Help With New Card For Aging Machine

[LavrentiBeria]

I have an aging machine here which I upgraded to the limits of the motherboard about a year or so ago. It's an Intel AL440LX board formerly with a PII 233 Mhz processor, now with a PII 333 Mhz. I added a Promise IDE controller to up the transfer speeds, replaced the original HDD with a WD 40 GB marvel I got at CompUSA for about $60 after rebate (yes, I actually got the rebate), and replaced the old 235W PSU with a brand new Antec 250W unit that came with an Antec case I purchased sometime back and couldn't use. The original video card that came with this computer is an Nvidia Riva, something near state of the art cerca 1998. I'd like to replace this card with an inexpensive and compatible AGP card that would represent an improvement over the Nvidia Riva. I'm not looking for 3D or gaming capability for this box, just a decent, quality text renderer. Some recommendations please.

LavrentiBeria

 

[metalmania]

Voodoo3 AGP, or Matrox G200/G400. Used ones.

 

[DClark]

This card (a Radeon 7000 with both S-Video and composite TV outs) should do the trick, and would allow you to output to a TV if you add DVD viewing capabilities to the computer.

 

[blazer78]

Matrox G400 MAX

 

[Zebo]

You can buy mobo, processor, and 256mb ram for less than $150 with smoking on board Gf4mx. seriouosly consider that.... as your tossing you $ away on any video card. This will be at least 10X faster in every task you do even if you got a $50 video card.

 

[LavrentiBeria]

Thank you for the thoughts, gentlemen.

LavrentiBeria

 

[Cerb]

Originally posted by: metalmania
Voodoo3 AGP, or Matrox G200/G400. Used ones.

Yup. Voodoo3 2d is fantastic, at least to 1280x1024.

 

[DAPUNISHER]

2D=Matrox

 

[Marsumane]

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
2D=Matrox

 

[GullyFoyle]

The primary reason behind your desire to upgrade seems to be speed. If you're not concerned about 3D or gaming, any card will do. I don't think AGP is going to give you any noticable speed improvement in text applications over PCI or even AT slots.

On the other hand, if you'd like some 3D capabilities, this card in the For Sale forum looks interesting: Voodoo 5 5500

Or this cheaper option: Voodoo 3 3000

 

[Rhenna]

1. 32Mb ATI Radeon 7000 AGP. (Probably has an edge on 2D quality.)
2. 32Mb nVidia GF2 MX400 AGP.

 

[biostud]

Originally posted by: Marsumane

Originally posted by: DAPUNISHER
2D=Matrox