*cry* Computer help please - vid card tragedy + Sat. TV question

Factual Questions
1

So, the fan on my Radeon 9800Pro got too hot and burnt out today, and I didn’t notice it till my computer restarted itself.

That’s not the bad part.

As I was replacing the video card to see if it worked after I cleaned the fan throughly, my cat jumped on back of my chair. Sadly, I was leaning aginst it at the time, my hand slipped, and I snapped off a piece of the video card itself. No idea what the actual piece is called, it’s the grid-like black looking things that extends a bit from the card, right near the 4-pin connector.

So, I need a new video card. I can’t really afford more than about 250 right now, because I can’t wait for it. Mr.Cerri told me I have to order it today or tomorrow and have it shipped overnight, because he said, quote, “there’s no way you’ll be fit to live around this weekend if you can’t use your computer”.

This one is the best price I found, and it’s an exact replacement for my card.

However…I’m wondering something DirectTV related that might affect my choice of replacement card. I’ve been wanting to get DirectTV, because I really, really miss Jon Stewart and documentaries. Problem is, even when I’m home, I’m at my computers, so I can’t see the TV (I usually use two of them at the same time, third is Mr.Cerri’s).

Instead of trying to find a spot I can put a TV in our computer room, I’d like to be able to watch TV on my computer. Would the above card be capable of that? Or would I need a card like this:

Is there any other hardware I’d need to be able to do that, if in fact, it’s possible to do that in the first place? I’m assuming there has to be a way.

Are there any other video cards of comparable quality/speed you know of that you’d recommend over the 9800Pro’s or as an alternative?

Also, to prevent this in the future (my computer has always run hot), is there something I can do to the video card to reduce heat? Are those video card heatsinks effective at all? Is there a better/bigger fan i can put on the card itself then the stock fan attached to the card?

(I’m also already going to get a bigger case to increase airflow, but my computer’s always run between 60-70 celsius…that seems really high for what I have.)

Additional computer specs are:

AMD Athlon 2400+XP
ABIT mobo, though I don’t recall the model offhand, pretty sure it’s a 333 FSB
1ghz DDR RAM

2

To watch TV on your computer, you would need something like the second card, which has an analog to digital converter for the TV signal. I would assume that such a card would come with the necessary software for such a thing.

You can certainly get a larger fan/heatsink for your card, but I don’t think it’s necessary unless you’re planning to modify the card to run hotter. Sometimes fans just die, and you have to replace them. It looks like the failure here wasn’t really the fault of your computer, or even necessarily the fan (the card may have worked fine after you replaced the fan), but the accident with the card itself, which can happen.

I don’t have any particular recommendations on the card, but I know that ATI’s recent cards are generally quite good.

You might want to look into the Trade-Up promotion that ATI’s having. I glanced at it, and I don’t see anything in it that says the card you send back has to work. :wink: It might save you a bit of money (note that the base price is more than newegg’s, but if you get the $50 back, it will be less).

3

Yeah, and it was totally my fault I borked up the entire card (grr, I just could have replaced it’s fan cry), but the computer was running hot in general before I broke it, and it’s been having these overheating/restart problems for a while now.

Using SpeedFan, my comp was running between 69-71 Celsius when I was running a game, which is 99.5% of what I do on my comp. I don’t overclock it, but it’s constantly running.

I’m thinking I need a bigger case to start, got a mid-tower atm, and was planning on getting a full tower to help airflow. The case I have now has 6 case fans in it, and I have a Coolmaster heatsink/fan instead of the stock CPU fan.

I even put in one of those exhaust fans to pull the hot air out, but it only reduced it by a degree or two. Without going into something crazy-expensive like water-cooling, I’m kind of at a loss as to how to get it cooled down more than the efforts I’ve already made.

The only thing that ever really worked was opening up the box, and stick a box fan blowing into it. Cooled it right down to 52ish, even when playing something like Doom3 or EQ2…but gods, that’s such an inelegant solution. Plus, I have 3 cats. You don’t want to know the dander that gets in the comp. when the box is open.

Thanks, it’ll help in future purchases, I’m sure, but as long as I don’t have any video card in my main comp right now, I need it literally within a dqy or two. This is a full-fledged, code blue, life or death computer emergency.

(Ok, I exaggerate a touch, but I’m a gamer chick! I don’t even have TV at the moment cause I spend all my sit-on-my-butt time in front of my comp! When he gets home, he’ll want his computer! And I can’t run the EQ2 beta on my old computer! Or…er…that other game I’m beta’ing but am under NDA so can’t say what it is! Need to play! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! runs amok and panics)

4

Yeah, and it was totally my fault I borked up the entire card (grr, I just could have replaced it’s fan cry), but the computer was running hot in general before I broke it, and it’s been having these overheating/restart problems for a while now.

Using SpeedFan, my comp was running between 69-71 Celsius when I was running a game, which is 99.5% of what I do on my comp. I don’t overclock it, but it’s constantly running.

I’m thinking I need a bigger case to start, got a mid-tower atm, and was planning on getting a full tower to help airflow. The case I have now has 6 case fams in it, and I have a Coolmaster heatsink/fan instead of the stock CPU fan.

I even put in one of those exhaust fans to pull the hot air out, but it only reduced it by a degree or two. Without going into something crazy-expensive like water-cooling, I’m kind of at a loss as to how to get it cooled down more than the efforts I’ve already made.

Thanks, it’ll help in future purchases, I’m sure, but as long as I don’t have any video card in my main comp right now, I need it literally within a dqy or two. This is a full-fledged, code blue, life or death computer emergency.

(Ok, I exaggerate a touch, but I’m a gamer chick! I don’t even have TV at the moment cause I spend all my sit-on-my-butt time in front of my comp! When he gets home, he’ll want his computer! And I can’t run the EQ2 beta on my old computer! Or…er…that other game I’m beta’ing but am under NDA so can’t say what it is! Need to play! Ahhhhhhhhhhh!! runs amok and panics)

5

Sorry for the double post…not sure how I did that, but apparently I was still running amok and panicking. :smack:

6

Well, you may or may not consider this unethical, but don’t forget that if you need a new card right away, as a last resort you can go ahead and pay the outrageous price at a B&M store like circuitycity or compusa and use that while you’re waiting for your online order to arrive. Then just return the one you bought from the B&M.

I hope no one gets offended at that suggestion.

7

As luck would have it, I have old old GeForce 5200 lying around. You’re welcome to it for nothing if you drop me an e-mail.

8

There are many ways to get, and record, TV on your computer.

The All-in-Wonder is a good choice. I have the Radeon PCI AiW as well as a USB TV Wonder (USB isn’t as good but it’s portable).

The AiW does a good job of recording TV. The only downfall is that the files are massive (depending on quality it’s roughly 500 megs per hour, or about 350 megs for 44 minutes).

I’d recommend the AiW or you can get your 9800 Pro (you might want to upgrade, it’s not a very fast card) and get a PCI TV Wonder.

ATI seems to have cornered the market for TV recording. There are other companies out there but I don’t have any experience with them.

You really shouldn’t have problems keeping a 2400 cool. I run a 3000 in a plastic case (to reduce weight for LAN game transfers) with 4 case fans without a hitch. Get a Card Cooler (I dunno what they’re really called). Mine blows across my videocard (an overclocked BFG 6800GT running at Ultra speeds) so that if my GPU fan dies it’ll probably still be OK! :smiley:

For quick cooling, take off the case sides. That should cool your system by 10C or more.