Discuss (28) -
Posted at 6:32 PM on Sunday 07/26/09 by
Ben
Hotness UNHOT
NewEgg has the ASUS EN8400GS SILENT/HTP/512M GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x16 HDCP Ready Video Card for $33 - $10 rebate [Exp 7/31] = $23 with free shipping.
  • 21
    dave_c - Posted 10:23 am PDT 07/27/09 (16758 Posts)  Report Spam

    Rivarage wrote:
    Oh, and for those who won't deal with rebates, this is a better card. Consider this is GDDR3 memory, half-height w/bracket, while this is a 25W card so that still low power. You'll add $7 more to your total out-of-pocket price, but sometimes you get what you pay for!

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102819


    link fixed

    You're failing to see the obvious. Those looking at this card are not looking for gaming performance, so spending more for that is a negative thing. Half-height is obviously mandatory for a slimline case, but undesirable from a heat density and smaller heatsink perspective if you don't need half-height.

    For those not understanding why lowering heat and power is good above all else, consider that some people really don't play modern 3D games on every system they own, or are wanting a 2nd card to drive an additional monitor for multiple display use. Whether it's 3 or 4 years old can be fairly irrelevant so long as for the lifetime of the system, the chipset manufacturer provides drivers for any upcoming OS the owner might want to run on that system.

    From this latter perspective newer generations of hardware are better, but with the popularity of ATI and nVidia and their integrated drivers, it would be quite a long time before the cards weren't supported by the OS and at that point the OS might have a barebones driver integrated onto the install disc anyway... enough for basic functionality at least even if no tweaking settings more oriented to HTPC or gaming.

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  • 22
    dave_c - Posted 10:27 am PDT 07/27/09 (16758 Posts)  Report Spam

    KSmut wrote:
    Was thinking about getting this or an 8500GT to try out HybridSLI on my M3N78-EM. Is it worth it? I've noticed that Nvidia has removed their webpage for Desktop HybridSLI but the Notebook HybridSLI is still there. And that 8500s are harder to find and more expensive.


    No it's not worth it. M3N78-EM onboard 8300 (or is it 8200?) video is fine for 2nd use, Aero, and HTPC. Adding a low-end card like this could give you multi-monitor support but it's too low-end to be a significant benefit for gaming so there's no real point otherwise.

    Enjoy your M3N78-EM abacons, it's a great board for a quality low-priced system using very little power so it is ideal for low dust, low noise systems without the performance concessions of an Atom or C7 CPU. Then again, even better for "Low priced" would be M3N78-VM, I don't recall all the feature differences but the -VM supports what most people need and the 8300 chipset doesn't make much difference unless trying to play some old DX7 or 8 game.

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  • 23
    wsp83 - Posted 11:08 am PDT 07/27/09 (129 Posts)  Report Spam

    woo just fried my card, cheap replacement!

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  • 24
    Casecutter - Posted 11:38 am PDT 07/27/09 (5013 Posts)  Report Spam

    #20 -- I believe Hybrid SLI for desktop motherboards is on a hiatus. One thing I like about the Nvidia solution is they power down the discret card when non-demanding 2-D is all that's required.
    Don't know if you specifically need a 8500GT, but if a 8600GTS is a contender this on at Egg is available at an alright price. The GTS use to be the budget gamer darling about a year and a half ago.
    Fairly low power, 512Mb of DDR3 on 128-bit, Lifetime warranty... If it is a Hybrid SLI bride it might be a long term relation.
    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130507

    Interestingly some Eggviews are talking about driver problems, happens to the best of them! Rolling Eyes

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  • 25
    Rivarage - Posted 3:43 pm PDT 07/27/09 (168 Posts)  Report Spam

    dave_c wrote:
    Half-height is obviously mandatory for a slimline case, but undesirable from a heat density and smaller heatsink perspective if you don't need half-height.

    First there only maybe 7W difference and from a thermal perspective I might consider the wrap around H/S of the Sapphire actually providing lower working temps. But why squabble over that insignificant difference.

    I see spending the extra (rebate naysayers aside) as it's a contemporary card, with capabilities and flexibility (HDMI) to use it in a HTPC or Slimline down the road. While latter if I choose to sell it most folk would give you something for it for those reasons, that old 8400GS might better relinquished to some lowly Linux box being cobbled together by a HS student.

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  • 26
    KSmut - Posted 4:58 pm PDT 07/27/09 (95 Posts)  Report Spam

    #22 - Using mine as a HTPC and was just looking for some extra power in case I wanted to do some light gaming. According to the comparison on the 'egg, the -EM has Realtek audio and 8300 chipset whereas the -VM has VIA audio and 8200 chipset. $10 difference between the two when I was looking at Fry's so I took the -EM (after owning a P4M800, I hate VIA!).

    #24 - I have a Galaxy GTS250 that fits depth-wise in my Antec Fusion 430 but the power connector is angled up so the cover can't close. I'm putting that card in another system. BTW, there are no 512MB 8600GTSs at the 'egg. Your link goes to a 256MB card. Appreciate the input but according to the now-deactivated Nivida webpage, the 8600GTS is not supported for Hyrbrid SLI.

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  • 27
    Casecutter - Posted 7:19 pm PDT 07/27/09 (5013 Posts)  Report Spam

    #26 - My mistake thanks for noticing that was a 256Mb unit, still it being DDR3 and 128-Bit.
    Thanks for the link.

    dave_c wrote:
    Plus or minus less than a dozen bucks does not make or break a deal. Buy what you need when you need it, your time is worth more than this.

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  • 28
    bbsam - Posted 7:54 pm PDT 07/27/09 (494 Posts)  Report Spam

    #23, what's the failure mode of video card like? While playing a dvd movie for a while my system got stopped, not a BSOD, with a cryptic message something like "Windows stopped the system to protect the system from further damage." Is this caused by overheating (or something) of power supply, cpu or video card?

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