GF2 MX400 Challenge - Win a prize

[Holst]

Hi all.

EDIT This thread has got very long now so ill try and give newcommers the jist of whats going on.

There has been allot of discution about what card to use, the main problem is that we want everybody to use the same thing.

Saaya has found a place in germany that sells SIS Xabre 400 based cards very cheap, this card is a good performer, and is something new to everybody.

Cost is looking like around 45 including delivery.

It would be very helpfull if you are 100% definatley interested if you can register your intererst in THIS THREAD (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21986)

Below is an edited version of my initial post, ive taken out some of the bits that are confusing and added in as much new info as I can.



Welcome to the first XS overclocking challenge.
This contest is open to anybody worldwide

The premise is a simple one, everybody buys the same cheap graphics card and tries to get the highest 3dmark2001 score they can with it...


The exact type of card and place of purchase has not yet been decided, please read the thread for more details on this
But they will probably be purchased in bulk by myself )or saaya) and ill post them out to the competitors.

Im trying to keep the cost of card + postage at around £30 or $45, making this some cheap fun that every member of XS can have a go at.
Allot of us have allways wanted to get out the dry ice and pelts but havent wanted to risk and expensive graphics card, this is the perfect oppotunity to get very Xtreme with less financial risk.

There are two prizes at the moment and 3 catagories.

1 - XTREME catagory.
Anything goes, any CPU type or speed.

2 -Athlon XP under 2.5gig
Any AMD XP,Tbread, palomino, duron, thorton or barton processor under 2.5gig (A64 boys need to enter the Xtreme catagory)

3-Intel P4 (or P3) under 3.2gig (clock speed may be changed pending discution as im not sure of what clocks people are getting.

Any modifications can be done to the graphics card.
(bar memory chip swaps that must enter the xtreme catagory only)

Prizes are as follows.

Xtreme catagory - no hardware prize but a big trophy.
AMD under 2.5 catagory - Epox 8RDA+ rev 2 mainboard
Intel under 3.2 catagory - Epox 8KRA2+ mainbard (sorry I dont have an intel board)

The idea of having 3 catagorys is that people with more modest systems can still compete against the big boys, competitors may enter all 3 catagories but can only win prizes in one (just in case opp or macci win all 3 :P)

Dispute resolution.
Obviously there is no sure fire way of telling what card people are using, so we are trusting the honesty of competitors to only use there supplied card.
If there is a suspicion of foul play it must be brought to myself or another judge for evaluation. Do not post accusations on the forum.
Hopefully the above sentence wont be necicary, but I dont want this to turn into a spam fest.
Judges will be chosen before the competition opens.

If you have any questions or suggestions please post them here.

Have fun :D :D

[Holst]

This thread was the inspiration for the contest

http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=21744

[EdgarBaba]

how about the europeans wanting to compete ?? i'm thinking about payment and sending and so ??

[Holst]

This is worldwide if you pay the postage.

Ill have to calculate a euro cost, but postage to europe isnt expensive from the UK.

[faruquehabib]

I AM DEFINITELY JOINING

[faruquehabib]

holst, are the cards going to be the 32mb or 64 mb versions of the gf2 mx400?

[Holst]

Depends on the price, it will probably be 64mb ones as they are much more widely avalable, I dont want to run out of cards.

[lalPOOO]

uh, You should avoid the 64mb kind of like you'd avoid transexual strippers if they use SD, which I'm pretty sure most of them do. They don't go as high and probably won't even let you get the #1 mx400 spot.

edit: A good way to insure that everyone stays honest is to just ask for pictures of the card, you'll be able to tell by the way it looks, and by the FCC id.

Avoid the IOMAGIC cards.

[La1kr0diZ]

Hey, i live in Ukraine but i still wanna join. How much will the shipping to Kiev cost me? I think more then a card cost :)
I think that the best thing would be to let everyone buy the cards themselves and bench em. The cards that were manufactured the same week also differed greatly and you cant give everyone the cards with the exact equal basic overclocking potential. So why not just buy cards where we are and compete?

[Kunaak]

what do you win, and how long is this going?

[Holst]

Prizes are in my first post.

The contest will probably run for a month, although you can enter at any point during that month.

I might make it 6 weeks, depends on how long it takes for posted cards to arrive.

[STEvil]

Shouldn't cost a ton. I shipped an 8500LE to australia for $20cdn airmail.

EDITED--EDITED

What's your mailing addy, Holst? I dont have a CC or ebay or anything, so you get $$ via snailmail moneyorder... heh.

64mb ddr good, 64mb sdr bad.

EDITED: I'm gonna wait until this is all figured out... Dunno if I wanna format and stuff.. again... 8-/

[La1kr0diZ]

Holst, what about my previous post? Are you sure you should send out the cards?

[afireinside]

I'd love to do this but read my post :/

Are you going to do another one like this later down the road? I gota get my 8RDA modded and get a 1.4 duron and throw some dry ice on there if theres another later down the road :D As I'd say in warcraft:
gl hf

[Jeff]

Unless I'm dead before it starts... I want to join the contest! ;) I'll be participating in the AMD under 2.5GHz division btw.

[afireinside]

Maybe I should throw the thing together and Vmod real fast and use one of my athlons... Where do I get dry ice :D

[saaya]

I want to join the contest

g2mx? i thougt a geforce 4mx :confused: g4mx cards are more fun to oc if you ask me and they only cost 10$ more than a g2mx.

arent g2mx cards agp 2x/4x and dont fit in a agp4x/agp8x slot? or was it the agp1x cards that didnt fit in agp8x slots?

[Holst]

I think the best bet may be to choose a manufacturer and card and all just buy the same.

Then to enter the competition you must provide a photo of your card, or if possible a before and after photo.

I think my prefered card will be this one -
http://www.msicomputer.com/product/vga/vga_detail.asp?model=G4MX440-T8X&search_text=MX440-T8X

Its an MSI card so its avalable everywhere, and if you cant get one I can buy and post it on.

Its about the cheapest MX440 I can find and its DDR so we should get some ok overclocks

It is a little more expensive than the original MX400's I was looking at, but I think this card will be more fun.

DONT BUY A CARD YET AS THIS CHOICE ISNT FINAL, im still open to suggestions.

Once the final choice on card is taken ill post a new thread with full rules and dates

[Major]

I WILL PARTICIPATE

Will Vmods for the boards be posted ?? or is it up to everyone to figure them out ?

[Holst]

Ill be posting all my mods on the forum, although you may be able to improove on them.

I would like to see what everybody has done with there cards once the competition has finished, although if somebody comes up with a killer mod that they want to keep to themselves untill its over then thats upto them...

[Major]

I guess cooling is up to us too ??

Holst what is your Paypal account ??? Is that how you want payment ?

[XtremepH]

Originally posted by Major Slaughter
I WILL PARTICIPATE

Will Vmods for the boards be posted ?? or is it up to everyone to figure them out ?

I think it would be best for everyone to figure it out for themselves. That way the real overclockers will shine just my .02 cents

[Holst]

MS - Read my post above about us all buying our own.

Although I dont want anybody to buy yet untill I post a new thread with the full rules and what card to buy.

