Mr.Mustard

DOnt think so. The 9600non pro and pro are different physically and clock wise. So unless you are good with a soldering iron; a non pro will never equal a pro. Besides no active cooling on the core the heatsink on the GPU flat stinks(for the 9600non pro). YOu can in no way shape or fashion overclock the ram of a non-pro to pro levels. Why? bescause a non pro uses TSOP ram(rectangular ram with visible solder joints) that can't run as fast as the BGA(square chips with no visible solder joints on the sides) memory on a pro. Overclock all you want, but a non pro will not reach the speeds of a pro 9600. Unless you Put some liquid nitrogen on the card. The fact that you cant overclock the core of the 9600 non pro without some bios flashing on the card also makes the 9600np a bad candidate for oc’ing(that combined with the fact that oc’ing the core of any 9600 leads to little performance boost because it only has four rendering pipelines). Lastly, cards like the 9600 series from ati thrive on memory bandwidth. SO a cripple 9600 like the non pro model flat sucks even when you consider the price. The 8500 from ati that came out a few years ago from is as fast as a 9600non pro in almost every game ive played and the 9600np came out much later. Of course a 9600non pro can do direct 9 effects, but its worth less since the non pro is to slow to show off any kind of special direct x 9 features. Tell you what you can do though. You can pretty much overclock a 9600pro to 9600xt levels. However, a 9600xt will always overclock higher than a 9600pro. 9600pro is always > 9600nonpro always With the 256MB 9600 not the 128mb....

The vid card in my system just went out and after tons of research I finally decided on the Radeon 9600. The major difference between the 9600 and the 9600 pro is the cooling system so you can actually purchasea reg 9600 card and overclock it to the 9600 specs and buy a better cooling aparatus than what comes stock on the 9600pro. You can get the 128mb 9600 for 95 and newegg, and the 256mb for 103. and BTW I've only heard this about the Saphire cards so I can't vouch for the other manufacturers. There would be no sense in buying a mobo that supports 800mhz FSB and a 2.4gig processor if you're going to cheap out on the RAM. Anyways the PC2100(DDR266) has a 2.1Gb/s bandwidth, the PC3200 or (DDR400) has a 3.2Gb/s bandwith, which is just over a 50% increase in performance for the SAME PRICE!? BTW that is comparing Corsair value select ram both the PC2100 and PC3200, you could always research other manufacturers depending on your tastes/funds. GOOD LUCK!

Wewt thanks! Ordering soon....

Ok so I'm in the market for a new vid card. I checked out the most taxing games that I'll most likely be playing and it seams that I'll be needing something that has at least 128mb ram, support Directx9.0 and has pixel/vertex shader compatible hardware? Help some more plz? And if anyone has an old card that does this I'd be interested in buying it for an extremely small portion of hundreds of dollars.

Thanks for your help. I think that that's the way we're going to go. See you for some fraggin again soon.

Maybe I'm a bit confused, but the items you listed are hardly an upgrade for my system. I listed a mobo that already supports a 400mhz FSB and the Athlon 2500 hardly compares with the 2.2gigP4 Also PC3200DDR runs no faster than the PC800 Rdram? Although those would upgrade my wife's system why would I buy stuff that is comprable to what I already have? Maybe I'm confused.... But thanks for mentioning the AGP going out. I hadn't thought about that and after doing some research I'll deffinately be waiting until next year after the socket 775 and the PCI express has been released. Now just something inexpensive to replace my burnt vid card....

One thing I forgot to include is that I need to upgrade my monitor. Right now it's like this: Graphics Modes Resolution Frequency --------------------------------------------------------------------------- 1024 x 768 60Hz 800 x 600 60, 75, 85Hz 640 x 480 60, 75, 85Hz 720 x 400 70Hz 640 x 350 70Hz

I'd be more than happy to take it on. My wife wants to come too, but she doesn't do much gaming...maybe this would give her something to do also. She's always loved to video.

Should I plan on bringing my cooler again this year?

Oh and fatty stop using my pic on the yahoo matchmaker website...

It too cold up here.

I will be bringing the board game of Axis and Allies for all interested. I know I read it somewhere, but I don't have nearly the time to review all the posts. Also I'll bring Samurai Swords for anyone that has played it and would like to at the LAN.

As we all know I traveled that one last year. Hopefully I can steal the new car from my wife for the trip.

So who wants a lift?Atlanta, GA to Lancaster,OH

They don't in Florida either, or at least not in the Tampa Bay area, but now I'm living in Atlanta, GA, but they only check for emissions, not any of that other crap.

I'm not too sure I'm over the last FF yet. It was quite a drive, but this year would be a little better now that the location is closer to me . It'll only be a 11hour drive this time. That is if there are no blow-outs or other disasters along the way. Hey Fatty, any idea how much this is going to cost YOU this year? It cost me about $130 for the fees, gas, and food. Oh and $140 for tires this past year. Well anyways if I can talk my wife into letting me blow another couple hundred bucks to meet up with a bunch of smelly guys (and one girl *notice I didn't say smelly *) then I guess I'll be at this one too. I really had fun at the last one and it was well worth the drive and the $$$. After all it's really only money.

LOL I won't be driving anywhere up north for another 300days at least. That is AT LEAST! How about all yous guys come to the beach! You can camp out, catch rays, and check out the thong bikinis! Fun stuff!

OUCH! I've got cingular wireless and they've been pretty good so far. I think I need to update my phone too thought. The battery is bad and it doesn't get the reception it used to.

As soon as I find some hosting I'll do some posting. I know I got a few screenies somewhere.

THAT SUCKS! You'll have to come over Sat if you can! L8Rs!

Haha I'm from FL so I've already done my burning for the year. I'm tanned and ready for rays so bring it on!

Depending on what time I get away, weather, traffic, etc. I'm tentatively going to arrive at FF'03 between 5 and 6pm EST. Is it EST there? Would be cool to gain and hour! Anyways I'll be there. Fatty please PM me about the cooler set up. Would you like to preload it with ice or what? Hold 180+ cans of soda/beer and ice for the whole weekend so whatever works out the best. I'll be happy to have it ready with ice as part of my contribution to food/drinks etc. Let me know what you prefer and I'll make sure it happens.

If you pull anything out of your butt while waiting on me I would be somewhat disgusted. No I wouldn't tip. BTW TIP: Never pet a flaming dog!