Video Card for RTW

[Doug-Thompson]

Unfortunately all to common. Blame Intel (Dell, same thing). Intel has been foisting integrated graphics for a long time. The low ball prices suck in so many folks (particularly businesses) that Intel is the number one graphics provider--ahead of ATI and nVidia. (However, most of these are "business" PC's and things are far different in the home desktop market.) Even their latest integrated chipsets is 4 years behind the times performance wise. When they don't even give you an AGP slot you are completely hamstrung. Intel seems to like to do this as it undoubtedly lowers the price on the cheapo chipset by a few cents or dollars, plus it means you are likely to never even consider trying an upgrade to a real vid card--double whammy. If you make 50 million of these crap boards a year, a few cents or so adds up in a hurry. And if you can discourage people from ever trying a real product, that's a big plus too!

Stunts like this are the reason I found a local computer guy who loves games and had him build a PC for me. Not only did I get bang for the buck, I learned more about what you really need and don't need in a computer in a 30-minute conversation with him than I did in hours of online browsing.

Ability to expand and upgrade is the most important ability of all. I couldn't afford much of a computer then but put as much money as I could into a decent motherboard with lots of slots.

Back when I got my machine, a 1.3 Mhz processor was all I could afford. Now that a couple of years have passed, I'll soon be able to get a 2 Mhz processor and upgrade for about $150. The motherboard will have no problem handling it, either.

[Tamur]

I would VERY much recommend building your machine. Upgrades are easy and inexpensive, so you can have a top-of-the-line machine for years on $150 a year. If you want bleeding-edge video cards, then it's much more per year (and much more of a pain too!)

If anyone out there is at all interested in building, check out PC Mechanic's tutorial, a good thorough description of the process. It may look like a long task, but it really only takes an hour or so to get a system to the point where you're installing the OS --- half that if you've done it a few times.