Re: Getting a new video card
 

Not a problem! When you start looking for a new PSU, here's a couple of things to remember: lightweight PSUs are bad news, and name brand PSUs are good news.

Antec, Enermax, Sparkle, and Enlight are all well-regarded brands.

Re: Getting a new video card
 

Such a blanket statement without providing details is not telling the whole story.

The 9200SE AND 9600SE are slow. they are good chipsets crippled by a 64 bit datapath that bottlenecks the performance.

When you say 9800SE you need to specify whether it is the 128 bit or 256 bit datapath. The 128 bit datapath version is much slower and uses slower DDR RAM that runs much slower. Its performance is slower.

The 9800SE with the 256 bit datapaths are not slow and have RAM that is clocked almost as fast as the 9800 Pro and for $152 are a good buy if your on a budget.

If money is no object then yes a 9800XT is the best card. But if your very tight on funds and cant afford $200 or over video cards then the 9800SE is a good buy BUT ONLY IF YOU GET THE 256 BIT DATAPATH VERSION.

And Rivatuner has a softmod that turns on the 4 turned off data pipelines. This makes it perform almost equally with a 9800Pro.

blanket statements
 

Er Rivatuner being able to softmod 9800SE cards is not a ceratain thing & the way you presenting it may make people believe that every 9800SE they purchase will be easily softmodded.
You seem to be guilty of an equally 'over-general' 'blanket statement' in this case.:uhm:
I would however agree that since the real performance difference between a 9800SE (even without being softmodded) & a 9800PRO is relatively so small that if you can live with 10fps less performance in most games then you should keep your money & go for the 9800SE.

Re: blanket statements
 

I too have heard it's not a guarantee you can softmod. I think the chances are slightly more in your favor it will work then not work.

If you're looking for a new power supply..check out pricewatch.com. I just bought a 550w from St8buy for $23.00 total (including shipping and a 1 yr warranty plus mounting screws). I got it in less then a week. They're generally cheap and if you're getting a high powered card and have a p4, IMO it's a good idea to be over 400w min.

Re: Getting a new video card
 

I think the ratio was about 50/50 will upgrade. But as I said in a past post it would still be significantly faster than my Ti4200. It is rare for me to have $200 for a video card.

Re: blanket statements
 

I just wandered over to Pricewatch... bad. Do not buy off-brand PSUs. Yes, they're cheap, but those wattage ratings are, at best, peak figures that the PSU can't sustain for more than an instant. Moreover, testing consistently reveals that no-name PSUs with high wattage ratings often times go out of spec (delivering too much or too little voltage on a given rail) well below their "rated peak." Then net result is that you wind up with something labelled 550W that functions like a 250 or 300W PSU, which isn't a problem until you load it like a 550W can be loaded, in which case you start getting stability problems and possibly even cooked hardware.

You can get a good 420W PSU (Enlight, Enermax, etc) starting at about $40-$50. Antec probably has the best PSUs on the market, period (their TruePower series), but they carry a significant price premium.
350W is generally held to be sufficient for a Northwood-based system that's not overclocked and/or running large RAID arrays, etc.