Get the G550????

[Top_Cat]

I am building a new PC it is a
Processor: AMD - THUNDERBIRD 1.0 Gb 256K L2 CACHE 266 FSB
Motherboard: Gigabyte 7DXR
Graphics Card: Matrox G450 32mb (Dual head)
Memory: 256MB PC2100 DDR ECCRegistered CL2.5 Crucial
DVD Drive: 16XDVD-ROM TOSHIBA OEM
CDRW: LITE ON 32X12X10 "BURNPROOF TECHNOLOGY"
Case: Midi Tower, with AMD approved 300 Watt Power Supply
Monitor: Dell 17" Triniton
Hard Drive: 40GB IBM GXP60 UDMA100 7200RPM 2Mb cache
But now I am thinking what will be the best graphics card to get? I would like Dual Head and PERFECT DVD playback is a must (my G400MAX is a bit sticky with DVD playback!)

SO the choices i have is
a) G450 DH
b) G550
c) ATI Radon (one with the Dual Head and costs about the same)

Never will run any games other than some little things so not worried about that.

What advantages for the G550 have? All I see is that crappy headcast (don't seem very useful to me)

Thanks to anyone that can give their input it will be most appreciated

Top Cat
back after a long spell away )

[mdhome]

Hi TC
At a simplistic level you probably have better DVD performance with the Radeon and better dual head with either of the G450 or G550. If money is an issue I would plump for a G450 ( expect price drops ) which will probably be the best value for money of all 3 cards. On a personal level I would go for the G550 simply because I believe it has superior dual head over the other 2 cards(or so I am told). If quality isnt your bag then go with the Radeon, its a better all round card.


regards Michael

[Top_Cat]

I also forgot to mention that it will be running Windows 2000 then WinXP when it is released

is the G550 DVD playback any better? Also how good is the ATI 2D quality?

The use I want for it will be as a machine to do work on but also to link to my TV and watch all my DVD's and Divx on it. So seems a hard choice. How is the ATI Dual Head under 2k anyone know?

Also anyone know how much the G550 is? does the £89 on the Matrox site include VAT I see it is a horrible £8 for delivery alone!? I can get the G450 for £88 include VAT and delivery. hard choice

Thanks for the input mdhome if anyone can tell me how the Dual Head is better in G550 I would appreciate it

Thanks

Top Cat

[Alec]

ATI´s 2D quality is quite good actually, not as good as Matrox´s, but way better than the Ge-shmucks...

[Top_Cat]

Saw a review of the ATI from feb 2001 and it said that DVD playback on the second monitor is not possible with the driver (as of Feb) does anyone know if it is possible now?

Cheerz

Top Cat