Video Card Question
 

AGP, PCI, or PCI-E? I have a Dell Dimension 4550 that I want to put back together and it has neither an AGP nor PCI-E slot. Just a few PCI slots.

In the long run, would it be better to go from the ground up with a new computer using AGP or the SLI-capable PCI-E cards or get an all-around compatible PCI card? I noticed that the PCI cards are smaller, which would help me in the future when building an HTPC.

Nevermind, I realize after a bit more research that it would be better to invest in PCI-E as PCI and AGP are old standards. Still, I'm not the one that's buying it, so I'll get an 8800 GT later.

Talking of video cards I'm pissed that Nvidia are launching a new generation of cards - the 9 series - and all they are, are basically 8900s (8800s with slightly higher clocks).

I mean the 9800GX2 is somewhat interesting but it's beaten by two 8800GTs in SLI which you could pick up at a cheaper price.

I just can't understand why they would use the 9XXX name when they are clearly 8XXX cards. All I can think of is that they want the 10000 series name for the next architecture because it's actually next-gen and calling it the Geforce 1000 would be kind of cool.

It would be kind of cool. Tweaktown has some (early) benchmarks:

http://www.tweaktown.com/articles/13...est/index.html

Looks better than the ATI stuff, except for a few tests.