Buying a computer part ????-Video card

[Beware the talking cat]

So, with most of my computer decisions in tow, I now have a final decision to make: what video card do I want.

I'm hoping to get a rather inexpensive one, under $150, but I don't know anything about video cards and don't know which to buy.

My computer:

Nvidia 680i LT ATX Motherboard
Vista Home Premium
Core 2 Quad 6700 2.66Ghz Processor
4 Gigs Ram-800Mhz DDR-2 Dual Channel
3 Hard Drives- 160GB, 500GB, 500GB, all 7200RPM
2 DVDRW Drives
600W power supply
$1,120

So for the video card my options are:

Included: GeForce 7300GS 256MB
+50$ GeForce 8500GT 512MB PCI-Express
+130$ GeForce 8600GTS 256MB PCI-Express

Or to buy a card separately(which is probably the best option, I just don't know which to buy).

I do want to be able to play games on this, but I'm perfectly happy with games on their lower end graphics settings--being able to play them is the most important part.
I also want to be able to play HD H.264 video without any difficulties, although I expect I'll be fine on this regardless of what I choose.

Thank you.

[Rectifier]

The 7300 is trash, it has no dx10 support.

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8500.html

http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600.html

Difference between 8500 and 8600? The 8600 has gddr3 ram whereas the 8500 has ddr2. Of course there are other differences, but for the most part that is the only major contrast between the two model types.

Course if your looking for price on their latest, but most cost-effective model, the 8800 gt might be worth looking into.

If you don't want Nvidia though, your on your own for looking up those prices and stats.

*edit

Laptop specs ripped off dxdiag:

System Manufacturer: Dell Inc.
System Model: Latitude D830
BIOS: Phoenix ROM BIOS PLUS Version 1.10 A02
Processor: Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU T7500 @ 2.20GHz (2 CPUs)
Memory: 2046MB RAM
Page File: 1093MB used, 4891MB available
Windows Dir: C:\WINDOWS
DirectX Version: DirectX 9.0c (4.09.0000.0904)
Card name: NVIDIA Quadro NVS 140M
Manufacturer: NVIDIA
Chip type: Quadro NVS 140M
DAC type: Integrated RAMDAC
Display Memory: 512.0 MB
Current Mode: 1280 x 800 (32 bit) (60Hz)
Drive: C:
Free Space: 19.6 GB
Total Space: 76.2 GB
File System: NTFS

*edit2

If you have any possibly way to avoid vista and get Xp, go for it, vista simply isn't stable yet.

[ben1234]

Are you in the States? Because then you can use Newegg.

Otherwise, I'd say Ncix or Tigerdirect.

[Umiman]

ben: It looks more like he's just ordering off a mass manufacturer's sheet than anything else. Those kinds of specs aren't something you would choose for yourself (seriously, windows vista home?) and the price is quite high.

That's also to say about the wording which implies he doesn't have much choice.

[Beware the talking cat]

ben: It looks more like he's just ordering off a mass manufacturer's sheet than anything else. Those kinds of specs aren't something you would choose for yourself (seriously, windows vista home?) and the price is quite high.

That's also to say about the wording which implies he doesn't have much choice.

The price is actually quite low(~$900), but the pair of 500GB hard drives I'm picking up separately to go with it drive the price up $200(yay anime storage).
This is one of Tiger Direct's "Built to order" computers, because any of their standard ones are priced higher for what I'd be getting(mostly because they have monitors and printers and mice and other things I don't want). To get something comparable from Newegg I'd have to pay $1400, and from Tigerdirect(prebuilt), I'd be paying $1300. The other sites I checked out all tended to be even worse.

Maybe the price is high because I want some weird specs. Having a mediocre video card with a quad-core 4GB ram seems kind of odd, but it fits what I want to be able to do. Should I get a different OS? I didn't research heavily into Vista, but I didn't see any advantages to Buisness/Ultimate, and I figured 30$ was worth it to get the fancy effects and whatnot. XP would be preferable, but I don't too much software to be working for it in 2-3 years, and this computer has to get me through college.(which is part of the reason for the weird specs; I want it to be decent for the longest time possible, and high quality games are going to be unreachable for me in 2-3 years regardless of what processor I get now.)


I'll admit, the price is highish compared to building it myself, but the warranty and not having to pray I installed the heatsink correctly is worth it(also, the reason for 2 DVD drives is because I already have one).
edit: On second thought I'm not sure it actually would be cheaper to build it myself. To get a kit or each component separately would still be almost exactly the same price, or even a little more. I could save a $100-150 building it myself if I were willing to buy the 2.4Ghz quad instead, then overclock, but I'm too paranoid for that.

[Umiman]

You're better off asking Smidge as I'm not that formidable with computer tech. I can tell you that instead of jumping on the Vista bandwagon, stick with Windows XP pro. It's cheaper by a ton and it works. You might not get Dx10, but I'm sure you can live with that as by the time Dx10 becomes mandatory, Vista will be somewhat usable.

Heh, looks like I was right on the money about the prebuilt customizations. Hehe, you can't hide from my omniscient eyes!

[onizuka-gto]

buy hard drives, screw graphics.

i'll buy more and more hard drives, my goal is to have at leased 3TB by next year. (replace all my mismatch drives with uniformed 500GB units)



never find time to play games on pc myself, dunno why i used to spend up to £200-£300 on pc equipments...

meh. all i need is my DS & my anime.

[Rectifier]

Heh, you would love my closed campus network then.

Top sharer has 2.3 terabytes.
Top 5 sharers, over a terabyte each.

And atm 32 people sharing over 500 gigs.

And I'm sharing a lowly 10.54 gigs myself , it's not my fault, I only have one hard drive I swear!