I might keep my mods secret for the start of the contest, depends on what I come up with.. I allready have a 220watt watercooled pelt ready to go :D :D

Obviosuly I cant win the prize as im a judge...

[La1kr0diZ]

Ok, a great idea with buying cards where you live.
I`ll participate then

[Major]

That would be best IMO, but might be hard to get the same brand ??

Might need a list of OK cards to use, as long as they are all the same gpu and memory there shouldn't be major differences between them.

[Stang_Man]

i'll participate..

do i have to buy another gf2 mx400??

i've already got a PNY gf2 mx400 lying around

[Holst]

Micky, can you see if you can get this exact MSI GF4 in the US?

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/vga/vga_detail.asp?model=G4MX440-T8X&search_text=MX440-T8X

The part code is MX440-T8X

[eshbach]

i've already got a gf4 mx440, so if we make it that and i don't have to buy anything, i'm in.

[pulverizer]

Originally posted by Holst
Micky, can you see if you can get this exact MSI GF4 in the US?

http://www.msicomputer.com/product/vga/vga_detail.asp?model=G4MX440-T8X&search_text=MX440-T8X

The part code is MX440-T8X

Yeah that one is available at Newegg...

[Vlad Draculea]

I want to join but i think it would be something i will be spaming in all the time, so you will be better banning me.

[Holst]

I think thats going to be the problem.

If we go for the more attractive MX440 it gets quite a bit more expensive.

Were as the GF2MX400 whylst less appealing performance wize is quite a bit cheaper...

The point of this contest was cheapness, even disposability.

The hard part about the MX400's is that they are hard to find.. or at least its hard to find the same type of card in more than one place.

[Major]

The cheaper the better in my book. Just needs to be a level playing field.

[STEvil]

Maybe we should do this with 3dfx V3 3000's? hehe 8-)

After looking at the orb, its all video card @ 2300mhz+ for the MX400... or so it seems.

[sjohnson]

How about V3 3500's :D I have 3 here to burn up lol...

[saaya]

for those who cant find the card or who cant get the card at a reasonable price just send holst the money and some extra for shipping and he will send you a card (right holst? :D)

220W tec lmao :D you havent played with a g4mx yet right? :D at default clocks they can run without any heatsink on the gpu ^^

[Holst]

What do you guys think about saphire radeon 7000 SDR 64mb.

I know that SDR memory will be slow but they are VERY cheap and much more widely avalable that a MX400.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=44664

http://www.sapphiretech.com/7000/7000-112.htm
Newegg sell this card as well

I think this is my favorite so far

[Holst]

Originally posted by saaya
for those who cant find the card or who cant get the card at a reasonable price just send holst the money and some extra for shipping and he will send you a card (right holst? :D)

220W tec lmao :D you havent played with a g4mx yet right? :D at default clocks they can run without any heatsink on the gpu ^^

I also have an external PSU setup, im planning on ripping off the onboard voltage regulation and powering the GPU externally, at whatever voltage I like

[Holst]

Sorry for the confusion over what card to use, im just trying to keep everybody happy.. which isnt easy.

[Vlad Draculea]

i think, but just sometimes.

[saaya]

64-bit memory- Maximium memory Interface :1.6GB/s with 200MHZ SDR

:stick: that just sounds horrable! the g4mx cards are really fun to oc, i def want a g4mx! that masi card looked great, whats wrong with it?

[STEvil]

EDIT

How about 32mb/64mb DDR GF1 256's?

My 32mb Asus @ Quadro does 170/350 without vmods so far.. good enough for #3 overall on '03 8-)

[Holst]

Problem is vlad is that the MSI 440 will be about 70 euro shipped, so you may as well buy it where you are. exporting anything from the UK sux as im paying 17% vat on it allready and the exchange rate is rubbish.

I agree that the MSI 440 will be more fun, Ill post a new thread tomorrow night after ive looked at some pricing, I may be able to get a cheaper DDR MX card if I phone around tomorrow.

[saaya]

the msi GF4MX440-T8X costs 45€ here in germany and they have a lot in stock. there are three different models according to msi, MS-8890/MS-8893/MS-8895 i wonder if theres any diference? diferent memory maybe?

why do you want to keep the vmods for yourself?

[Stang_Man]

holst, can you please answer my question?? :p:

do i have to buy another gf2 mx400??

i've already got a PNY gf2 mx400 lying around

[STEvil]

http://www.memoryexpress.com/FrameVideoCards.php

Kinda expensive here.. that doesnt inlcude tax or anything, either.. d'oh.

[saaya]

stang we still havent decided what card we will use, in case we decide we all get a pny g2mx400 you will be ok with that card, if not you would have to buy a new card.

[saaya]

G4 MX440-T8X 64MB w/ TV-Out $ 89.95 lol 2x the price here in germany 0.0

[Major]

Originally posted by Holst
What do you guys think about saphire radeon 7000 SDR 64mb.

I know that SDR memory will be slow but they are VERY cheap and much more widely avalable that a MX400.

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=44664

http://www.sapphiretech.com/7000/7000-112.htm
Newegg sell this card as well

I think this is my favorite so far

The Radeon looks good to me.

[saaya]

a radeon 7000? : / it doesnt even have hardware t&L :( come on....

[RichBa5tard]

What about a Sis Xabre 400 64mb ddr? Costs only 36 euro's in Germany and are more powerful than a gf4 mx440. (around 8k stock on 2ghz amd)
http://www.snogard.de/

A pitty we can't get GF2 MX cards no more, a fellow friend bought dozens of those for only 10$. :/


I agree with saaya. I want it cheap, but when the contest is over i don't want to be stuck with a card that's absolutely worthless.

[Vlad Draculea]

if it cant be done cheaper it will be done more expensive.

[saaya]

xabre 400, wow! thatd be cool!

[Poki]

Why not use the GF4 in the unlimited class and the less expensive 7000 in the lower classes?

[STEvil]

ooooh, xabre 400's.. .that would be fun, lol.

[Major]

The Sis would be an interesting departure from the norm ! I like that Idea !

[STEvil]

Can we find a cheap outlet around here, though?

[RichBa5tard]

Originally posted by STEvil
Can we find a cheap outlet around here, though?

newegg has them for sale for 45.5$. A different brand thought...
http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=0&submit=Go&description=xabre

[saaya]

xabre even is a dx8 card! so we can really use the cards once we are done with them, i think ill give mine to the lil bro of a good friend :)

i really like the xabre idear, something really new :)

[saaya]

the ecs xabre400 card beats a g3ti200 @ stock speed and ocs from 250/250 to 300/300 without any mods, not as much as a g4mx but really nice!

my favourite so far :)

[RichBa5tard]

The Transcend (newegg.com, 45$) has a slightly different pcb design than the ECS (snogard.de, 36 euro), but i doubt it will make much difference.

ECS:
http://www.ecs.com.tw/products/graphics/ag400t8d64.jpg

Transcend:

[Jeff]

I like the xabre 400 64Mb DDR idea. :up:

[Major]

Provided everyone can find one loacally I think this might be the way to go myself.

