Which Radeon 9700pro should I get?

[bw]

My system: Geforce4 ti 4200 64mb, 512mb pc2100,
AN266-C ASUS mobo, Athlon 1600xp.

I already have my mind set on two cards: The original built by ATI Radeon 9700pro at http://www.gameve.com/gve/store/Prod...sku=VC-ATI-046

Or the PowerColor Radeon 9700pro at http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProduc...ice=&maxprice=

Which of the two should I get? And why?

[bblqj78]

From what i've heard and read...the built buys are the way to go. I've got a saphire and foes me very well...OC's pretty high also. However, the BB's are usually built with better components such as RAM...where's I think powrcolour are one of the cheaper 3rd party manufacturers and may use not so good components...slower RAM etc.
Its very hard to get Built Buy's here in the UK

[fishybawb]

Definitely the Built By for the reasons above - plus from your links the BBA is $9 cheaper

[Someone Stupid]

BBA

[CaptHandsome]

If you're going to spend 200 bux on a 9700pro, why dont you spend a little more and get a 9800pro. Its like a 50-70 dollars difference, and you'll be happier w/your shiny new 9800pro w/the pretty silver heatsink!

[bblqj78]

Take a risk and go 'ebay'. May get a 9800pro for the same price...or a 9700pro for cheaper.

[bw]

I made my decision last night and purchased online the orginal ATI Radeon 9700pro.

I chose the orginal ATi 9700pro for the following reasons:
--I wanted spend around $200 for an new card.
--It's "built by ATI" quality components.
--ATI is more than twice as fast than my GF4 ti 4200.
--Supports DirectX 9.0 and PS 2.0 I can play Halo, that ti 4200 can't.
--The Radeon 9700pro is close to the speed of the Radeon 9800pro, judging from the benchmark and various games used to test them at Tomshardware, hardocp, firingsquard, anandtech, and so on.
--The day I upgrade my Athlon 1600+, say for example to a Athlon 2800+, I know Radeon 9700pro will scale on faster cpu.

Thanks.

[bblqj78]

Good choice.....you can go ahead and overclock that baby up to 9800speeds.