The perils of buying used equipment is, you don't know how long it's been used prior to yourself. Even if in good working order, its only going to live so long. Well, today was that day. My video card froze my system up solid. The reset of the system seems to be working..it boots, but get no video. I don't think I have any AGP cards at work, even the old crap we throw away is still newer than my dino. I did come to the realization that it will be 10 years old this year. now it has had a few transplants. I do have newer PSU & HD, but it has been a solid machine for many years. To build new one will be more than I will have for quite some time. So now I got to decide what my next move is....

You might be able to find a cheap used card somewhere, like at a local computer repair shop. We have a "Goodwill Computer Works" where I live, and I've bought several inexpensive things, including the PCI Express card I'm using for about $15.

http://livewellnetwork.com/Deals/episodes/Computers-at-Goodwill/8234391

Your other option is to buy another used machine, and yeah, I've been burned on that too. But if you have $100-$250 to spare that might be the best option, and it still would be an upgrade from what you had.

Hmmm, wish we had one here in Denver. I usually go to the Dell Outlet store.

Well, as luck would have it, there was a lone AGP card in the box of old cards we have at work. It's not for gaming so I dont know what kind of performance hit I'm going to take, but it was free. No doubt, this came out of one of the IBM intellistations. I have 1 more in the environment, which is going to be replaced very soon, so hopefully there is another in there as a backup when this goes. The card is an nVidia Quadro4 980XGL with 128MB. So lets give it a whirl...

flak_monkey wrote:
Well, as luck would have it, there was a lone AGP card in the box of old cards we have at work. It's not for gaming so I dont know what kind of performance hit I'm going to take, but it was free. No doubt, this came out of one of the IBM intellistations. I have 1 more in the environment, which is going to be replaced very soon, so hopefully there is another in there as a backup when this goes. The card is an nVidia Quadro4 980XGL with 128MB. So lets give it a whirl...

Hey, that's not a bad card. Actually, it was a premier card for the times and quite powerful for an AGP card, especially with the 128 mb. Those cards sell for as much as $85.00 on E-bay now.

That nVidia Quadro4 980XGL is a workstation card.

When I did Diploma of Multimedia at TAFE, they had cards similar to that in the PC's in the class-room, good for rendering not so much for games though I believe, but you never know... let us know how it works.

I just had a look in my cupboard and found I still have 3 old AGP cards and no system to use them in.

They are:

1. FX5200 128MB
2. 7600GS 256MB (recommended)
3. A7600GT 256MB (drivers are an issue, have to use very specific drivers)

Depending on what the postage is I could send you one if you like...?
(seems postage is about $30 3-10 days, supposedly)

treloar wrote:
That nVidia Quadro4 980XGL is a workstation card.


True, the 980xgl was a workstation card for video rendering but was used for mostly rendering and less for other applications--what are games but rendering video, especially this old a game.