http://cgi.ebay.com/PNY-Quadro-NVS-4...2em118Q2el1247


http://www.nvidia.com/object/IO_14605.html

http://www.mv4t.com/Hardware_Graphic...able-Cards.php

Not sure which is better yet .... 295 is a strong card are cost more then 450.

I think the 450 is considered the superior card, also if you plan on going for your 8 monitor system a 450 would be a better choice so you dont have to upgrade later.

Ok the 450 has 2 G98 cores:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nvidia_Quadro

Well G98 is the 8600 core, bigs deal.

SEVERAL READERS CAME back and asked us what is exactly G98, mentioned in previous stories by Mr. Demerjian and myself.
The answer is short and sweet. G98 is the new mainstream part with enhanced and more wide memory controller, going head to head with ATi's own RV670. G98 is all that G83 (8600) was supposed to be, but failed to deliver.

A while ago, a rumour about GeForce 8600 with 256-bit controller appeared on the market. That part is no other but the G98, even though the GF8600+256-bit is a bit downplayed, G98 is significantly faster and has much more shader power.

These are real $199 cards, not those notebook parts that were dumped into the desktop market.


So the 295 is the much superior offering.




Also:

Thats the first raptor with Sata 3.0 (instead fo 1.5) interface.

With raid 0 you get 6GB/sec

If you set up your 12G ram with a 8G ram disk you get 28G/sec. WoW takes more then 8G for all folders though.

I don't think access time is important (why would they store a zone data non consecutively in the data files?).

These are cheaper AND FASTER then the 300G ones:

http://cgi.ebay.com/80-GB-Velocirapt...QQcmdZViewItem

WD740HLFS

I think 2 of those is by far the best cost/performance upgrade you can do. I hate raid but 2 of those in raid zero, or 4 in raid zero (12Gsec transfer rate humm.) for just $250 for 2 or $500 for 4 well ...

$500 for 12G/sec humm hummm with 280G capacity.

$1800 for 28G/sec ddr3 with 24G capacity (if you could get it).

Hummm ....


And for those really on a budget:

http://cgi.ebay.com/Western-Digital-...QQcmdZViewItem

$40 for every 1.5G/sec.

So for a lousy $160 you get your wow folder to 6G/sec .... I should really get those for my slave computers.