Probably one of the best video cards you’ve never (knowingly) sold, Sapphire actually manufactures a large chunk of the video cards ATI sells directly. So the faith that you have in the ATI retail brand can essentially be transferred here.
We could start an argument over whether the RADEON 9800XT is faster than the NVIDIA FX 5950, but such conversations sort of bore me, and the answer really depends on which apps you’re testing and at which settings. Honestly, I’d pick either for my main graphics system. The question in this situation is what value does Sapphire bring to the table to make it’s $499 offering superior to similar products from other vendors?

Every ATI partner under the sun bundles its 9800 XT card with a coupon good for a free copy of Half-Life 2 redeemable whenever the game finally arrives. Additionally, enthusiasts will enjoy the increasingly popular overclocking and tweaking utility, REDLINE, that Sapphire throws in. Also included is a full copy of CyberLink’s PowerDVD.
Beyond this, the card essentially follows the book as set forth by ATI. The 9800 XT boasts a 412 MHz GPU core and 730 MHz effective memory speed. With eight pixel pipelines, full DX9 support, and 256MB of DDR memory, the card is lightning quick and compatible with whatever 2004 might throw at it.

Those who sell to high-end enthusiasts may find themselves with a competitive advantage by picking up Sapphire’s ULTIMATE version of this product for only $50 more. The ULTIMATE is the same 9800 XT card but Sapphire pulls off the standard heatsink and replaces it with a Zalman ZM80C-HP aluminum heatsink/copper heatpipe cooler. The visual effect is impressive to say the least. Better still, it renders the card silent, an area in which ATI has fallen behind NVIDIA in its flagship products. The heatsink system is voluminous, encasing both the front and back of the card and causing it, like the NVIDIA, to take over the adjacent PCI slot’s air space. Previously, Sapphire ULTIMATE cards had trouble dissipating the heat emanated by the Zalman cooler. Now, though, Sapphire attaches Zalman’s ZM-OP1, a low-noise, 80mm slim fan that spins in silent mode at 1,400 RPM and ratchets up to a quiet 2,800 RPM if necessary. The end result is that the card’s heat is spread throughout the chassis rather than stewing around the AGP slot and nearby CPU. Gamers may be interested to know that the ULTIMATE version also includes Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness, one of the very few DX9 titles available today.

The trouble with recommending video cards is that they all tend to fall within very tight target patterns based around the GPU. True enough, Sapphire’s 9800 XT performs just like most every other 9800 XT. What makes the company’s version just a bit more enticing is its firm manufacturing relationship with ATI, the enhanced software bundle, and the uniqueness of the ULTIMATE hardware upgrade. If your enthusiast customers need a recommendation for the best 3D adapter in the business, here’s your answer.

MSI
K8T Neo-FIS2R
MSRP: $135.99
www.msicomputer.com

While Intel may be set on taking its time to bring 64-bit processing to the desktop, AMD is leading the way with its Athlon 64 family. The Socket 754 Athlon 64 is a bit of an odd bird to sell right now. Performance buyers know that the Athlon 64 FX is the hottest chip available, but supply on the FX is limited and most buyers can’t handle its comparatively steep price. Those on a budget still have the Athlon XP. That leaves the Athlon 64 to satisfy those who need to watch dollars but still have their eye firmly on high performance and future compatibility.
The question then becomes which motherboard to pair with the Athlon 64. I’ve tried a lot of options, and I’m convinced that MSI’s K8T Neo-FIS2R offers some of the best bang for the buck of any board on today’s market.

On the performance end, the Athlon 64 chip and MSI’s typically solid construction are aided by MSI’s CoreCell technology. CoreCell is an ingenious feature that doesn’t get half of the attention it deserves. The little chip manages the board’s power levels, altering fan, power supply, and CPU speeds as necessary. When applications need more juice, CoreCell automatically overclocks the system to an aggressive yet still safe level. When less performance is needed, the system powers down a bit, thus reducing noise, power consumption, and component wear. When CoreCell first debuted with the 865 Neo boards, I predicted that the rest of the mobo industry would eventually adopt a similar approach. So far that hasn’t happened, and MSI is still able to deliver top-tier performance at a lower price point.

But this board is about a lot more than hot benchmark scores. We’ve already discussed in these pages how VIA’s K8T800 chipset compares very evenly against NVIDIA’s nForce3, and MSI leverages everything it can wring from VIA plus a lot more. On top of the usual AGP 8X slot, five PCI slots, three DIMM slots (up to 2GB of DDR400), and legacy connectors, MSI supplies five 1.8” analog jacks for 5.1 surround as well as both optical and coax SPDIF—nice! Realtek provides Gigabit Ethernet. Four USB ports are integrated in the backplane, and another four are available in the front. The backplane is also graced by two FireWire ports, one 6-wire and one 4-wire. The onboard VIA controller provides RAID 0 and RAID 1 for a pair of SATA ports, but there’s another pair of SATA ports (yes, that makes four) also with RAID 0/1/0+1 functionality controlled by a Promise chip. This Promise chip also powers the third IDE connector, allowing users the option of PATA RAID, as well. Did MSI leave anything out? Hmm, don’t think so.

Multimedia enthusiasts get every port they could want on a board. (Save for TV out, of course, but I’ll take discrete TV in my system any day.) Gamers will get a number of overclocking tools above what the CoreCell chip provides, which maxes out at 10% overage. Storage nuts will be able to fill their towers with drives, and mainstream users can rest assured that their future investment is as safe as just about anything can be today. The fact that MSI crams all of this functionality in under $140 is amazing. For buyers who want the “everything but the kitchen sink” approach to system configuration, this is the Athlon 64 platform board to buy.