[saaya]

hmmm but its a diferent pb design and most important it has other memory!

the cards are supposed to run very cool, even cooler than a g4mx according to some review i just read. so we can probably double and maybe tripple vgpu with good cooling :D and since its made with 15µ technology it can take a lot of volts without frying.

[saaya]

ECS AG400 comes with the 3DVR connector so you can plug in your 3D glasses and get the 3D effect

:stick: i definately want this card!

http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/ECS/AG400/page3.htm

ocs nice
runs cool
something else than always ati/nvidia
supports dx8
comes with 3d glasses
cheap
large pcb=better ocability

EDIT:
For core clock, i believe all the Xabre 400 GPUs come factory locked since i am unsuccessful in trying to push the core clock higher than its 250Mhz default speed. At whatever core clock speed i set, the performance will not change therefore the only conclusion is that they are locked.

http://www.vr-zone.com/reviews/ECS/AG400/page6.htm

ouch... we have to check this... ive read 4 reviews and they could all oc the cards...

[RichBa5tard]

Originally posted by saaya
hmmm but its a diferent pb design and most important it has other memory!

True, but i think it will be nearly impossible to find a card that's being sold worldwide for a very low price, with exactly the same chips and pcb revision...

Can anyone from germany distribute the cards form snogard.de? They don't ship abroad, and xabre 400's are pretty hard to find anywhere else in europe.

-edit-
Hehe, five replys from sayaa in 10 minutes since i mentiomed the xabre. I think someone is liking the xabre idea. ;)

[STEvil]

Enrontech!!!

My Ti200 had that ram, 5ns IIRC. Did 533mhz all stock 8-)

EDIT

Look at the scores the xabre's are making in 3dmark03.

Only twice as fast as my GF1 256 DDR.

my gf256ddr (2nd fastest on '03!) http://service.futuremark.com/compare?2k3=558138

[RichBa5tard]

Originally posted by STEvil
Enrontech!!!

My Ti200 had that ram, 5ns IIRC. Did 533mhz all stock 8-)

Cool, now I want that card even if we don't have a xabre 400 competition. :D

[Jeff]

Just wanted to add that I'll share whatever Vmods I get working since you still have to have benchmarking skill to get the most out of your hardware. (which will probably be my downfall since I'm not really a 3DMarker ;))

[saaya]

jupp i love the xabre idear! and i could buy and send the cards to you guys if you want the ecs xabre and dont find another place that sells it.

check my last reply, vr-zone couldnt oc the gpu, they say the card is locked to gpu ocing :confused: all the other reviews ive seen said they could oc the card prety well though : /

and yes, etrontech makes great memory! my gainward g2mx golden sample came with 3.0ns etrontech sd ram wich oced very well!

i really like the 3d glass support the card has :D

[Vlad Draculea]

i have just noticed just that i have legs, so i am going to begin runing to never stop again.

[RichBa5tard]

Sayaa, are those other reviews where they can change the gpu speed about the ecs card, or a different brand?


@vlad: shipping within the eu is cheap. I'm sure sayaa or someone else is willing to ship you one.
If we can get the weight below 350grams (remove manual and stuff), it only costs 3.8 euro to ship a priori from .be to spain.

[Jeff]

Wonder if ECS would semi-sponser our competition? We'd all still have to buy our cards but ECS would make sure that everyone has the same cards.

If only we had someone who has some idea of how these large companies work... (Jeff :stick: Holst)

Hell... it'd be good exposure for them with their "budget" cards.

[Vlad Draculea]

and it would be even greater if somebody made sure we all are humans, extraterrestrial precense would be considered cheating.

[saaya]

the other reviews were about the ecs xabre 400 card as well, some had a pre-production sample, some had a retail card. there are at least 2 reviews i found where they oced retail cards on both gpu and memory.

jeff, i already checked, it seems to be really hard to contact ecs directly. i couldnt find any telephone number and emails probably take forever. :(

i will call snogard tomorrow and ask them if they can give me a telephone number of ecs or their distributor and hopefully they can give me a telephone number to reach ecs.

hmmm hold on, didnt sis videocards get independent from sis chipsets? they bought trident and made a new graphics manufacturer called xgi didnt they?

[STEvil]

Kinda cheaper for CDN ppl here, but no Xabre cards....

http://www.ncix.com/products/index.php?majorcatid=101&minorcatid=108

[Vlad Draculea]

EDIT
i think they could not be contacted here
me gustan las urls

[STEvil]

Vlad - Try here

http://www.ecs.com.tw/contact/contact_index.asp

EDIT

Oh, you changed it.. heh.


Anyone notice the USA office place is near to Corsair? Fremont Cali 8-)

[STEvil]

Ok, heres what we want...

http://www.pcwave.com/prod-AG400T8-D64.asp

Here is where to buy it:

http://www.pcwave.com/gateway.asp

Holy crud. 8-)


$43 US @ newegg, in stock.

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProduct.asp?submit=manufactory&manufactory=1941&catalog=48&DEPA=1&sortby=14&order=1

[causticVapor]

Hey... just an idea.... perhaps you guys could try out a low-end XGI volari... whenever it comes out....

...Since we're on the SiS bandwagon now, which I think a really good idea...

...Agreed very much, a departure from the same old same old is necessary... heck, we could even try S3 deltachromes for some real fun...

[saaya]

i already contacted xgi ;)

ill keep you updated once i get a reply from them

and i will call ecs to ask them if we can get a bunch of cards from the same batch, hopefully with etrontech memory :D

Tel: +49-2431-941-0 and Tel: (408) 470-7100 i will call them tomorrow

[STEvil]

i've been trying to get hold of a propane fridge to convert for use for pc cooling.. heh.

[Vlad Draculea]

i am making a propane automatic farter.

[saaya]

come on guys lets go for the xabre, i only heard good things about it so far :D

[STEvil]

I dunno.. they seem to crap out @ 3dmark'03....

Wish we could get cheap GF3 Ti200's.

[RichBa5tard]

Originally posted by STEvil
I dunno.. they seem to crap out @ 3dmark'03....

Wish we could get cheap GF3 Ti200's.

I don't see the point doing a 3dmark03 contest with nonn dx9 cards. Aren't we going to use 3dmark01?

[mrnuke]

if we go ti4600, i'd have to get my leadtek back :) she was a beauty, would oc like a mother

[STEvil]

Thats getting expensive again guys... 8-)

[MrIcee]

The old man is in boys:D

I like the Xabre idea too..takes the same ole same ole out of the equation with nVidia or ATI. The question is...are we talking the 200 or 400 version of the Xabre card?? Theres only a couple dollar difference from what I saw at NewEgg.

I am not here as often as I like lately, so if someone could keep me posted via pm or email I'd greatly appreciate it. I'm up for having some fun not enjoyed in quite some time:thumbsup:

The Old man,

Randi:D

[STEvil]

400.

[Major]

There should be a $50 cap on this card thats the whole point of this is to OC a cheap card and sorta even up the odds for everyone.

I'd vote for the Xabre 400 looks like a good bet.

[Terror Twilight]

Xabre 400 sounds ideal.

[Alkor]

I am thinking about participaiting in this challenge. It looks like a good idea to stick with Xebre400.

