Couple of techie quessies

Fand

I'm looking at sound and video cards. On the warehouse.com site (US) there's an ATI Radion SDR 64MB for $129.

The British site (the US site doesn't want our money) doesn't have this, but has an ATI Radion DDR 64MB for stg£199.

What's the difference between SDR and DDR on a video card - which is better? And is it better enough to make me want to pay 70 or 80 smackers more for it?

Oh, waitaminute, waitaminute, they have a DDR one as well, same spec as the Merican one but it's stg£179. They're clearly not flying their cards over from the US on Ryanair, anyway.

Advice, please, you chaps.

On the American site a Turtle Beach Santa Cruz sound card, a highly regarded object d'art among aficionados of the genre, is $99 (I'm rounding up the odd cents here), but it's not on the British site at all. Any advice on this?

I *think* Micro Warehouse does take international orders, just not on its website, so I suppose the solution is to ring them up. But if anyone has further thoughts, please share.

elexes

ddr is better . higher speed ram . as for paying 70-80 more for it .... well its up to you reely it is a better card .

---

what type of world will we live in when there is no world ?

_CreeD_

The Radeon64mb DDR VIVO (oem) is stg£145 at www.dabs.com

WhiteWashMan

you can pick up a nice soundblaster live card cheap over here. personally its the one i would (*and went) for. or you can go the whole hog and get the platnum live card. someone is selling one in this weeks buy and sell for 80 quid i think, but id go for the whole 5.1 card with infra-red remote control and all that. i think its about 150 quid (could be way of though). but if you just want a sound card, then go for the sb live!
great card. grab some surround speakers (got mine for 60 quid) and you have lots of nice sounds around you!
as for the graphics cards, ddr is double data rate i think, and is faster than single data rate. but i know bugger all about graphics cards these days. i do know the radeon is about the best for dvd payback and all that sort of thing, and is pretty good for games and stuff. guess it depends what you want it for, but it certinly by no means any slouch in any department. kharn is currently selling a 32mg raeon i think. go ask him about it

---

your Dungeon Is Full Of Yoghurt.....

Samson

I got the Radeon 64DDR VIVO OEM for £190.00IEP.
Might work out cheaper than Dabs when you factor in the Sterling and postage.

Fand

Where, Samson?

Shiminay

I'll have an ATI 32MB DDR for sale in a couple of days (As soon as my GeForce 2 is delivered). £100 (+ postage) sound OK?

---

All the best!
Dav
@B^)
So Bob Hoskins was about to roll a spliff when in walks Dana with her 3 foot Bong
[honey i] violated [the kids]
When the Beefy King arrives, I shall be paying homage with Puunack The Receiver in a haze of green curry.

Fand

Kharn, I kind of want to use all new parts for this particular computer, which I'm building to a reasonably high spec, and with parts as stable as I can get; I also want to get everything with all CDs of drivers, manuals, boxes and so on. So this time it's going to be an all-new-parts computer. At any other time I'd leap on your offer gratefully.

Fand

Incidentally, have any of you used Scan.co.uk? On another question, someone recommended Scan as a place to look for a processor; the processor I want is in fact for sale there, but the resellerratings.com ratings on Scan are so universally condemnatory that I'm hesitating.

But if others here had had good experiences, it might be another matter - perhaps it's only the US version of Scan that's being referred to on resellerratings.

Samson

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Fand:
Where, Samson?</font>

Emcee Dist. in Dublin (off Long Mile Rd).
Can't remember number, sorry.

_CreeD_

Scan are cheap, but have a bad reputation for aftersales service. I've ordered from them 3 times and never had problems, but stopped when they put up an online-order system for the UK only - the limitation isn't mentioned on their site anywhere, you find out when you place an order and they mail you saying it was cancelled and for you to call them with the details....not that they kept a printout and already have an idea of what you want and just want you to call in your CC number, nope, they wipe it off and want you to waste a phone call across the water.

I've used www.dabs.com a lot and they've never let me down (If you check that ratings site you'll see they have a very good rep.).

[This message has been edited by _CreeD_ (edited 22-08-2001).]

Fand

Yes, I've used Dabs and it's good, but it no longer has the processor I want; says it's obsolete (only 1GHz, after all!)

WhiteWashMan

scan have a today only special on soundblaster live cards by the way.
150 quid for the full sb live 5.1 surround set with the front panel and the remote control.
if only i had the money for that and graphics card id be happy!!!!

Fand

Tempting though the Today Only offers look on Scan, unless they clean up their act, and have an online order service available to Ireland (after all, they do call themselves Scan *International*), and decent service, as reflected by customer ratings, I'm going to avoid them.

Life's too short not to listen to others' dark warnings.

WhiteWashMan

truth be told, you can get horror stories about any company. and they are always more noisy than the stories about good things they do. i wouldnt say they were any worse or better than any other online dispatcher to be honest. but, of course, thats your perogative