What about the P5K C ?

[Nestor]

The most difficult thing of them all to choose, after a motherboard, is the video card… my God, what is going on out there? There are so many models, wow… There are several models from each brand on each chipset, and then you have the overclocked ones and the non overclocked ones… its crazy!

Anyway, I’ve found that fast 3D cards, even if they can be very good for working 3D art and support Open GL 2.0 very well, are not truly suited for graphic work, but for games… I would say that about 99% of the video cards out there, are made for gamers, but not for professionals.

I’ve found that the Quadro video cards are, I understand so far, the cards we need not only for rendering, but for photoshoping, flash, etc, as they power graphic apps. I have not a clue on them, prices etc., don’t know yet.

Those are the guys:

http://www.pny.com/products/quadro/fx/1100fx.asp

But I have much to search and investigate yet, because I’m not sure one of these is what we need. Opinions are quite mix in forums and so. I can’t trust them just like that. I have to find out if they are capable of truly supporting Flash and in general Adobe programs, not only Photoshop.

Anyway, I am searching something from PNY at around 300 USD, that’s pretty much our limit.

This is an option:
PNY VCQFX560-PCIE-PB-V Quadro FX560 128MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16 Video Card

Cheers

[garyb]

http://www.nvidia.com/page/qfx_el.html

PNY is just another company using the nvidia chips. most manufacturers will make cards using those gpus....

[kylie]

cards with the nv quadro chipset are not produced by many manufacturers, since they don't aim at the gamers market.
they differ from the original gpus by providing different drivers that are certified and tested with professional applications like cad and stuff. those drivers are said to provide some additional features used by those applications.
the hardware itself shouldn't differ that much.

the Quadro NVS partnerlist features
- Dell
- Elsa Japan
- HP
- IBM
- Leadtek
- PNY Technologies
and Sun.

that's not that much to chose from, since you will get cards from the big names mostly as part of a workstation bundle. leadtek and pny are the only ones (afaik) producing boards that are available solo.

but then, what about checking which graphic solutions are supported by your applications? there should be a list somewhere at the manufacturers site...
an inquiry at the support page might help as well.

-greetings, markus-

[garyb]

the ibm and hp cards are available solo here as well. there are even 64mb passive versions by compaq for under $100:
http://www.compuvest.com/Description.js ... iid=422732 there seem to be a few different incarnations called quadro- i suspect the example here is an old model. here's an ibm model:
http://www.compuvest.com/Description.jsp?iid=212052
and a "refurbished" one(don't know if that's a good idea or not...):
http://www.getpartsonline.com/395815-001.html

so there are a few choices...

but still, you're right, they're much more rare(which makes sense) than other nvidia cards. PNY and ledtech make a number of different models and PNY should be fine as a brand.

[kylie]

the ibm and hp cards are available solo here as well.

a yes, I just tried hp. well, we're a systems integrator and have access to parts too, but I wasn't aware that you could just go to their website and buy parts online.

btw, a single head card is about 100 eur plus shipping, and if you want to get a dualhead you easily get beyond 450 bucks...

a matrox qid card which supports 4 displays should be in that range, too...

but still, you're right, they're much more rare(which makes sense) than other nvidia cards. PNY and ledtech make a number of different models and PNY should be fine as a brand.

an ATI FireGL shouldn't be that bad, either, if one is after opengl performance and a card certified with serveral apps.

my choice would still be the matrox if that's fine with the apps he uses...

-greetings, markus-

[Cochise]

Thanks a lot for the images Nestor.
I haven't taken any measurement yet (the heatsink looks like having the same height of the audio socket), but most probably the Zalman can be mounted on that board.

Do you trust this brand? I would probably need to get one of this, as the mobos in my list do not have 1394:

http://ayagroup.com/product.php?product ... stseller=Y

I've a triple external + 1 internal Fireware expansion board that's very similar to the one you point out (it use the same Via chip). It's mounted in my P4B533 machine and works pretty good. I've done some DV captures without any problem. It need no drivers since the XP one suit well.
But using it in a new machine I'll have a PCI slot engaged...

[Nestor]

Very cool of you all guys! Thank you for your answers…

Unfortunately, nobody works with them here. It seems you have to make them come to Chile through a shop or something. Gary, I appreciate your offer of sending me some hardware, the problem is that in this way I would loose the guaranty of the product.

Thanks Cochise, this is what I wanted to here, that it works properly. I think it should be fine too.

Kylie, thank you for the idea, I’m going to find out which video cards work with the apps we use most, and buy accordingly. Open GL 2.0 is something that many video cards support today, so it is not a problem there.

Thank you! I will soon let you know which are ALL the components, opening a new thread, so we all enjoy it. CHEERS!!!

