DescentBB

OK, so finally, probably next week, I will get the chance to get a new rig for both some working and entertainment.
I'm a bit short in budget size, and I'm investing mainly on processor and other accesories and peripherals for my job, but still I would like to have at least the bare minimum on the Graphic and 3D department, so I would like some suggestions from the gurus of the DBB.

Please, if possible, tell me which one is the best $50~ budget 3D card (either nVidia or Radeon) on one side,
and also, independenly on the $50~ one, tell me the best $70~ 3D Card, so I can compare (according to the DBB experts opinion) between both a $50~ and a $70~ card.

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Oh, and also, just to be totally prepared before buying, I would like some clarification regarding a small issue:
Can I connect a DELL CRT 17" 1024x768 75hz Monitor from 2005 to either the integrated video card (Intel HD Graphics 2000) or a new nVidia/Radeon with no problems, or I would get no video signal on such an old monitor?
(I'm buying a new flat LED monitor anyway, but I want to take everything I can into account)

Regarding your second question, even if your video card didn't include an analog VGA connection (and I feel like most low-tier cards probably would), you can always grab a little DVI-to-VGA adapter for very cheap, so you'd be set.

Monitors are usually okay. Chances are it'll be VGA if it's a CRT, but most video cards can output to that (probably via a DVI-I to VGA adapter but it still works - they're usually bundled with most of the boards I've had).

For a $50 video card you're not looking at anything great - probably a GT 520 or 610 on the nVidia side or a Radeon HD 6450 on the AMD side. They'll run games, but the framerates in new ones probably won't be very good.

Up the budget to $70 and the options get a little better; there are a few Radeon HD 6670 boards for that price or slightly less, and it looks like GeForce GT 630 boards are the best on the nVidia side of the fence. Still not fantastic, user reviews seem to indicate you can play most things on them on medium-low settings or so though.

Just for comparison, mainstream gaming boards are a step or two higher or maybe a generation newer; 7750 or 7770 for Radeons (no low-end 7xxx boards yet), 650 for GeForce cards. They can be found in the $120-130 range, though you might be able to get cards from lesser-quality manufacturers for a little less.

The Intel integrated GPUs can drive analog (VGA) monitors just fine as long as the motherboard has a DVI-I port. (You will need a DVI-I to VGA adapter.)

As for the video card, $50 is pretty unlikely to outperform the Intel integrated GPU by enough to make it really worth it, just put the $50 you would have spent on a video card towards an Ivy Bridge CPU with a HD4000. It'll get you by for a year or so allowing you to save up a realistic $150-200 for a video card that would really be worth it.

OK, thanks everyone for your help!

So a $50 vid-card is not really worth it in comparision to the Integrated graphic, and a $70 one is not a great thing either, good to know that, maybe I will take that in account, and save some money to buy a better card later on.

So I after reading your thoughts, I think I will stick to the integrated one in the meantime.

So an Ivy Bridge CPU costs $50 more than a Sandy Bridge one?
Will also take that in account, as I'm still not sure if the offer the dealer told me includes either a Sandy or an Ivy,
but for now I just know it's a LGA 1155 i3 CPU.

The only small thing I'm concerned about, is that I'm not sure if playing some games with the Integrated graphics of the i3 will cause too much overall heat on it (due to the CPU and GPU being together on the same slot).

Although gaming is not my biggest priority right now, and in any case, I'm mostly interested on playing Portal 2, Half Life 2 and Assassin's Creed I & II, and maybe on a second place (not super-great interest) Bioshock, Amnesia : The Dark Descent, etc.
Not interested right now on any Crysis, Skyrim or stuff like that.

Its more like if you sink another $70-80 into the CPU, instead of a dual core clock locked i3 (the good ones are around $140), you can get a monster like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6819116504
Which should perform well for most software/games/web stuff for the next 4-6 years.

But it also depends on the motherboard and PSU you end up with. Getting an awesome CPU, and sticking it in a piece of junk motherboard with a equally crappy PSU is likely to make for a machine that can only throw blue screens of death fast. Good quality components can really make a machine go the extra mile; in my previous machine I researched and spent close to $200 on the motherboard and that machine is now coming up on 6 years old but still running like new after a brutal ~5 years of 24/7/365 operation. Pretty much everything but the CPU and motherboard has been upgraded and it could still play most games out today with a tolerable level of performance.

And don't worry about the CPU/GPU overheating, that's what the heatsink is for. (The total wattage rating of the CPU includes the GPU, so for Ivy Bridge quad cores its 77 watts at stock clocks, it'll be fine with any decent properly installed air cooler.)

Building a computer comes down to this: Performance, Cost, Lifespan. Pick Two, give up on the other one.

OK, I will then analyse the situation and think about it (also I'm still deciding on some peripherals) and see if I go for the i5 (that sounds pretty good) or stick with the locked clock i3 according to my final budget.
At least the Motherboard would be not too bad I think (a Gigabyte one) and the PSU will be a 500 watt one.

Anyway, the Motherboard supports up to an i7 Ivy Bridge, so even if I may go for the i3 for now (to start working on the computer as soon as I can and with my limited budget) I might buy later on a better CPU, and upgrading the rig step by step.
At least I will have the basic stuff next week, hopefully.

Either way, everything will be LOTS & LOTS better than the Pentium 4 Prescott 516 rig I have right now with just 1.5GB RAM and an old GeForce 6200 PCI (yes, PCI, not PCI-E ) card.


Oh, and good to know the heat issue is not a big deal.

Once more, thanks a lot for the advise.