power for this card to work so make sure before purchasing you have the right power supply. this card is only £210! compared with other cards in 200 series its very cheap for its price:performance ratio. this card has 192 processing cores so you will be able to play the games you always wanted to play. this card is SLI ready. this card is also PhysX ready, so your games will turn to life with this card! I will not recommend this card for users with small...

arsenal-kid 02.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of XFX GeForce 260 GTX XXX

GA-8I945GMF

Advantages: Full of Features.
Disadvantages: Could support Core2 Duo but no BIOS Yet.

...This is a very good motherboard. I have had it for a few years on a Pentium 4 machines and it runs very well. It supports DDR2 RAM which gets a lot better memory speed. Also support Dual Core processors which can boot system performace. Some handy features for me are the Wake On Lan. The BIOS has all the options that you would expect and more. Gigabyte supply all the things you need like the manual, which is very informative, the backplate, drivers disc. it comes with some good tools for overclocking, system monitoring, and updating the BIOS Via windows. It has a firewire port which i find useful as many motherboard of it league do not. It PCI-E so supports all the latests graphics cards and it does have a built in one as well. 7.1 Surround sound. It a simple and small motherboard....

naza911 24.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Gigabyte GA-8I945GMF - motherboard - micro ATX - i945G

Couple of niggles marr an otherwise good board.

Advantages: Good Value for Money, Onboard Sound is excellent
Disadvantages: PCI lockups, poor placement of SATA ports.

...I have used this motherboard for several months now, it seems serviceable enough, if you want a board you don't want to do insane amounts with, and, indeed, i do think this board is good for its price point, however, there were two issues I have found that have soured me to this board. 1) Continual lockups when using the pci slots for network (wlan) or sound cards. I tried several cards, and each kept randomly locking the system solid. 2) The board layout. 3 of the four SATA ports are slightly offline from the axis of the PCI-E slot. just enough to mean that if you're using a long graphics card with heatsink/fan assembly (eg: most higher end graphics cards) the three slots are completely blocked, not even enough room to get a right-angle SATA plug in. Pros: Good Value for Money. Onboard sound is good quality. Cons: PCI...

GideonFrost 30.01.2009 · Read review
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Review of Gigabyte GA-73VM-S2 - motherboard - micro ATX - GeForce 7050