Everything query

Hmm, okay. I noticed the Radeon 9500 128MB is very similar in price to a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 128MB. I was planning on getting the latter. Which is better?

And okay then, thanks, I'll look into how Elixir is.
 
If your looking at a vid card I'd hold off with the GF FX about to hit, GF4 cards should be dropping in price.
 
I was considering that, but then I decided not to wait because 1) it could still be another month or two, and that's awhile, and 2) the GF4 prices most likely won't instantly drop significantly. The 4600 may drop $50 or so, everything else probably won't change too much at all. In time, yes, but not instantly. Take the GF3, for example. Even today a good GF3 Ti 500 can cost over $100.
 
Also, I just received my motherboard today, but I still do not have the processor or memory. So, I decided to give mounting it a test run. First time I've ever done it. It seemed fairly simple. I just lined it up with the holes, and screwed in spacers in those holes. A few things, though.

1) My case came with five short brass spacers and five short plastic spacers. My motherboard lines up with six holes, and then there is one in every corner except for the upper-left that do not line up with holes. For the main six, I do not have enough of one kind of spacer. However, I read that you should use brass ones for the left three and plastic ones for the right three. Is this true? Then, for the ones that don't line up with holes, should I just rip off the threaded part of the plastic ones and put them in? That way they can sit flat?

2) How much can the motherboard take? Whenever I was putting it back in the bag, the bag kept getting caught on stuff. When I took it out of the case, the top side of the bottom of the board hit the metal of the case. Not hard, but I could feel it happen. To put it in and out, I gripped the top of the midi port. Can it handle all these things okay? I've never done this before so I'm not sure what it can or can't go through and still operate.
 
Okay, update. I got some extra brass spacers from my friend, so I now have nine total, more than enough to fill the six main mounting holes. So:

1) Should I use three brass and three plastic or just all brass?

2) Do I need to worry about putting something in the three corner holes, and if so, what should I put in them?

And my "what can the motherboard take" question still remains, as well.
 
The Radeon 9500 Pro (not the plain 9500) is apparently the same speed as the GF4 Ti4600, and it costs about half as much right now.

For the spacers, you'll be using at least six of them, and if your motherboard is fairly wide, possibly even nine.
I use the metal spacers (or studs---same thing) first. I had to use some plastic ones on the last system I built. What I'd recommend is using the 5 metal spacers line up with the outer mounting holes, or at least the corner ones and use the plastic ones in the center and/or on the mounting hole that should be near the AGP slot since it'll be secured well once a card is added in and screwed down.
 
Wait, so you're saying to use the plastic ones for the the main six holes and the brass ones for the three corner ones? Hmm, everyone else so far as told me to use all brass. Well, the three corner ones do NOT line up with holes in the case. I was considering either not putting anything in those holes, are attempting to cut off the threaded part of the plastic ones and put those there so they could sit flat.

And I'll consider that Radeon card under one condition: Has ATI finally got their drivers under control?
 
BTW GF FX cards should be out the end of Feb./Early March and BFG's pricing is $399 so I'd expect GF 4 cards to drop a bit either just before or after launch.
 
True, but it'll probably only be just that - a bit. Plus, that's another six or more weeks of waiting when I could be ready in two. I've been through this before. I keep waiting and waiting because the next thing is always going to come out. Well, as soon as GF FX comes out, then ATI will be announcing its next card, so I could say "Well, only two more months before the Radeon 12000 or whatever comes out, and then the 9700 Pro prices will drop." So I just decided to go through with it and get things now, since I am pretty much ready.
 
ATi has gotten their drivers in very good order. A couple of years ago, I'd have told you to stay the hell away from all ATi products, but they've really cleaned up their act. I've had my 8500LE in a couple different systems without incident stabilitywise. I'd like to get a Hercules or Tyan 9500Pro to go with the system that has the 8500 in it for the blue color.

As far as the spacers go, what you propose to do with the plastic spacers sounds exactly like I did: snip the top to make it flat (as much as possible). I haven't had any problems yet, and this things been lugged to a LAN party already.
 
Okay, I suppose I'll do it. What did you use, a knife? Do you know if the motherboard would be okay support-wise if I didn't do that at all?
 
New Q: Is 56K v.92 backward compatible with v.90? In other words, even though my ISP does not support v.92, would I be okay with getting a v.92 modem?
 
I used some wire cutters to shear off the top part. A knife would probably work too. Just watch where ya point the blade;)
 
No, you want it to screw into the case otherwise it'll fall out. If there's an excess amount that out after the screw part (making it longer than the brass ones) snip that part.
 
No, no, I was talking about cutting off the part that screws into the case. Why would you cut off the top part? The only reason I wanted to do this in the first place was because there AREN'T holes in the case that match up with the corner holes in the motherboard. These three (upper-right, bottom-right, and bottom-left) are in addition to the main six mounting holes that DO line up with the case holes. So, to still get support in these additional holes, I need to cut off the threaded part of the plastic riser so that the riser can sit flat on the metal of the case. It's not securing the motherboard to the case at all, it's just providing push-down support in that area.
 
Okay, I see how things are. So long as it's secure somehow, chopping off the opposite end won't hurt a thing.
 
Okay then, thanks. From what I've heard elsewhere, too, the motherboard should be fine support-wise with just the main six holes being screwed down, so I may not even use the three corner holes. If I can cut off that threading on the plastice ones, however, then I might as well put them in. So it's okay to use all screw-in brass for the main six holes, right? Because I think a few posts ago you said you used plastic ones for your central holes?
 
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