"mcp6453" wrote in message
...
While I know quite a bit about computers, I am certainly not up to speed
on video cards. Others have recommended that my son get an 8800GT or GTS
for a Christmas present. The recommended seller seems to be newegg.com.

The computer is an Intel DG33TL. It supports PCI-E. What is the difference
between PCI-E 1, PCI-E 16, and PCI-E 2.0? Are there any differences as far
as the motherboard concerned? Will a PCI-E 2.0 work in any PCI-E slot?

How do I know what brand of card to buy? XFX? EVGA? ASUS?

Thanks! Time is running out!

This 8800GT is selling for a good price.

http://www.ncixus.com/products/27328...%20Technology/

I just installed the above card in my PC about two hours ago. Tested with
3DMark06 and no issues at all. Usually a card will fail Deep Freeze
benchmark in 3DMark06 if it is flaky at all. Benefit of this card is that it
is not factory overclocked (had to RMA 7900GT KO twice to EVGA because of
their bull**** factory overclocking) and comes with a much better HSF than
they put on the other cards. This is a heatpipe cooler which is very good
because quite a few people have had issues with heat on the 8800GT's. They
used a fan that was too small for this class of card IMO. New stock of
8800GT's have better fans but still not as good as this one. If I want to
overclcock the card then I am quite capable of doing it myself so won't be
buying any more overclocked video cards. EVGA eventually sent me a 7950GX2
and even that card seems to have an issue where the screen gets scrambled at
the end of the driver install (is ok after a hard restet though) and my
monitor won't detect the card when I use it over dual link DVI-D. New 8800GT
works fine over DVI-D. EVGA is about to be getting a new email from me
reaming them out once again. That will be three RMA's over one effing card!
Ridiculous.