What graphics card to get?
Ok Cerbera has around £140 - 160 to spend on a graphics card. He has a PCI express motherboard, a p4 3.4, 1024mb DDR, so his X300 256mb at the moment is bottlenecking his system. He wants to run CSS, BF2 and WoW mainly. I personally was thinking the HIS Excalibur ATI Radeon X800 ICEQII TURBO 256MB at £146.82 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X800PCI_Series.html) Or the Gigabyte PCI-E GV RX80256D - Radeon X800 256mb at £158.74 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=172711) Or the XFX PCI-E GEFORCE 6600GT 256mb at £166.25 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=200306) Or the Leadtek 6800nu 256mb at £176.19 (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/6800PCI_Series.html) What graphics card do you think he sound get? Please add anymore contenders that you know of. !TIMMY!

The bottom one is probaly out of my budget, but just asked my mom if after florida she can give me some dosh for it, and she said no but in a good way (if you know what i mean.. as she said it jokily so it = yes :D), so i could most probably get any of them. But i would like one thats going to be great on all games. Thanks. Ty tim for putting up the thread.

How about Sapphire ATI Radeon X800 XL 256MB DDR3 TV-Out/DVI (PCI-Express) at £164.95.? (http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/X800PCI_Series.html) I have the ultimate edition of this card, the only difference is that the ue have another cooling system. The performance is really good!

Unfortunetley the price of that card is £164.95 (£193.82 Including VAT at 17.5%) :( therefore out of the price range, but it is a very good card. !TIMMY!

Ok, but what is VAT?

Value added tax.

Sorry I forgot to log in, the above post is mine.

What type of negative effects? Can you say out of the £146.82 excalibur ati radeon x800, or the £158.00 one which would be best, i'm guessing the £158.00 one?

The HIS card features the Arctic cooling ATI Silencer 4, which will take up a slot next to the PCI express slot, but will keep your card very cool and quiet. It also comes pre overclocked to 398MHz core speed and 910MHz memory speed. The Gigabyte card features a passive cooling solution, one big slient heatpipe, and is therefore very quiet. It also comes pre overclocked to 400MHz core speed and 980MHz memory speed. This card does need a well ventilated case because of its cooling system. This is the conclusion of the review from Custom PC of the Gigabyte card: "The GV-RX80256D is a truly excellent graphics card that offers incredible value for money, especially when you consider the passive cooler and good bundle, which includes a copy of Thief 3. It may lack the SLI capabilities of a GeForce 6600 GT, but with an extra four pipelines, double the amount of RAM and very aggressive clock speeds, the GV-RX80256D blows them out of the water, especially at the most demanding resolutions. Gigabyte's card is the obvious choice for under £200." Therefore the Gigabyte one is better, i.e. faster and quieter, but needs a well ventilated case.

Rite, i'm slightly baffled by that but your sayin go for the gigabyte one Or the Gigabyte PCI-E GV RX80256D - Radeon X800 256mb at £158.74 (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/ProductInfo.asp?WebProductID=172711) , because its faster and quiter.. but what happens if my case isnt well ventilated?

Then you may have to underclock it, but i doubt it would overheat if you have a normal case and not a shuttle. My mate put one in a shuttle case and he had to underclock by 5MHz to get it stable, and get a custom made side window because the card didn't fit properley, lol. !TIMMY!

Yea i have a normal tower case, so i should be fine. Thanks guys.

A good ventilated case would be one that has 2 case fans, in the upper back of the case and the lower front of the case.

sorry that was me again... anyway it should be allright if you only have 1 fan at the back, but for optimal performance you might want to have one in front also.