video and sound card advice please...

[dern]

I 'need' a new video card and a new sound card for my pc. It mainly gets used for playing GPL and chess... oh and some work too but that doesn't require a decent sound card or video card.

I have a soundblaster live 1024 sound card and an nvidia geforce 2 video card and want something better. I'm not keen on getting a new soundblaster so alternatives would be better received. The soundcard will only be used to drive headphones (sennheisers) so while sound quality is important the ability to drive several thousand speakers isn't.

Can anyone suggest a sound card and a video card for 50 quid each or less that will be better than I already have? If I can buy them at komplett (www.komplett.co.uk) then so much the better.

The system is (or will soon be) an athlon xp 2400 with half a gig of memory.

Thank you for your time.

Regards,

Mark

PS. I current run windows 2000

>>> Edited by dern on Friday 2nd January 18:38

[FourWheelDrift]

dern said:

The system is (or will soon be) an athlon xp 2400 with half a gig of memory.

Exactly the same as what I've got, instead of 2000 I run XP though.

I have an NVidia Geforce 4 MX440 video card and a Hercules Digifire 7.1 soundcard. Both installed without problems or compatability problems.

[FunkyNige]

dern said:

The system is (or will soon be) an athlon xp 2400 with half a gig of memory.

Are you getting a new motherboard too? That;s my setup and I find the onboard sound on my motherboard VERY good (Dolby 5.1, etc.), I think it's an Asus or an Abit.
As for graphics cards, pretty much all benchmark tests say go with Radeon over Nvidia Geforce cards. You should be able to pick up an 9600 pro for the money you're talking.
HTH.

[pbrettle]

FunkyNige said:

Are you getting a new motherboard too? That;s my setup and I find the onboard sound on my motherboard VERY good (Dolby 5.1, etc.), I think it's an Asus or an Abit.

Yep, did that myself and saw a massive improvement in speed by just swapping the motherboard and joining the 20st century with DDR RAM..... the thing shifts now and I aint even done the processor yet!

Oh, and my motherboard also comes with dolby SS - dont use it. Have a loverly set of Logitec 2.1 speakers - 200Watts of power and makes a nice noise....

FunkyNige said:

As for graphics cards, pretty much all benchmark tests say go with Radeon over Nvidia Geforce cards. You should be able to pick up an 9600 pro for the money you're talking. HTH.

I'm a Nvidia man myself. Currently running a GeForce FX5200 which was a steal. Not the best and not the fastest but never had a problem with Nvidia drivers (and have with Radeon). Top end the Radeons are the best and the fastest - though cant justify the £350 for the top end ones. Lower down the Nvidias give more bangs for your pound.... Mine is really very good at running most games in decent resolution and detail. My system will never set the PC gaming world alight (I use it mainly for work and the internet) but it does pretty damn well. Oh, and Nvidia are expecting a new release of their drivers which push DirectX9 games further.... could be good....

[dern]

Made up my mind finally and went for an athlon xp 2400+ (which is as quick as my m'board will take), a GeForce 5200 128Mb DDR graphics card and a hercules fortissimo III sound card.

Hopefully I'll be back up and running in the GPL league as soon as I've got it all installed

Thanks for the advice.

Regards,

Mark