Topic: Geforce 4 - TI4200 at £48.12

[Dack]

http://www.savastore.com/include2/info7.asp?catalog%5Fname=Savastore&product%5Fid=10244352&pid=1

I just ordered one of these for my second machine so thought people might be interested as it's a very good price. Faster than the Geforce 5200s (though not DirectX 9 fully compliant)

Its the 64Meg version with DVI and TV out.

Only bad thing is savastore is a division of Watford electronics.

[Simon]

Yeah, looks a good price for that card.  I used to like Watford (Savastore), but the Maxtor 40Gb Hard Drive I just bought from them was duff.  Not blaming them for that, but when I rang to organise a replacement, expecting them to send another immediately, I was told that they wouldn't send a replacement until they received the duff one back.  This would have meant about a 4-5 day delay on my build, which I find unacceptable, so I told them they would have to refund me and I'd buy one elsewhere, which is what I did.

I find this with a lot of online retailers.  Everything is great until something is wrong, then the wheels start falling off.

[Dack]

Seems to be the policy of most retailers these days (The customer is trying to pull a fast one)

A local supplier I use usually allows you to take a replacement against a credit card (which will be processed if you don't return the faulty one inside 14 days). This is much like Maxtor with their drives on advanced RMA (which I had to do last week when a 20G failed) - I got the replacement inside 3 days and then used their packaging to return the faulty one.

I don't usually buy from Watford due to previous experience of their amazing customer service (now what smilie to use for Sarcasm)

[Simon]

Well, I've ordered one, as it's about half the price I have seen those elsewhere.  Just a little confused though, it says 64Mb support memory, but in the specs below, it says 128MB high-speed DDR RAM memory.  Is is one or the other, both, or what?  Don't fully understand graphics cards yet.  Usually just go on price and recommendations.

[Dack]

Its amazing how a good price over-rides reputation isn't it

Its almost certainly the 64Meg version and looks like only 4x AGP but it's still a very good price and card.

I believe that Watford do very similar to Ebuyer in that they just act as middle men for a load of components companies - hence the Satellite warehouse mentioned on the order (when I last ordered from Watford I got the same invoice, courier etc as for a similar product I'd ordered from Ebuyer about a week earlier).

[Tony]

Is it for you Simon, what are you going to do with your existing card, boy your fair doleing the dosh out this week  

All new graphics cards and Mobos on my shopping list in future will have to be 8xAGP's, pointless buying brand new obsolecence. Because if thats what you want,I suspect you will be able to can pick that up on Ebay for a tenner when the 'boy racers' upgrade their dualing machines.  8)

[Tony]

Not meaning to sound superiour in my last post, now't wrong with buying something that fufills your needs, but not the latest technoligy.

I myself bought two brand new Matrox G450 multi graphics cards for my new PC last September. They were retailing at over £90 each anywere you looked. But because Matrox were due to launch their new P series cards, they no doubt instructed the big box sellers to dump brand new G450 series cards discounted prices, to shift the stock.

Consiquently I bought a brand new G450 AGP dual head for £30, and a G450 PCI dual head for £20.

[Simon]

Actually, you're right Tony.  I've just come back from cancelling the order.  We're going to try out what my mate has already got (Radeon 7000), and if it doesn't suit his needs, we'll review things again, and possibly go for an 8x.

You see, the trouble is people say they just want a basic home machine for e-mail / internet / office etc, and they don't want to spend much more than £xxx, so that's what he's got.  And I think the components for what he asked for are good.  Then he happens to mention, "It will play Grand Turismo, won't it?", and this is what has got me a little concerned about the capabilities of the gphx card installed.

If we do swap it, I'm sure I can find a home for the other one, if not he will have to cough up, as you can't order a Ford Focus and expect it to perform like a McLaren F1.  

[Dack]

A radeon 7000 is about the same speed as a Geforce 2 MX400 according to comparisons at
http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/20021218/vgacharts-02.html

You'll need a Radeon 8500 or better to beat the performance of the 4200.

[Simon]

Will the 7000 play Grand Turismo, Dack?

[Dack]

I didn't think Gran Turismo was available for the PC as its a bit of a PS2 flagship product.

just checked and can't see it anywhere - in fact the quote from http://www.gtplanet.net/forum/t-17224.html pretty much sums it up

Yep, Gran Turismo will never feature on the PC.

As said so by Kazunori Yamauchi himself.

You can play the PS-1 versions using an emulator though (but why bother as there are much better PC racing games)

[Tony]

Hi Dack,

I love your sig, it's a cracker mate

They promised the earth! Then delivered mud.
Technically it did meet the spec

[Simon]

I didn't think Gran Turismo was available for the PC as its a bit of a PS2 flagship product.

You can play the PS-1 versions using an emulator though (but why bother as there are much better PC racing games)

Yeah I just looked too, Dack.  Shows how much I know about PC Games!  

Can you recommend a "much better PC racing game"?

[Dack]

Glad you like it - its something I said in a meeting a few months ago when some contractors delivered some software (that didn't work and was completely unusable on the ergonomics side). They were then bidding to do extra work to correct all the faults if we paid them  

As to better racing games on the PC - It depend on the type of game. There are rally games (Rally X was quite good, as was Colin McRaes, I liked V-Rally), grand prix games (more tweaking with the car type e.g. Geoff Crammonds Grand Prix 200x - whatever it is now), the Need For Speed series are probably the nearest to the Gran Turismo idea.

My favourite racing game is MSR on the Dreamcast (which became Project Gotham Racing on the X box)though I don't get time to play games much these days.

[Simon]

OK, thanks Dack