Are expansion card one of the most over look parts in a computer when buying one?

Post by **froggyboy604** » Tue Jun 16, 2009 7:18 pm

Yes, When I am on a computer forum, I notice there are plenty of threads which ask how fast is your CPU, or how much ram, hard disk space a person computer have.

But, I notice there are few to no threads on the type of video cards, sound cards, network cards, and other expansion cards people have. Plus, when I talk to the average person about it they don't seem to care about the video card or sound card.

I notice mostly Gamers, and Sound gurus care about cards.

Note: Expansion cards are cards that bring more functionality to a computer by pluging it into a PCI, PCI-Express, AGP, PCi-X, ISA, etc port.

Skeithex · Post by **Skeithex** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 12:18 am

yeah, I see that a lot too. I just learned about cards from my friend who has enough in his computer to run any recent PC game without one ounce of lag.

Post by **froggyboy604** » Wed Jun 17, 2009 4:48 am

I notice some stores (mostly the big box stores and the shady pc dealers) sell computers labeled as gaming PC, poweruser machines, but they still use onboard video or some older/less fast video card.

They just say 4GB of Ram, Huge Hard drive, Dual Core CPU, and a bunch of tech words that sound immpressive like dual channel ram...

Skeithex · Post by **Skeithex** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:16 am

froggyboy604 wrote:I notice some stores (mostly the big box stores and the shady pc dealers) sell computers labeled as gaming PC, poweruser machines, but they still use onboard video or some older/less fast video card.

They just say 4GB of Ram, Huge Hard drive, Dual Core CPU, and a bunch of tech words that sound immpressive like dual channel ram...

if you want a good PC you got to go into a store knowing what you want and leave with nothing less then what you want.

Post by **froggyboy604** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:27 am

Skeithex wrote:
froggyboy604 wrote:I notice some stores (mostly the big box stores and the shady pc dealers) sell computers labeled as gaming PC, poweruser machines, but they still use onboard video or some older/less fast video card.

They just say 4GB of Ram, Huge Hard drive, Dual Core CPU, and a bunch of tech words that sound immpressive like dual channel ram...
if you want a good PC you got to go into a store knowing what you want and leave with nothing less then what you want.

Agreed, or you just haggle with them for a cheaper price and used the savings to buy a better video card, RAM and 10,000 RPM Hard drive with instead of the typical 7200 RPM drives. Sweet

Post by **SetoTK** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 12:37 am

No you bloody well don't.

If you want an Awesome PC you buy the components and build the sod yourself, that way you save 50% and get exactly what you want with no room for bull crap.

Stores are shady sods anyway, ye have to keep an eye on the sods and many will mis ship stuff to save money.

Post by **froggyboy604** » Thu Jun 18, 2009 7:35 pm

You also have to be careful you get exactly the model you ordered since some video cards have multiple version with an SE or Lite version like some 3rd-party(ASUS, MSI, Foxconn) ATI 9800 SE which has 128 bit memory instead of 256 bit on the regular ATI 9800Pro, and slower GPU, and memory speeds.

Another option, is buying the components and asking an experienced friend who built a few PC in the past to help you install the motherboard, CPU, CPU heatsink, the power button and reset, power supply, Hard drive front panel lights cabel, and usb cable.

You can install the simpler stuff like the memory, Hard drive, video card, case fans, and DVD- Writer. They are pretty simple to install for a novice.