[Soulburner]

Looked at the low-end XGI?

[Major]

Holst is in charge of the fun, he should be back online in a few hours. ;)

[Ragnarok]

if it ends up being MX400, just go out and look for the Asus V7100Pro SE..

[shortcircuit]

Whatever card gets chosen, I'm in. I have enough hardware here to run in all three classes.

[xDUCK]

If I can get my hands on a GeForce2 MX400, I'm in. :D

I'll be participating in the AXP < 2.5Ghz (249x10 :D) category. And I've got dual Prometeia's... FEAR ME! :D

[STEvil]

xDUCK - Xabre 400's are what are possibly going to be used....

I wonder how long my 12v 86 watt tec would survive @ 24v... heh......

[Holst]

I like the idea of the Xaber400 in theory but I cant find anywhere that sells one in the UK yet...

I have to go to work now, can somebody with a little more time see if they can find anywhere in the UK/europe that sells these cards at a good price.

[saaya]

a shop here in germany sells them.

[Jeff]

How many cards are we looking at? I mean, if saaya can get ahold of someone who produces these "Xabre 400" cards and tells them we want 30(or 40?) of them, I'm sure they will be happy to give a bit of a deal on them. If they do, then shipping from one location(ie. saaya's house ;)) would make sense... the money we save doing a bulk deal just goes to shipping. My hope is someone cool actually responds to saaya and they are interested in our little contest to the point of "Xtremely Good Deal". ;)

[Vlad Draculea]

holst i think you could not get some here in *. i checked the end and none of them had the xabre.
click for putrefacted food

[GJ]

I have asked a friend who is MSI forum admin,and he will ask them about this all stuff.

My friend is forwarding this page,our request and my email adress to MSI,and says that i'll probably get an answer till tomorrow.I will keep you all informed.

Take care.

[[XC]thewildblue]

I have found a few references for the card for sale but most seem to say discontinued in the UK

http://sale-depot.co.uk/computers/item/B00007M9ED/Gainward,SIS,Xabre,400,TV,DVI.html

What about the radeon 7000 as mentioned before as its cheap I have one and the 2nd top score on the orb at present....lol. Think I may rebench tonight...lol.

I think that the MX400 or the radeon are still the best bet as they are so cheap.

[GJ]

thwwildblue,dont forget xabre.

between,that price si awesome high,in germany its 30-40euro...

[xtreme]

hmmm i've got an ASUS V7100Pro .. but no benching rig :(

[Holst]

I called a few places today but I didnt have much success.

It seems that nobody in the UK sells the Xaber 400.
(thats not true I found one place who wanted £75)

I did ask about bulk buying MX400's 440's and raderon 7000's but none of the prices offered were not any better than ebuyer even if we took a pretty large number..

[faruquehabib]

maybe someone could contact nVidia directly

[Holst]

Nvidia probably wont be able to help, we would need to contact the manufacturers themselves.

Shame I dont know anybody who works for a graphics card manufacturer...

[buff]

I say buy Xabre400's from newegg
I'm in as soon as its settled about what vid card to buy

[saaya]

i called ecs germany and xgi today, they say they will send me an email or call me back witghin a few days.

id say xabre 400, it costs the same as a g4mx and radeon 7000 here in germany (45€) and is a lot faster and has a lot more features than the latter cards.

since most people who take part in this competition we should probably order the cards on newegg, what was the price at newegg again?

[Holst]

The trancend sis400 is $45.50

[CSOFT]

That sounds like its going to rock....

I like the sis idea but what about this?

3DWizard does provide overclocking function and you can use Powerstrip utility too. Under Windows 2000, i have yet to find the way to change the core and memory speed so i need to use the Powerstrip instead. However, Powerstip limits the memory clock to 270Mhz max and any higher speed is kicked back to 270Mhz. I have tired overclocking under Windows 98 environment and the highest memory clock to pass 3DMark2001SE is 290Mhz.

For core clock, i believe all the Xabre 400 GPUs come factory locked since i am unsuccessful in trying to push the core clock higher than its 250Mhz default speed. At whatever core clock speed i set, the performance will not change therefore the only conclusion is that they are locked

-VRZONE Review


I just got done playing around with a MSI GF4MX440, I stuck a 72w TEC directly on it (no coldplate :D ) and vasoline all around it then cranked the GPU voltage, I didn't really get the score I was looking for (see sig) b/c I didn't spend but about an hour and a half on it. I didn't vmod the ram becuase it's not my card and I have to return it to work sooner or later in good condition :D

If it uses a MSI GF4 MX440 or MSI GF2 MX400 im in, I got both laying free

[Holst]

That dosent sound good from VRzone.

can anybody else find a Xabre 400 overclocking review?

[GJ]

i am hoping in MSI...

Just let us wait...

[faruquehabib]

dude, you can adjust the core and mem clock max on powerstrip. if they can be 'unlocked' (that is if they are actually locked in the first place) i have no doubt someone on the xs team can find a way to unlock them and we can all giver nuts!

[Holst]

The powerstrip limit isnt a problem at all, you can move the slider.

But if the core is locked from overclocking then it makes the contest pretty pointless.

[Vlad Draculea]

i have been reading some reviews, and i in no goin to tel u

[jmke]

Belgium leads (http://shrimpcity.spelletjesgarnaal.be/showthread.php?s=&threadid=49907) the rest follows :-)

great idea Holst, I'm in for sure!

[Vlad Draculea]

more nooverclocking results. it seems algo
http://www.thing.com/video/cosas-roundup/algo

[saaya]

there are a bunch of reviews where they could oc the cards and if you check the orb there is one score where it says xabre40@340/340 ...

lol@the g4mx score. 8.500 with a pelt? my gainward g4mx got close to 10K without any mods and fdefault cooling with nothing more than 11.5x200 single channel and bad timings!

[buff]

Lets just pick one and get started already......

[RichBa5tard]

@ Holst: let's just buy a whole lot a snogard.de for 36 euros. Priority shipping to the .uk is only 3.8 euro! You'd be having your card for 30 pounds. :)

[ctgilles]

If so, I'm in, always good fun :)

[saaya]

46$ on newegg vs. 36€ at snogard hmmm

i still think we should buy the cards at newegg since most of us live in the us so its easier to send a few cards to europe right?

[Vlad Draculea]

4usd and i think 4usd is about the same as 3.7€

[Holst]

If somebody is willing to help send cards from newegg, or from snogard (I cant find the card on there as my belgian sux) then I think the decition has been made, we now just need to sort out who will buy what and how people will pay.

I think paypall will be the best bet.

I dont mind redistributing cards for the UK if you send them to me. Although if you send too much stuff in one package we will get hit by inport duty and tax which will add quite a bit to the cost.

[jmke]

snogard.DE is german ;)

[jmke]

edit:

www.snogard.de

top left corner "suche" = search

"xabre"


AG400T8-D64 64MB, Xabre 400, DDR, TVout, retail 35,90 €

[Holst]

Ive got that far, im trying to register so I can see the shipping charges.

It says housnummer, I take it it wants my street name followed by the number
Postleitzahl = postcode?
Stadt = no idea.

