Video Card
my scores on 3dmark are always below 2000
I hate to agree with "Catch" on this (Because he IS a little cocky!) However this person specifically mentioned his 3D Mark scores. AND as that is tied squarely to the responsiveness of his video card I would say $70.00 isn't enough either. If he wants to compete with the big boys one of the newer faster Nvidia Cards or one of the ATI Radeon cards would help him there more than a 2 year old TNT2 card would. For all intents and purposes a $70 cars would do most every thing he would want. However, if he wants to move into the upper eschelons of the 3D mark crowd unless somebody coughs him up a Radeon 9000 or 9700 as a $70 charity case he needs to invest more than $70.....Oh and by the way...Pricewatch is a good guide, but if you want realistic prices you usually need to go to about pg. 5 of what you are looking at and judge the prices from there. I have known a number of people who have not gotten what they thought they were going to get either "Pricewise" or "Merchandisewise" remember to add shipping & see if you must "Mention Pricewatch" etc. "Let the buyer beware" as with most things in life you get what you pay for. There are however bargains to be had, no denying that.
Best of luck to you!
My System:
SuperCase Full Tower
4 each 80 Gig Maxtor 7200 RPM ATA133 Drives (320 Gig Raid Array)
1 each 80 Gig Maxtor 7200 RPM Boot Drive
1 Each ACOM External (For File Transfer & Backup) 60 Gig (USB 2 & Firewire Connect)
3 each 512Meg Hynix PC2700 DDR 333 Ram (1.5 Gig)
ABIT AT7 Max Motherboard
SoundBlaster Audigy Platinum
A+ GPB 500 Watt Power Supply
ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon 8500DV 64 Meg
JVC SVHS HR-S5400U For Video Editing
AMD XP2000+ Processor W/PentAlpha APSK0169B Heatsink & Fan
2 each-SNT Hot-Swap Mobile Racks
Plextor 40/12/40A CDRW
Sony 16X DVD
KDS Avitron 19" True Flat Monitor
Olympus D-40 Zoom 4 Megapixel Digital Camera
HP-1200 LaserJet Printer
Epson Stylus PHOTO 785EPX Color InkJet Printer 2880 DPI
PrimaScan 2400U USB Scanner
Logitech Cordless Optical Mouse
Lite-On Surfboard Wireless Keyboard
WindowsXP Professional