New Sound & Graphic/Video card recommend

[DVWannaB]

Hi all,

I am in the market for a new graphic/video card and sound card. I have a PIII, 500 MHz, Win XP, 384 MB RAM computer. I want to boost my video/grapic capability as well as sound and so I was looking at these 2 pices of HW:

Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy™ 2 ZS Sound Card (SB0350)
CL SB0350
• 5.1/6.1/7.1-channel
• PCI interface
• EAX® Advanced HD effects
• Music console
• Acoustic enhancements
• Built-in Firewire port
$99

and

eVGA e-GeForce™ 6600 GT Video Card (128A8N350DX)
ECC 128A8N350DX
• 128MB GDDR3
• AGP 8X bus
• Accelerated gaming
• Realistic effects
• Multi-display support
• HDTV encoder
$199

Thoughts?

[mujahid7ia]

If you're going to be gaming, than that CPU will be a real limiting factor. If you're not gaming, there's no reason for a 6600GT, imo.

[DVWannaB]

no I an not going to be gaming. Just waching home made and store bought DVDs. Working on and storing digital pics. That kinda stuff. Which do you recommend?

[hellbringer]

both are a waste of money for you, your cpu is going to slow any hardware in it to a crawl. the sound card u are looking at is nice i have it myself, but the software it comes with/which u don't "HAVE" to install will SERIOUSLY slow your computer down.

if your going to be doing alot of dvd watching, u might be better of going for a ati AIW 9800 pro, it would still be more than your computer can handle most likely (will still work in it as long as u have agp slow) BUT you will also be gaining the AIW addons which allow u to hook up cable tv to it and watch tv on your monitor or w/e. BUT here again it will add more apps to startup and that slows things down.

when purchaseing a card on the box they usually say recommend at least xxx cpu. it will work with slower ones but will work slower too.

[DVWannaB]

ok, thanks for the advice. I currently use WinDVD (I believe version 4) to watch my DVDs or some of my homemade mpeg2 (vhs transfers & TV caps) and lately I have been getting this stuttering/jerky playback, so I was thinking it was the video card that needed to be updated. I am using a Xtasy Everything MX400 card (over 3 years old). It could be I need to update some drivers for this card at the Nvidia site. I'm not sure at this point.

[hellbringer]

on this site there is a program called mplayer, download that its a very simple program that does LOTS. it will let u watch your dvd's as well. DO TRY this program to play your dvd's, maybe you don't need to do any upgrading to get rid of the jerky playback.

[guns1inger]

If you are stuttering it is because your CPU is at the very low end of acceptable for DVD playback. An mpeg2 playback assist card might help, but for all the money you were going to spend on a sound and graphics card you replace everything else with something nice and mid-range (as gaming isn't your thing) and watch all the movies you want.

[smearbrick1]

If you are stuttering it is because your CPU is at the very low end of acceptable for DVD playback. An mpeg2 playback assist card might help, but for all the money you were going to spend on a sound and graphics card you replace everything else with something nice and mid-range (as gaming isn't your thing) and watch all the movies you want.

While I'm not going to completely disagree with you, I am going to say this: a 500 mhz p3 should be fine for DVD playback. I had a P2 400mhz that played dvd flawlessly. Also, notice that the dvd playback issues occurred recently and not from the beginning.

Instead of upgrading your video card and sound card, you may want to consider possibly upgrading your cpu. You have several options available to you that will help you out. You could swap out the 500mhz processor for a faster pIII or you could buy a powerleap and upgrade to a much faster processor. The powerleap + processor (Celeron at about 1.2ghz) will run a little over $100.00.

[rallynavvie]

Just curious, but did you check the minimum hardware requirements for those cards? Honestly for DVD playback and photo editing you don't need a nice video card since most of that money is for the graphics engine which is meant to be playing games or doing 3D work. You only need a video card able to support the resolution/refresh rates you want from your monitor. I don't see why the MX400 is keeping you back. As for the sound card I'd recommend a Turtle Beach card if you aren't gaming. You'll get better audio from movies with it and the entry-level ones cost less than the SB Audigys.

[ofbarea]

no I an not going to be gaming. Just waching home made and store bought DVDs. Working on and storing digital pics. That kinda stuff. Which do you recommend?

If you want vey good DVD playback you just need an old Creative Dxr3 hardware DVD player.

DXR3 cards are Real Magic (Sigma) Hollywood+ card sold under Creative brand. They are compatible with all DVD drives of any brand in the market.

For more details follow this link: https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=702879&highlight=dxr3#702879

These cards could be found in ebay for less than $20. Look: http://search.ebay.com/DXr3_W0QQsojsZ1QQfromZR40
or
http://search.ebay.com/Hollywood-plus_Computers-Networking_W0QQsofocusZbsQQsbrftogZ1QQ...trypageZsearch

Just make sure you get a card with the Loopback video cable.

Note: This card has Linux drivers http://dxr3.sourceforge.net/

[Faustus]

If not gaming go get a ATI 9200 for cheap and be done with it.

Rather you need a soundcard depends on your ear. If yoru not happy go get one. If youreally can't tell that is sounds bad save your cash.

From what I see you'd be much better off with CPU/Mobo/RAM upgrade.

[Faustus]

Such as this:

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/item-details.asp?Sku=MCM-KV7-3000&...&CMP=AFC-AFFIL