Video card selection, please advise

[Grasshopper]

Hi,

Sorry for so many newbie questions. I'm in the process of buying parts for a new office/main home PC, and need a video card. It'll be driving an LCD monitor via DVI connection (or VGA, if somebody convinces me that it doesn't matter which).

I'm not a 3d gamer; the machine will be used mostly for work/browsing/email. Once I get a capture card (early next year), it'll also likely be used for some TV watching on the monitor, maybe the occasional DVD. The PC is an Athlon 2500, with a KT600 motherboard. I likely won't be hooking this monitor up to a TV.

What video card should I choose? Does it matter? Is just any cheap card as good as the expensive ones for my purposes? Should I make sure to get one with a DVI output?

I've searched and searched; most of the discussion revolves around video cards for TV output, for obvious reasons.

[mikbro]

The ATI 9000 series and Nvidia 5200 series of cards will be fine for what you are planning on doing. Make sure you get one that does have DVI output (makes a big difference on an LCD vs. analog RGB). Models that have DVI more than likely also have TV-out which isn't a bad thing, on the off chance you might hookup a TV down the road.

The ATI/Nvidia cards should run you between 60-100 depending on the bundle of software they come with.

[Grasshopper]

Many thanks for the prompt and helpful reply. Would a Radeon 9200SE work well? Would I gain anything at all if I pay the extra for a 9600?

Thanks again.

[mikbro]

Actually I just received a 9200 and will be putting it in a system tomorrow. The biggest difference between the 9200 and the 9600 is that you can get a dongle for the 9600 that allows it to output component video (as opposed to just composite or s-video). This produces a super picture on TV's with component input.

However, in your case I can see no compelling reason to go with the 9600 over the 9200, unless you desire to use the machine as a gaming rig and/or really think you might use the component output possible with the 9200.