nVidia GForce-4 TI 4200 vidcard

[Matthew Carpenter]

I am looking at a new Home/Work/Gamer system.  I want to be able to run
Quake3Arena in 3D-GL mode and although there are warnings for the X-GL drivers,
it is clear that the cards to get are either ATI Radeon or the nVidia GF4
chipset.  It appears that unlike the ATI, the GF chips have found their way
into ALL KINDS of cards, all named "G-Force" cards...  I'm wondering if I
should be leery of that?  I have ALSO heard on this list that the nVidia cards
are the only way to go.  I'm looking at buying an aopen system from myaopen.com
(Which is run from a Yahoo Store, don't poke fun).  The GF4TI2400 card is
labeled AOpen (check it out at 
http://www.aopen.com/products/vga/gf4ti4200-dvc128.htm ).  I only have a
limited budget to work with, and the AOpen systems seem to allow me to put
together my next-gen machine for just shy of my $1,000 limit.  Here are the
specs (yes, I've skimped on the kb/mouse/fax/modem/etc...  for what's
important)

 STEP01: (+68.00) AOpen H600A-U 300W w/Front USB Mid Tower Case
 STEP02: (+179.00) ** AOpen AX4SG Max MB **, Intel 865G/ 800MHz/ DDR400/
USB2.0/LAN/ 1394
 STEP03: (+205.60) ** Intel P4 2.66G ** 512k/533MHz Retail Box CPU
 STEP04: (+124.00) 1GB (512MB X 2) DDR333 Memory
 STEP05: (+ 143.00 ) -- WD 120GB -- 7200RPM ATA100 8MB (WD1200JB)
 STEP07: (+49.00) AOpen CRW5224 52X24X52 CDRW DRIVE
 STEP08: (+39.00) AOpen DVD-1648 16X48 IDE DVD-ROM
 STEP09: (+166.00) AOPEN GF4TI4200 8X-DVC128 128MB W/ DVI,CAPTURE,TV
 STEP17: No Assembly and Testing Fee

Price:  $973.60 plus shipping.

Before spending the wad, I thought I'd run it by you all.  I've come to respect
your experience and have found in doing so that I avoid a lot of putfalls that
Joe User seems to always hit.

Thanks in advance and for the past.

Matt

-- 
Matthew Carpenter
matt at eisgr.com                          http://www.eisgr.com/

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