Planning to upgrade graphic/sound cards

[SomUnknown]

I'm looking into getting new cards. Any advice?

Right now I have:
GeFORCE2 MX400/200 64MB. Which I guess has a few problems from what I read and experienced.

I've researched a bit and the best seems to be the Radeon 9700 pro, but I’m not rich. I've read to avoid the MX series in GeFORCEs. So I'm kind of leaning toward GeForce4 Ti4200 128MB, a lower end one.

Right now I have:
Sound Blaster PCI 128. I've had no problems with it but I'm wondering if it would be worth to upgrade.

The Audigy looks good but doesn't seem to much better then the Live, is it worth the extra cash? Or is it worth it to even upgrade from my sound card?

I'm also thinking about new speakers as mine are stock ones that came from my old Pentium 2 comp. but that’s not too high on my list. Possibly more ram.

[Menokh]

For graphics card go with a GeForce 4 with at least 64 megs of memory. It is fast and GeForce cards are more compatible than ATI cards. So the card you are leaning towards would be my choice.

And your sound card is better than mine, so don't complain too much. Although I don't know if an upgrade would really be worth it, I have heard lots of good things about the Audigy cards.

[Starkist]

People on the WinAmp boards really diss the Audigy for certain incompatibilities as well as for exaggerating the capabilities. I don't know if these claims have a basis in fact or not.

[DukenukemX]

My advice would be to wait for the Radeon 9700 or 9500.

These video cards run faster then any Geforce and are DirectX9 compatible. Plus to add to it the Radeon 9700 will be $299. The Radeon 9500 Pro will be $199. The Radeon 9700 Pro is the fastest but it's priced at $399. Geforces are nice but it seems ATI is now one step ahead of them. ATI also now has decent drivers.

Check out the review here (http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/9500/default.asp).

I would not get a Sound Blaster Audigy. It has been proven that the Audigy has the same Emu10k chip like a SBLive except better drivers and higher ramdac. Plus creative sound cards have PCI timing issues with Via chipsets.

Tom's Hardware (www.tomshardware.com) has a review (http://www.tomshardware.com/video/02q4/021023/index.html) of the sound cards called Hercules Fortissimo III 7.1 and Digifire 7.1. They are both 7.1 sound cards and the Digifire has the same setup as the Fortissimo III except it has firewire. The Fortissimo III is $49 and the Digifire is $79. They have all the features of a Sound Blaster Audigy except the price and have 7.1 instead of 5.1 audio.

I also heard the Santa Cruz is great and the Hercules Game Theater XP is wonderful but they come with a extra price. Make sure you click on the links and read the reviews. This industry changes real fast.

Remember check out the reviews and preview before you choose. With Radeon 9500 or 9700 you get a Direct X9 card thats twice as fast as Geforce 4 and costs between $199 to $299. Those sound cards are also great for there price and don't have the Audigy issues.

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q4/021024/index.html
http://www.tomshardware.com/video/02q4/021023/index.html
http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/9500/default.asp

[Kirby of Doom]

Well, I recently got a video card for 60 bucks but it's only 32MB so all I can suggest is to go with ATI because that's what I got.

[Flash Man]

Originally posted by DukenukemX
My advice would be to wait for the Radeon 9700 or 9500.

These video cards run faster then any Geforce and are DirectX9 compatible. Plus to add to it the Radeon 9700 will be $299. The Radeon 9500 Pro will be $199. The Radeon 9700 Pro is the fastest but it's priced at $399.
The cheapest Radeon 9700 Pro is the one made by Sapphire which is $320, and the Gigabyte 9700 is $350. The Pro is cheaper if you buy OEM. Only big difference is you don't get the cool box. Although some of them are retail on there newegg.
http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?DEPA=&submit=VGA&vgacode=58&description=&Order=price

[SomUnknown]

Thanks for your guy's advice especially DukenukemX for those reviews, and also Flash Man.

But my wallet was the one who made the ultimate choice, it said to get the GeFORCE 4 MX440 64MB, or I'd be even poorer then I am now.

at first I was kind of depressed that I didn't get a really nice one, but now I find the card not all that bad, Morrowind now can be played on high resolutions :) and It no longer freezes.

And the guy at the store said the earlier releases of the audigy had problems, but the later ones don't seem to have the same problems. And they also had some really nifty speakers, but I got some cool headphones instead. My comp is in the family room so I thought I had better get the headphones so they don't have to listen to my games.

And they had ram on sale for really cheap, but the ram type for my mother board was the expensive kind. :(

So I just got the graphics card, maybe other things later, but it's quite a bit better than what I had. It just doesn't have all the bells and whistles.

Again I thank the people who took time to give me advice.
especialy those who put up links.

[MottZilla]

Congrats on the new video card. It's always fun to get new pc stuff, no matter what it is. =) Btw, I have a soundblaster audigy and have no problems with it.