[saaya]

i can buy and send the cards to you guys if you think its the better deal. you just have to explain me how to deal with paypal, never worked with it before.

are you sure that shipping each card to the us will be less than 10$?

[saaya]

stadt=city

[Holst]

Its about £7 from the UK for normall air mail.

so a little more than $10.

[jmke]

I think that saaya is correct, what richbastard meant was that it was going to be shipped through Saaya's home ;)

[Holst]

I cant register through snogard as it wants a german postal code.

[Holst]

saaya can you go onto XS IRC as it will be easyer to discuss specifics on there.

[jmke]

saaya can make the order in your name, no ?

[Holst]

I dont know, I cant read german to find out the international shipping :P

[saaya]

ygpm ;)

how many people here are from the us? we are going to take the overall costs and divide them amongst all of us right? or do you want to pay for your card and shipping only?

lets meet on irc

[Holst]

I think deviding the cost may be a bit hard to work out.

I was just going to charge whatever it costs to ship TBH, or the US guys can buy from newegg providing its the same card (It looks like it)

[faruquehabib]

hmm...well, yall let the rest of us know the details. just tell us what to do and where to buy, etc. and we will. lets rock and roll, baby!!

[saaya]

i will call snogard tomorrow and ask them how many cards they have in stock, what payment they accept and what shipping they support. i will post the infos here tomorrow night and we will then have to decide if we go for the snogard deal or not.

if snogard doesnt have enough cards, or we decide not to take that deal our plan B is go for the msi geforce 4mx. the msi 4mx card can be bought pretty much everywhere in the world so everybody could get his own card.

plan c would be to get the newegg xabre cards and send some of them to europe.

personally id prefer to go for plan c if the snogard deal should not owrk for any reason since i really like what i read about the xabre cards so far, and i always loved the underdogs :D and choosing the xabre card will make this competition more interesting i think.

i will be back rtomorrow night with an update and we can make a poll about it :D

[Holst]

Id also like to stick with the Xabre cards if possible.

Is there anybody in the US who would be willing to ship cards to europe for those of us who cant get them here?
(should things not work out over here)

[synth]

damn this sounds like a brillant idea count me in, i will have to get a xabre 400 off shore as they are over $200 NZD :( so will have to get some one to ship one to me down here in New Zealand if thats possible :)

[Holst]

I dont think that will be a problem, I can forward one on to NZ as long as you can paypall me the cash

[saaya]

wheew shipping to new zealand will probably be 10-15 euros from germany without insurance.

how much is a new zealand dollar in usd?

[Holst]

postage to hong kong was only £7 when I looked into it from the UK, so I dont think that NZ will be any more expensive

[afireinside]

So were doing the Sis xaber 400? Whens this start?

[saaya]

next week i hope :)

holst, i had to send a radeon 8500 to taiwan so they would repair it and i had to pay 12 euros. maybe british postal service is cheaper because you guys used to have colonies over there so there is still some kind of infra structure? :D could be...

[synth]

sweet paypal is good...just let me know what the postage is gonna cost and it should be sweet :)

Saaya: not sure if there is any "infrastructure" left at all... although the NZpost is still a public company so there may be some "ties" left with Britan,

[saaya]

i cant wait to have my xabre 400 card here and play with it :D ahhh and the 3d glasses will be fun!

[Jeff]

Originally posted by Holst
Id also like to stick with the Xabre cards if possible.

Is there anybody in the US who would be willing to ship cards to europe for those of us who cant get them here?
(should things not work out over here)

I can handle shipping cards from NewEgg.com to whoever needs them(if we have to go this route). I have over 200 positive feedbacks with no negative at eBay and I've been doing this kind of thing for the past year or so over at TPR. I've probably shipped 10-15 things over to the UK over the past 6 months alone.

[saaya]

cool, i had hoped youd say you can do it if we need to go the newegg route :D

how much is shipping to europe normal and insured?

[Dexter]

can someone give me a quote for the card and shipping to Australia. Exchange rate is ~ $.70US = $1AU. Or if someone knows where to get one in AUS that would be better.

[STEvil]

Dexter - figure out the price in $'s CDN and add $20 (CDN) to ship by air, it will be pretty close.

I would guess close to $75, though.

[Jeff]

Originally posted by saaya
cool, i had hoped youd say you can do it if we need to go the newegg route :D

how much is shipping to europe normal and insured?

I think I've sent a graphics card over to the UK for $7US via air mail without insurance. I know for a fact I can ship two cpus, or one stick of RAM for $4US via air mail without insurance because those are pretty common items people seem to want. ;)

I really won't know for sure until I get the actual card and send it. I could guestimate but there's always the chance I'll be wrong... go figure. :D

[GJ]

i could have paid with paypal only,so thats great for me :D

but please wait 12 hours for MSI to respond

[saaya]

i just called snogard about the xabre cards and this is what they told me:

they have 50+ xabre 400 cards in stock, all from the same batch
i misunderstood their shipping policies, they only support ups shipping, the lowest shipping fee is 12.50€!!! even if you just buy a stick of memory! and they only ship to germany... BUT the max shipping cost is 46€, so no matter how mayn cards i will buy and let them ship the cards to me it will be 46€ or less.

thats 2.30€ shipping for each card if we buy 20 cards and only 1.5€ shipping per card if we buy 30 cards. thats really nice if you ask me. i will go and check the prices of the german postal service now, to see how much it would cost to send a card from here to the usa. in europe its only 4-7€ for each card.

they dont accept paypal, credit cards or bank transfairs, they only accept payment via ups. they have some contract with ups it seems that they handle the deklivery and payment. so i would have to pay ups in cash when they arrive at my home with the cards... ive asked them if they can make an exception but they said no. i can try to call them again and ask them to make an exception, i dont think they would want to loose a 20-30 card deal like that even if its a big store...

it will be quite some money and i can understand if you dont trust me since you dont know me. i can give you my address telephone number and number of my identity card if that makes you feel better.

ill go and check the shipping costs with german postal service to the us and new zealand.

[saaya]

holy crap! shipping <2kg package smaller than 60x60x60cm to the us only costs 3€!!!!! :eek:

36€+2€shipping to my apartment+3€shipping to the us/spain/belgium/rest of europe=41€! wow im going to the local post office to make sure i didnt overlook something...

lol its either a bug on the homepage of german postal service or shipping a small package to everywhere in the world costs 3€... new zealand 3€... japan 3€.... brazil 3€...

[Jeff]

Stupid question time saaya... any idea what 41€ is in US dollar? I'm not sure what an € is? :confused: :am:

[Jeff]

Originally posted by GJoz
but please wait 12 hours for MSI to respond

No problem. If you can get something sweet from MSI then that's the way we'll go(I think I can say that for everyone).

Saaya also looks to be working on something and I just wanted to add that in the worst case scenerio... I can buy cards at NewEgg.com and ship them worldwide if need be.

This is going to be fun!!! :banana:

[saaya]

yeah no matter what cards we get itll be fun! :D

1€ is around 1$

EUR/$ 1.1471 to be exact so 1€=1.14$ so 41€ are around 46$ just as much as the newegg cards cost without shipping.

