Budget Vid Card Advice

[smokinyoda]

Well the Doom 3 bug has bitten. Now I need to upgrade to better enjoy it. I will start with video card and have narrowed it down to these 9800 series:

Powercolor R98-SC3, OEM, 256 bit 325/380 for $130 shipped.
Powercolor R98SE-C3, retail, 256 bit 380/680 for $160 shipped.
Sapphire 9800 Pro, REFURBISHED, 256 bit, for $177 shipped.
Used 9800 Non Pro, 256 bit, for $140.

I realize the Pro is the better deal but it is refurbished and that worries me. As far as the SE's, I hope to be one of the 53% to succesfully softmod.
Well with a $150 budget which would you recommend?
(Prices are from Newegg and including shipping and tax)


Athlon 2000
512mb RAM
MX 440 64mb
60 gb HD

[Bigjakkstaffa]

Can you get any more information on the 9800 Non-Pro, if you can, see if it uses Samsung 3.3/3.0/2.8ns RAM.

If it does, shout up and we may be able to get you that Pro afterall ;)

--Jakk:t

[smokinyoda]

Well the decision has been made. Just bought a new Hercules Prophet 9800 Pro for $184 shipped. It's more than I wanted to pay but for only $7 more than the refurbished Powercolor Pro from Newegg I think it's a much better deal. Even has copper heats sinks on memory chips so might be good for OC.