Friend looking for a new video card (again), need 2nd opinon

[rditto48801]

How old is it? Older than 2 years, i'd buy a new one (about €24,- around here, internal dvd burner that is).

I'd say a fair bit over 2 years, and it was originally in a computer I got from a friend, so I would guess the combo drive is maybe 3-4 years old.
Are there any good brands I should look for?
What sort of stats should I look for? Such as CD/DVD read speed? Or write speeds if it has a burner?
If i got one with a burner, is there any particular type of software I should look for?
The present one (the burner) uses software named, of all things, Nero.


I ask because when doing a search on Amazon.com for "combo cd dvd rw drive internal", it came up with well over a hundred matches.
A few brand names I recognized were Sony, HP, Compaq, Samsung, Panasonic, Toshiba, IBM and LG.
Although, I don't know which would be better in terms of CD/DVD RW drives.

[BlindNero]

Oh, i have this one, and now i remember i paid a little more than €24,-, about the same in euro's, about € 28,- ~ 30,-.
Sony Optiarc AD-7240S-0B 24X Dual Layer DVD+/-RW SATA Drive, Bulk (Black) Price: $30.29
It's SATA < so no broad flat cable but nicely thin. Very easy installing, and good for the airflow inside the PC-casing.
I also have the older (AD-54xx) IDE models of this brand (NEC = Sony/Optiarc) in all my PC's. I don't care for speed, i usually burn disks slowly, all i care about is sure quality.
If you go for an old model (AD-34xx series), it could happen that its firmware has a problem with some modern dual layer disks.

You do have a SATA cable left in your motherboard's box?

[rditto48801]

Well, after some time of 'temporarily out of stock' (at least a month?), my video card order got canceled by my friend and he re-ordered from a different source/vendor on Amazon.com, for $5 cheaper, but with higher S&H cost. He actually got order confirmation this time of it getting ready to be shipped, E.T.A. is July 21-25.

[BlindNero]

410.00 CAD = 300.996 EUR, that's actually cheap.
For mine, i ordered them (as 2 x Sapphire) when they were not available here, at the only shop offering them for their launch price € 307,- In the end, i had to wait more than two months for them, they were replaced by Asus (by the shop, for availability reason) and the price had risen to 367 euro's but i still payed the initial orderingprice of 2 x 307. At that time in all other shops they were even more expensive, in most above 400.

In a few days then.

[rditto48801]

Well, it is past the estimated delivery date, and a check of Amazon.com yesterday showed it has not even been shipped yet. It is apparently listed as 'shipping soon'. My friend has already gotten more or less everything else he had order at the same time.
It seems when my friend re-ordered it, he ended up selecting some seller that was not a 'well established' one. That is, when he showed me, it was a seller with no rating, and no reviews, a seller account that was 'just launched'.

Right now, only Amazon.com itself is listed as a seller of the Visiontek HD 5870 (still 'temporarily out of stock'), there are no other sellers listed selling it.

I just got a very bad feeling about things.
Delays I can handle. Possibly being out of $400+, not so much.
I hope I am just getting a little paranoid and/or worrisome, and that nothing is actually wrong.

[BlindNero]

That's no joy. Ehmm... another brand, used then maybe?

[rditto48801]

Well, after no reply from the seller, the order was simply canceled and a complaint filed, and Amazon.com confirmed the order was canceled. My friend said the one seller no longer appears on Amazon.com as of an hour after the claim being filed.

So, I now got some $410 floating in digital limbo, waiting to be applied to something else.
Can you recommend another brand or type of video card?
I don't like the idea of getting used computer hardware.

[BlindNero]

ncix.com
ASUS Radeon HD 5870 1GB GDDR5 DVI HDMI Display Port DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card $459 CAD
ncix.com
XFX Radeon HD 5870 HD587XZNFV 1GB GDDR5 2XDVI HDMI DP DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card W/ Avp Game $439.99 CAD
bestdirect
XFX Radeon HD 5870 HD587XZNFV 1GB GDDR5 2XDVI HDMI DP DIRECTX11 PCI-E Video Card W/ Avp Game $430.82
bcom
ASUS EAH5870/2DIS/1GD5/A PCI-E RADEON HD5870 1GB-DDR5, 256BIT DUAL DVI-I,HDTV,HDMI,HEATSINK $467.00

Shopbot: http://www.shopbot.ca/m/?m=Radeon+HD+5870+1GB+DDR5

[rditto48801]

So ASUS and XFX would also be good brands to look for?

[BlindNero]

Oh yes! Asus reference cards i have myself. Problem is, reference cards are hard to get these days. Most are customized. They're good, but have open coolers. Look for the most closed cooler. That Asus customized cooler is still closed, pushing the hot air outside the case. To avoid are the customized Diamond but their ATI reference design card with only a Diamond brand sticker should be 100% OK too but since websites always add a line like "picture does not necessarily represent the real card" you never know what you get when ordering.