[GJ]

MSI request was resent since there was a small problem with mail server...ah well

[Stang_Man]

so..

we're doing Xabre 400 cards?
what brand?
how much are these cards going to cost?

[saaya]

newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=xabre) PC WAVE sis xabre 400 for 46$
snogard.de (http://www.snogard.de/index.php?kategorieId=81&artikelId=VGA64MB-SIS2) ecs xabre 400 36€ (39$)

i cant find any detailed info or a review of the pc wave card, seems to be a really cheap card.

the memory of both cards is only clocked at 250 but the ecs card comes with 3.3ns etrontech memory, wich some of us had good expiriences with. and here (http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/ag400/ag400gallery1.htm) is a nice review of it.

[Holst]

IF sayya gets these cards then the cost will be around 41 euros, providing that saaya has his sums in order.

I think this is the best bet... BUT there are some problems.

Lots of trouble for saaya...

And getthing the money to Saaya.

He dosent have a paypall account,. which would be the simplest way to do this, although he should be able to sign up for one it may take a week to activate...
I cant think of any other way of getting him the money :(

Also as the snodgart postage is so high for one unit, we need to order them all in one go... this will also be a bit awquard.

Basically odering from snodgart will come with a fairly long delay, probably 2 weeks untill cards get send out.

Id perfectly understand if Saaya didnt want to take on all this responsibility, if we get 30 people interested then thats 1230 euros that saaya must handle... not to mention the time it will take him wrapping boxes.

On the other hand, the MSI 440 cards, although not as good and more expensive will be easy, and the contest can start pretty much straight away.

[GJ]

i saw xabre 400 on ebay.de for 40euro buy now,but he might give it for 30euro if we buy more and need no guarantee...so...

but lets wait for msi to reply,they will reply till next day this time,90%,and maybe ecs reply too...

[RichBa5tard]

Good news guys, there's a very good chance I'll be able to drive to snogard.de this weekend. I can ship them from belgium for just a few euros to everyone in europe. :)

Just an idea of the total cost:
card + 3 day post to most eu countries: 30.5 pounds / 43.5 euro
card + 4 - 5 day post to most eu countries: 27.5 punds / 40 euro

One thing though: I can not possibly pay up front for a all those cards...

[Holst]

do you have paypall?

Cant you live upto your name and give us all a card for christmas :P

hehe

If you can drive there then most people should be able to paypall you the cash before the weekend
(if we are paying over paypall we need to add something to cover your paypal costs, maybee we should all add a euro or two to cover paypall and your trouble)

[GJ]

i can only pay with paypal,so... :P

[saaya]

ok i was wrong about the shipping costs, it was a bug in the tool to calculate the costs for international shipping. international by air is 17.50€ and takes 2-3 days, international ground (ship) is 9.50€ and takes around a week. for europe there is only the ground offer wich costs 9.50€ as well and takes 1-3days

if i order the cards from snogard it wont be a long delay, they send out the card inmediately and i have to pay ups when they deliver the cards.

if i order the cards and send them to everybody it will be 36€+2€ shipping to my house+ 9.50€ shipping to everywhere in the world

so 47.50€ with shipping ...around 54$

how many people in this competition are from europe and how many from the us? if most are from the us we should buy from newegg i think since they have free shipping in the usa and us mail to europe isnt very expensive iirc. can anybody check this?

on the other hand the newegg cards dont sound as good as the ecs cards wich come with 3.3ns etrontech memory hmmmm

EDIT: i just send teus a 4200 without heatsink and it was 223gr... if i take the heatsinks of the cards shipping will only be 5.50€ in europe and 7.50€ international.

richbastard cant you buy cards for all of us? can you wait a week and then buy all the cards after we sent you the money with paypal?

[RichBa5tard]

I have paypal, but:
- there's a pretty hefty acceptance fee if i'm not mistaken.
- a transfer from my paypal account to my bank account would take at least 3 to 5 days... not in time for this saturday. :/

Now if i just had a rich uncle which could lend me a 1000 bucks. :D

[RichBa5tard]

Saaya, i'm not too fond of buying at newegg and ship to europe. Most 2nd hand products i bought from the US got stock at customs for several weeks (!!), and I received a pretty hefty import tax.

Why would europeans buy at newegg and risk hefty tax & long shipping period while we can buy it for less in germany?

[GJ]

paypal has a 4% fee and 1$ for bank transfer + some very small percent,aprox 1%,but let me check....

[GJ]

okay,if its a personal account,its only 1$

https://www.paypal.com/fees

[saaya]

yeah right i forgot about the tax :/

hmmm i like the ecs card at snogard more anyways... and it costs 10€ less...

sending something from germany is very very cheap, isnt it like that in the us? so wouldnt it make more sence to send all cards for you amerian people to jeff for example and he sends them to the other people with the cheap national us mail service?
can somebody check the us mail national prices?

shipping 10 cards in one package will be a lot cheaper than sending 10 single packages.

[faruquehabib]

hey guys, i think we should also start gathering names and contact info from everybody that wants to buy a card and participate.

[saaya]

where is snogard again? in köln right? hmmm i live in germany, I should go there rather than sending you there from belgium :rolleyes: hehe i could get one of those cheap train tickets and go there for one day, visit friends and buy the cards....

i could get a trainticket offer wich is 29€ and go to köln. it will be cheaper that way and we dont have to pay the 46€ shipping to my house!

29€ for train ticket + 10€ food for saaya :D

29€/25 cards= almost only 1€ per card!

[GJ]

Or if MSI sponsors us,the guy who works for them and asked them could probably get the cards and Rich could go for it,this guy lives in belgium too.I didn't ask him,but he is probably getting stuff from MSI,so...But this is not sure,I didn't even ask him.

But please,lets wait 24 hours,not more,really.

Oh if MSI would give some older(really closeout) or some lowend for free,or just some,or prizes or so...But maybe we get nothing :P

Blah,i need to mention to MSI that we dont need guarantee for it :P

[saaya]

yeah lets make a list already, its pretty sure we will get a xabre 400 and a msi 4mx if it wont work for some reason, so thats pretty much settled.

no matter what card we get the price will be 45-50$

the competition will start in 1-2 weeks most likely when everybody got his card.

thats about all people will have to know to make the decision to join the competition or not :)

ok ill make a list with everybody whos in :)

[Holst]

so wouldnt it make more sence to send all cards for you amerian people to jeff for example and he sends them to the other people

If you do that then we will almost certainly be hit by import tax.
If we do that in the UK we will be hit by 20% tax, im not sure about the US, it may depend on what state you ship too..

TBH guys im starting to think that it will be much easyer all round to go with the MSI gf440, as they seem to be avalable worldwide.. everybody buys there own...

Unless somebody can come up with a less complex way to get the cards sent out. Im not particually happy about having one member get so much money, I also think that it will put people off from competing..