[Nestor]

I understand that is it a requirement of the double channel memory, as always, to install two sticks of ram with the exact same specifications… but…, ¿Can I now, with the new specifications of the DDR2/3 boards install sticks 2 of 1GB and 2 of 512MB?

I mean, I would use the four slots. In two of them, I would install 2 X 1GB pared memory. In the other two, I would install the exact same memory also pared, same trademark, voltage, etc., but 2 X 512 mhz. That would do a total of 3GB or RAM in the system. I don’t wont or need more, for what I have investigated. Is that a problem or there is a compatibility problem somehow?

I ask that, because I can see that most people buy 4GB of ram… knowing that they can only use 3.2GB under XP. I have not found even one person, that have installed 2GB of 1GB X 2, and then 1GB of 512 X 2, nobody… that’s strange… That’s why I’m wondering if perhaps I’m misunderstanding something here… don’t know.

[Cochise]

AFAIK it depends on the number of slots on board corresponding to the kind of DDR you gonna use.
DDR2 and DDR3 have the same pin number but can't use the same slots, neither can work at the same time (this sound for the boards using both type).

If you have a look at page 35=>38 in the DP35DP manual
http://www.intel.com/support/motherboar ... 026646.htm
(it uses DDR2 only)
you can get some more ideas about.

Not sure but I don't thing modules with different frequency can be used, even if in different channels...
I can see a single setting for that in my BIOS 'overcooking' ( ) facilities...


Well Nestor, I'll let you know too when the puzzle will be completed.
Thx for this thread. The way you've driven it has made me really appreciate the potential the web has for sharing information, improve knowledge and 'brain storming'.

[Nestor]

Ups... Cochise, so you think I’m going to go for the Intel… no this is not the chosen one, the chosen is the Gigabyte you are thinking about too…

Cool, yea, brain storming and knowleged… You know, IGNORANCE is by far, but I truly mean it, BY FAR the worst think in the entire world, the mother of all problems and mistakes.

I was up to put an nVidia 8800 320mg, expend about $420 on it, to find out that my PSU was too short in power, buying a new one at about $120, pay more electricity monthly which is not a good think sure. Then I would discover that the important matter is that the video card I choose had support for Open GL 2.0, nothing else, without the need for the fastest video card available today, and then I would have never taken real advantage of it, because my systems is a work system and not a game one, and so on an so on…

I am eager to see your configuration too! Good luck!

[King of Snake]

Anyway, I’ve found that fast 3D cards, even if they can be very good for working 3D art and support Open GL 2.0 very well, are not truly suited for graphic work, but for games… I would say that about 99% of the video cards out there, are made for gamers, but not for professionals.

I’ve found that the Quadro video cards are, I understand so far, the cards we need not only for rendering, but for photoshoping, flash, etc, as they power graphic apps. I have not a clue on them, prices etc., don’t know yet.

Those are the guys:

http://www.pny.com/products/quadro/fx/1100fx.asp

But I have much to search and investigate yet, because I’m not sure one of these is what we need. Opinions are quite mix in forums and so. I can’t trust them just like that. I have to find out if they are capable of truly supporting Flash and in general Adobe programs, not only Photoshop.

A Quadro card does not "power graphics apps". At least not in the general sense that this statement implies.
Photoshop and Flash do not use the power of the graphics card at all, regardless of what card you use. These cards are strictly 3d accelerators (with some multimedia/HD video extra stuff maybe).
If you do 3d modelling/animation stuff than most gamer cards will provide pretty adequate Open GL performance for that. The Quadro's are no different although they're marketed more towards the professional 3d and CAD artist rather than the gamer.

Just remember, they won't make your photoshop or flash any faster and the only thing accelerated in After Effects will be the Open GL previews. What you want for fast After Effects work these days is the fasted CPU you can buy with the most cores, especially since After Effects 8 now supports multiple cpu's natively. This will greatly increase your render and preview speed. The amount of RAM in your system doesn't have so much effect on render speed, but it does give you more space for longer RAM previews in higher quality.

If you are putting together a video workstation, you might want to check out Blackmagic. These cards don't really accelerate your processing either but they do come with many good video editing features and support for 10 bit uncompressed video.

[AndreD]

just one thing:

there is a very poor pci-performance with a single "generation1" board.
(on latest pci-systems with pci-express support)
(just up to 2 mv pro)

togehter wirth a new board, this problem seems to be gone completely!

best,
andre

[Nestor]

King, Andre, thank you for your comments, they are very helpful to farther understand the graphic mystery of video cards! As I was not yet sure, I have taken back the XFX and am going for something else… I am investigating and your input has been very appropriate to my search. Thank you for the info guys!