[Iron Monkey]

The X800XT 256Mb PCI-e in my ye olde Dell XPS Gen 3 is about to crap out due to the fan (the stock fans were notoriously cheesy...die on a dime).

Anywho....Zalman makes a replacement fan that works incredibly well for $25 + $9 shipping....I can't decide if I should keep the card alive, or spend the same/$10 more and go with an NVidia card (possibly an 8400GS). PCI-e availability is limited, and I'm not going anywhere near that H.I.S. crap! Thoughts?

[WIDOWMAKER99]

still useing my x800 XL agp card here with the stock fan .. goin on 3 years now .. works fine .. i'd just get a new fan .. these
old X800 cards might not have pixel shader 3.0 support but they have a decent amount of bandwdth still ..

and alot of the nvida cards have only the 128 bit mem interface ..hmm like the ATI radeon HD cards

i bought a hd 2600XT and it was pure crap compared to my X800XL which has a 256 bit mem interface the hd 2600XT is only 128


but if ya wanna go nvidia .. got with at least this .. an XFX 8600GT ..not an 8400 ..

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150230

price after rebate 54.99


the 512 meg version is the about same price .. but lower memory clock

XFX PVT84JYAJG GeForce 8600 GT 512MB 128-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 SLI Supported Video Card - Retail
Double Lifetime Warranty and is 49.99 after rebate

double life time means ...from wikipedia

XFX is known for offering a unique warranty program called the "Double Lifetime Warranty" [4] This warranty implies that, if the original owner, having a registered XFX product, later transfers ownership of that product to someone else, any remaining warranty coverage is given to the new owner. However, this exclusive warranty is valid only to purchases made in the United States and Canada. This also implies that the graphics card is under warranty for the user's lifetime.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150247



the 1 gig version .. again lower mem clock

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150285

or better yet .. this has gddr 3 and the higher mem clock and is only 79.99

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16814150260

[WIDOWMAKER99]

if ya still want 256 bit interface .. and about the same card .. go with this

http://www.gearxs.co...oducts_id=10023

$39.38

Sapphire ATI X800 GTO PCIe 256M GDDR3 VGA/DVI/TV-Out - OEM

i bought two of the AGP model back in june .. from same place .. no probs yet on either of em

in fact one of em i flashed to the same speed and 16 pipelines as an x800 XL( default is 12 on the GTO cards ) runs just as good as my x800XL works perfect ..but in that system i did add a 550 watt PSU (had a sony 300 watt in that p 4 2.8 northwood)

same site also has a deal on the X1650 card ..tho possibly out of stock

dropped a x1650 512 meg card in my nephews system .. old msi MOTHERBOARD (was a bitch to find compatable ram ) .. AGP 4 x slot AND added a p 4 2.6 northwood ..runs pretty good for what? a 6 yr old system .. got the motherboard from bubba for free back in 2002 when i bought his old gigabyte P 4 agp 8 X board

works great for HTPC and older games up to HL 2 --mods ..and doom 3 , quake 4 ,COD 2

again.... thanks bubba !

and i like ATI but that XFX card looks good to me Mr monkey .. the warranty is why i suggested XFX

plus the price is about 1/4 of what it originally sold for

[Iron Monkey]

Ahh..wish I could run those XFX cards, but I'm talking a PCIe x1 slot. It's nearly impossible to find anything compatible. XPS doesn't have an AGP slot, so that option's out.

The X800XTs had a bad run of fans...my first one died 5 months after I got the bad-boy, and the tech did tell me they'd had a lot of problems with the fans dying for no reason. Really should've jumped on that cooler LT bought years ago, but oh well

Yeah, I think I'll just go with the fan...Zalman makes good stuff, and this card really is hard to beat. I really should've been Catholic, St. Thomas would've been my patron saint, hands-down!!

[WIDOWMAKER99]

it has no pci express x16 slot ?

geez chuck the motherboard then ...

never knew dell sold an xps with only the pci express x1 slot ..everyone i have come across had both slots

then again never knew the x800xt came in such a configuration .. sorry monkey ...

[WIDOWMAKER99]

whats the service tag on that machine .. dell XPS gen 3 i can find

the service manual says it has a pcie x1 slot ..and a pcie x16 slot

[WIDOWMAKER99]

also i see what ya mean about the 8400GS

found one here for $70.72

http://www.costcentr...GJ120AT/Q61159/

but that has a crippled 64 bit mem interface

[Iron Monkey]

I'll be a monkey's behind...I'd simply forgotten. I guess 'cos I knew the

Quote

Expansion Bus

Bus type


PCI 2.3
PCI Express x1 and x16

I know why I never bothered to check the system specs, 'cos I knew the vid card, so it never occurred to me to check 'm.

And as I was typing this, I had a memory flash, remembering I had the packing slip...which clearly shows the X800XT I have is a PCI-e x16! GAH! I need a vacation...

Thanks for the reality check Wid...now I can shop proper-like

[WIDOWMAKER99]

WOW you mean you never looked inside the case .. pcieX1 slot is tiny ....X16 bigger

great news !

SHOP away mr monkey!

look at the new ati cards too as well as the newer nvidia's

make sure if ya change brands have driver cleaner pro installed first ...before ya make the change


you can get it here

http://downloads.gur...oad.php?det=745