[saaya]

a

[faruquehabib]

Originally posted by saaya
yeah lets make a list already, its pretty sure we will get a xabre 400 and a msi 4mx if it wont work for some reason, so thats pretty much settled.

no matter what card we get the price will be 45-50$

the competition will start in 1-2 weeks most likely when everybody got his card.

thats about all people will have to know to make the decision to join the competition or not :)

ok ill make a list with everybody whos in :)

good deal, saaya. please post the list, so anyone who isnt on it can double check it, and whatnot.:toast:

[Holst]

saaya, if your buying the cards how are we paying you for them?

paypall will take 2 weeks minimum to setup, probably longer.

[saaya]

XTREMESYSTEMS OCING COMPETITION JOIN NOW! (http://www.xtremesystems.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&postid=260141#post260141)

[saaya]

2 weeks??? really? :/

[Holst]

it will take a week for you to sign up.

Then we will have to have a week where people pay.

then it will take a week to get the money out of paypall and into your account. Only then will you be able to buy the cards.

We might get that cut down a bit, but I doubt we will get under 2 weeks.

You need to sign up for paypall tonight in any case, even if you dont use it in the end its still free.

[Vlad Draculea]

why not jelp me going to the insene guys doctor, i need my drugs.

[Jeff]

I have a PayPal account and a PayPal debit card. The nice thing about this combo is I get 1.5% cash back using the debit card... which offsets some of the PayPal fees when people transfer money into my account.

This is the method I've used in the past and it works well.

I do NOT think we should drop the xabre cards... maybe if we want to have a 440 competition now then fine but if someone here could get MSI interested in us, then we should entertain them. ;)

And btw, I have no problem trusting saaya or Holst with $1000 or more. They have been around a little while now and neither of them have done anything shadey(that I've ever seen).

[GJ]

You can set it up in like 5 minutes...

Just sign up,add a credit card and poof,your verified.Or you have to wait for something with bank.Maybe im wrong.

Jeff,i am trying to get MSI interested in us...

[Holst]

Originally posted by Vlad Draculea
why not direct transfer to the bank acount to the one who ends up buying the cards, some people could not feel good about it, but i dont think anyone is here to steal money, and it will be fast that way, 3 days at most.

My bank wont let me do this.

Remeber that people in europe may be able to do this as they all have the euro, but my bank will probably change me allot of money for doing that type of transfer.

[Holst]

Originally posted by GJoz
You can set it up in like 5 minutes...

Just sign up,add a credit card and poof,your verified.Or you have to wait for something with bank.Maybe im wrong.

Jeff,i am trying to get MSI interested in us...

When I did it I had to wait 5 days till they took money from my account (maybee payed it in) you then put the ammount into the verification, its how they try and verify that its your account to stop fraud.

[GJ]

Oh,sorry,because my age,i use friends' account,so...

[KAIN]

Originally posted by Jeff
And btw, I have no problem trusting saaya or Holst with $1000 or more. They have been around a little while now and neither of them have done anything shadey(that I've ever seen).
I don't mind at all if anyone wants to send me $1000 as well :D

*Books his holiday*

P.S. Canny remember if I said b4, but I'm in ;)

[Holst]

I just did a major edit on the first post.
If your not sure whats going on or cant be bothered to read all 9 pages (this is like [H]forum :( ) then re-read the first post and things should make more sense.

[RichBa5tard]

It's no hassle to ride to germany this weekend, it's just over the border: 2 hours away from where I live in Belgium.

But I won't stop sayaa if he has more time. :D

[saaya]

almost 30 people already after only 1 hour!!!!! :banana: i def think somebody should pick the cards up now ,since we are 30 people it wont matter if somebody drives there for lets say 30€, maybe a lil more if you go by car, and picks up the cards personally.

1st it will be cheaper
2nd we can pay with an ec card if we buy the cards personally! so whoever does it doesnt need to walk around with a huge load of cash :D (ups only accepts cash here)

[Holst]

Ok, then we need to work out how to pay one of you guys.

[jmg823]

are there going to be other contests for different cards?
next do gf4mx440 ;)

[Holst]

If this ones goes well then we can organise another.

But its probably best to walk before we run.

Plus I dont have any more prizes :P

[saaya]

ok heres the deal:


newegg (http://www.newegg.com/app/viewproduct.asp?DEPA=1&submit=Go&description=xabre) PC WAVE sis xabre 400 for 46$
snogard.de (http://www.snogard.de/index.php?kategorieId=81&artikelId=VGA64MB-SIS2) ecs xabre 400 36€ (39$)

i cant find any detailed info or a review of the pc wave card, seems to be a really cheap card.

the memory of both cards is only clocked at 250 but the ecs card comes with 3.3ns etrontech memory, wich some of us had good expiriences with. and here (http://www.ocworkbench.com/2002/ecs/ag400/ag400gallery1.htm) is a nice review of it.

number 3 would be the G4MX440-T8X (http://www.msicomputer.com/product/vga/vga_detail.asp?model=G4MX440-T8X&search_text=MX440-T8X) this card is probably available in every country and costs around 40-50$, but there are 3 diferent revisions so we wont have the same cards.

the plan so far is that we send all the money to richbastards or my paypal account, then one of us , since we both live closest to snogard, drives there on the weekend to pick up the cards (cheaper or costs the same than let snogard ship the cards to our place plus we can pay with an ec card) and then send the cards to everybody.

richbastard, what are the shipping prices in belgium like?

with the german postal service (extremely reliable) shipping costs as follows:

all europe (1-3 days) 9.50€
worldwide (ship) 9.50€
worldwide (air) 17.5€

so the card would cost between 45€ and 53€ (~50$/58$) depending on where you live. honestly the german postal price system is pretty complicated and ill call them tomorrow and ask them about a cheaper shipping price. im pretty sure there is a way to get lower prices since i once sent a box with 12cds wich was about the size and weight of a videocard to southamerica and only paid 4€
there are some

i will definately make another competition like this one :D geforce 4mx or fx5200 next time... maybe 9000 or 9200, we will see :)

[Teus]

Originally posted by jmke
[great idea Holst, I'm in for sure!
Credits go partially to me, remember :D

anyway, I'm in. I'm going for the ghetto price again. I'll have a look if I can sponsor a price, prolly a couple of waterblocks

[xDUCK]

Any way I could buy the GeForce2 MX400 locally instead? It would cost me $59 (+tax) CAD, about $67. If I order it from you, it costs, me $58 USD + import taxes (about $90 CAD). :stick:

[Holst]

Thats the price on the Xabre 400 card, not MX440

Xabre from newegg is $45 USD + delivery + tax. which is about the same as you pay from us
Im not sure if you can get a Xabre in canada.

The Xabre is a much better card than an MX440, this is why we are going to more trouble to get them.

[xDUCK]

Originally posted by Holst
Thats the price on the Xabre 400 card, not MX440

Xabre from newegg is $45 USD + delivery + tax. which is about the same as you pay from us
Im not sure if you can get a Xabre in canada.

The Xabre is a much better card than an MX440, this is why we are going to more trouble to get them.

I'm assuming it can be overclocked?

[saaya]

The Xabre is a much better card than an MX440, this is why we are going to more trouble to get them

actually not a much better card. they are about equal from what ive seen. the big problem sis has a re drivers, they optimized the drivers for Q3 and 2k1 where the xabre 400 definately beats the geforce 4mx but in other games the 4mx is as good or even better... the xabre however comes with 3d glasses support and it supports dx8.1

there are confusing reviews on the net about xabre 400 cards. it seems that the early cards were locked to ocing, but there are quite some reviews and scores in the orb with oced xabre cards.

