ATi X200 Scavenger Hunt

I agree with HardOCP in this case the consumer recieved a lower quality board than what they paid for...

ATi low end PC scavenger Hunt !

We're going to have fun showing you what types of chipsets are in lower end inexpencive word processing grandmothers only computers

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...d=1124431815484
Wow $400 under bestbuys basic productivity list what a deal! it has a radeon inside!

http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/eMac...roductDetail.do
Awesome $600 gets you an Athlon 64 3500+ 1 gig of Ram and a TV tuner

http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/s...=computer_store
Super computer for the family! only $349. 512 MB of ram Lightscribe burner.

How are they able to sell these machines so cheap and make any money.

http://www.z-buy.com/product.asp?item=ZS-A64M939BB wow thats cheap includes a case and powersupply wonder what the difference in quality between these components and those in a pre built system.


Walk into any computer store and look for the cheapest machine possible with an AMD brand processor inside . Try a circuit city or bestbuy. Most manufacturers have found that they can save a large amount of money by using inexpensive motherboards. I found that for $300-500 dollars I could pickup a full computer system monitor, printer, computer w/ Athlon 64/ Sempron and 512 MB of Ram and it would have the ever popular el-cheapo Ati X200 inside.

Manufacturers know that ATi Sounds name brand and they can really push forward and sell these lower end machines at a consumer friendly price.

ATi's X200 is rarely offered in higher end gaming performance systems.

In any of these cases adding a $300-$500 dollar graphics board would instantly turn these budget pcs into gaming rig that companies can sell at a range of $2000-$5000 dollars. Basically what I'm saying is that high end computer companies rarely pass the savings on to the consumer and most machines like the Falcon fragbox can be self built for $800 - $1300. What is expected though is that Falcon would put together a high quality machine with their know how.

High End Machines = No integrated graphics

http://www.alienware.com/product_pa...aming.aspx?cs=1
nForce4 Board

http://global.shuttle.com/Product/Barebone/SN26P.asp
nForce4 Board (they offer a x200 but it is not considered thier top of the line barebones kit for maximum performance)

http://www.voodoopc.com/showRoom.aspx?categoryID=1
Voodoo PC does not move from Nvidia's chipset

http://www.falcon-nw.com/machv.asp
Even they dont joke around when selling nForce 4 SLI machines

i have a ATI xpress board in my hp , i've had no problems with the computer ... can't say i even used the onboard graphics tho lol but i can say the performace of the board is great

ive got
athlon 64 3700+
2 gigs of memory (4x512mb pc3200)
2x 200gig hd (seagate sata's)
ati radeon x800 XL 256mb PCI Express card
DVDRW Lightsribe / Normal 52x Asus CDROM
Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Sound Card
all on the stock HP Powersupply aswell , NO issue this is a super stable computer
all it took was a Clean format , of windows xp pro i just didnt feel like building my own this time around an i got a good deal on the base system

all the parts used in these 'low end' pcs are actually brand name good parts (my hp came with cosair memory (stock) , asus boards are used ... etc)

CrAzYsPyDeR said:

i have a ATI xpress board in my hp , i've had no problems with the computer ... can't say i even used the onboard graphics tho lol but i can say the performace of the board is great

ive got
athlon 64 3700+
2 gigs of memory (4x512mb pc3200)
2x 200gig hd (seagate sata's)
ati radeon x800 XL 256mb PCI Express card
DVDRW Lightsribe / Normal 52x Asus CDROM
Sound Blaster Audigy 4 Sound Card
all on the stock HP Powersupply aswell , NO issue this is a super stable computer
all it took was a Clean format , of windows xp pro i just didnt feel like building my own this time around an i got a good deal on the base system

all the parts used in these 'low end' pcs are actually brand name good parts (my hp came with cosair memory (stock) , asus boards are used ... etc)

Click to expand...

Interesting. Is it a Hipro Power supply? If so, what is it Wattage and ratings? I just got my new vid card and my power supply wasnt up to task on my a630n

its a 300watt , forgot the name of it tho .. i will check it out tomm if ya want same one that comes in the pavilion a1230n

I like my Jetway ATI board, I'm number 2 on 3dmark03 with that chipset and onboard graphics...of course, I'm no longer using the onboard, but onboard worked great for the 3 months that I waited before I bought a X800GTO2.