G400 instead of MAX?

[Lithindrym]

Hiyas all. I'm currently in the process of building my new PC when I find out the store I ordered my G400 MAX from was lying to me when they said they had it in stock (the guy who told me that had since been fired and they apologized profusely BTW). My order is still in existence, but I'm losing time by waiting and waiting. See, everything is supposed to arrive on Monday. I don't have a video card. Thus, new PC ain't exactly tested thoroughly until I have the video card which I was hoping very much to be a G400 MAX.

I just don't know if I can wait that long. School starts up on the 27th and I'll be in the apartment by the next day, so....

The idea came up somehow to just buy a regular G400, add a fan of sorts on top of the chip, and overclock it to G400 MAX speeds. By doing that, would that basically make my G400 a G400 MAX in every aspect but name? Are there any differences between the two retail software bundles? I can get my hands on a regular G400 easily, but I want the MAX performance. Decisions, decisions.

So how about some thoughts on this matter. And if you like the idea, anyone know of an easy-to-install fan gor the G400?

- Steve

P.S. Neither the G400 nor the MAX would have a problem on a P3-450 OC'ed to 558, would they? Should be able to handle the bus speed...?

[Coily]

If I was you I would go for the Vanilla 32Mb G400 - You should be able to O/C to MAX levels.

Make sure that you follow the Matrox driver uninstall instructions on their website, and use ONLY the latest drivers and BIOS update. Don't use the drivers on the CD-ROM with the card.

While installing the card - lower you system O/C down to the standard 450, and raise it again to see if there are any problems. Make sure you have plenty of airflow through your PC.

Best of luck.

[DougCain]

I just decided to dump my MAX order and get a regular G400. Low and behold my new G400 is with me now (4 days after ordering) and apart from the matrox web site cocking up my order a bit (I actualy have two gG400's) I am now happy.

The G400 from my first experience is great. VERY fast, looks good and even works fine with my rainbow runner G.

I would say that unless you are after every ounce of speed you can possibly get (may as well wait 6 months as usual) the G400 will be just fine for you. From what I have seen unless you are going to be playing games over 1024x768 the MAX gives you little advantage for a lot of money.

Just my thoughts so far, hope they help

Doug Cain

[yellowjacket]

Where do you guys find the G400 so easily? Retail version?

[agallag]

If you order the G400 vanilla from the matrox online store, you'll have it in a couple of days (mine came in 1 business day, ordered friday morning, it showed up at 9:30am on monday. I actually got the card before the confirmation email came through ). I still haven't seen any g400 cards of any type in any stores in canada, online or otherwise.

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Andrew Gallagher - andrew@agallagher.com
Asus P2B-S, PII-350, 64MB PC100, 12.7GB Quantum Fireball EX ATA-33, 2x2.1GB Quantum Atlas I UWSCSI, Toshiba 6201 SCSI CD, Yamaha CRW4416S SCSI CD-RW, WangDAT SCSI, MillG400 32MB DH, SBLive! Retail (Plugged into a JVC RX884V Dolby Digital Receiver@500W), Dell 17" (first head), ProScan 27" NTSC TV (second head), Win98SE

[Strider]

Andrew, how much did they want for shipping? I am considering ordering directly from Matrox. Local retailer tells me 2 week wait, and I think that might be optimistic.

[Lithindrym]

Thanks for the responses everyone. I cancelled my G400 MAX order today and placed an order for one of the nifty G400's on Matrox's website (the guy on the phone said they had them in stock so that's a plus). Now I just have to OC it to MAX levels. Which leads to my next two questions...

1) What heatsink/fan should I use with the G400? Suggestions?
2) I should get the latest PowerDesk and Drivers. They are 5.13 and what respectively?

Thanks everyone =)

- Steve

[rickn]

use a pentium or 486 fan. my g400 runs at 150/200 with a pentium fan attached to the heatsink

[agallag]

I'm in canada, so shipping by canada post (within a week) was about $10, and by next day courier, it was $12. I figured it was worth the $2 for next day service.

Andrew