[Jeff]

I really think a manufacturer would be interested in helping us out guys. We are probably going to end up with 40 to 50 people participating and that's a pretty good chunk of cards.

Plus the competition could be used however the company sees fit for advertising or whatever. I wish I knew someone associated with a xabre manufacturer 'cause I think this is a winner.

[saaya]

i will call ecs and sis(xgi) tomorrow and ask them :)

i asked richbastard to pick up one of the xabre cards already if he gets the chance in the next days when hes in germany so we can make 100% sure that the cards are not locked to ocing, dont have buggy drivers or are really bad ocers :D

i wish xgi would send all of us volari 5 cards and the winner gets a volari v8 ultra dual gpu card :D mhhhhh now THAT would be ...a nice dream :D

[RichBa5tard]

Well, I've got nothing to do saturdaymorning and a company car running on free petrol. :D

Sure, I'll do my best to pick a few up this weekend to make sure there are no major driver / overclocking issues.

I only have time this saturday, so if we buy more later (which we prolly will), I can't drive back (no time nor car). It's up to saaya to get the rest.

[GJ]

a few hours and the one day past,and no reply from MSI yet...

Ah well,im waiting

next,lets do 3dlabs and/or mx440 contest(if we will have xabre now)

[saaya]

snogard might give us the cards for 34€ if we buy 50 pieces :banana:

[saaya]

phase 1: find a shop that sells a cheap ocing friendly card -done
phase 2: recruit ocers :D - done
phase 3: test a sample card -running
phase 4: collect the money
phase 5: buy the cards (me or richbastard will go there and buy the cards personally)
phase 6: repacking the cards to smaller boxes and removing the manuals to reduce the weight and then ship the cards
phase 7: competition starts once everybody got his card and ends after 2-4 weeks (not decided yet)

[GJ]

1,9euro discount....hmmm.not so much.oh,but thats 100 euro if we buy 50 cards...

[saaya]

OMG you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!! snogard just called me!!! they will sell us the cards for 29.90€ instead of 36€!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek: :banana:

[faruquehabib]

Originally posted by saaya
OMG you guys!!!!!!!!!!!!!! snogard just called me!!! they will sell us the cards for 29.90€ instead of 36€!!!!!!!!!!!! :eek: :banana:

:slobber:

SCORE!!!!

[GJ]

OMG

that rocks

300 euro discount totally

* wonders if msi will beat that or not...

[RichBa5tard]

Nice bargaining skills saaya!!! :banana:

[Vlad Draculea]

!

[GJ]

anyone thinking of an air only category?(no water,prommie,...)

edit: sorry,i just saw that this is discusse din the other thread

[GJ]

hey saaya,ask them that can they go lower if no gurantee is needed?if it blows up by oc,they wont give a new one anyway...

[saaya]

ok ill ask them very carefully, dont wanna ask them for a higher rebate when they just gave me a 6€ rebate when all i asked for was a "2€ or a lil more" rebate :D

the only problem is that they only have 60 cards in stock. so they want me to buy the cards on or before friday. i asked them if i can pay them some money already (ill use my own private money) and they put 50 card back to their warehouse and i pay them the rest and pick the cards up in 2 weeks when i got the paypal money.

2 days to get the cards is though.... 50x30€=1500€ where did they think i should get all that money from :P i told them we have people from all over the world in our competition... i hope they can put the ards back to their wearehouse for 2 weeks. i even said i would personally guarantee that we buy the cards in 2 weeks if that would help them. they want to get rid of the cards asap i think and get new cards before christmas.

so should i personally guarantee that we buy the cards?

[GJ]

i am 100% sure that i need it,and i hope the others too...

so,yes

[Evil_Spork]

I'm FAT

[RichBa5tard]

Well I'm gonna get one for sure. Even if they turn out to be bad overclockers I could always use a decent card for my work rig (which is running with a Matrox Millenium 2mb PCI right now :p ).

I've got 200-300 euro coming my way, normally before friday. I'm willing to pay up front for some cards.

[Jeff]

Saaya... I think we should try to have those cards set aside. If the §§§§ hits the fan and *EVERYBODY* drops out, I'll donate $500 to you to help cover the oops.

Maybe wait 'til Holst and some others agree before you make it definite though just to make sure. ;)

[saaya]

HOOOOOLST damn never there when you need him :D

[GJ]

Holst,comeout comeout wherever you are... :P

[Holst]

hi all, the messiah is here.

Best bet will be that everybody paypalls me the money.

Then saaya buys the cards and I pay him through a bank transfer or something, then I cant loose out (as I have the paypall money) and neither can saaya (and he gets his money back fast)

So what we need to do now is get an EXACT cost for the cards so everybody can start paying once you pay then you are definately in the competition.

TBH I dont feel comfortable with saaya paying for anybodys card in advance, I defiantley dont want to be doing that myself.. so we can only buy cards for people who pay in the next day or so...
Then maybee once saaya has bought 20, he will be able to ask them to keep 20 more for another week, and they can post them to him once the slower people have stumped up the cash..

[CSOFT]

Originally posted by Holst
once the slower people have stumped up the cash..

That will be me :D

[docah]

Hey guys, this seems like such a good idea that i can only wonder why it hadn't been done before. :)

Good clean competition, good clean fun :)

[texuspete00]

Might not want to rush the first competition. Some of us might want in but do probably need prices now. Since we didnt choose US that would help a ton of people. So yah.... price USD$ ?

Im sure another deal can be struck up, they'll probably trying to rush but would still be friendly for future deal I think.

[saaya]

im pmed prices to everybody who told me he was interested. price is ~48$ including shipping :)

newegg has xabre cards for 46$ so its not a bad deal at all :D

[STEvil]

Why not show the guys @ the shop this thread? They might go a bit lower..? 8-)

[saaya]

first i asked them for a 2€/card rebate and they said alright, then i sent them a link to our forum and they replied to that mail saying they will give us a 6€/card rebate! i didnt even ask :D

dude, 30€ for this card is not bad at all! it can be compared to a geforce 4mx , fx5200 or a radeon 9000 performence wise. all those cards cost around 40-50€ at least!

[STEvil]

Oh, ok, must have missed the part where you said you showed them the thread, my bad.. 8-)

[saaya]

no problem :) it was in another thread.

[goreblast]

saaya ----> Is it possible to take part if I source my own card from newegg ??? I have missed the boat whilst waiting for my account to be activated.

Goreblast

[bigZ]

I'm interested if there is still a place going, but I feel I might be a bit late :(

[saaya]

if you hurry up and pay me today or friday its ok, but hurry!

and no, only cards the cards i bought can be used to take place in the competition. the idear is that everybody gets exactly the same card, same memory, same gpu revision...

:)

[prommy_fan]

Originally posted by saaya
the idear is that everybody gets exactly the same card, same memory, same gpu revision...

And resolder all those parts for faster one :p:

[goreblast]

saaya ----> thanks mate for letting me in at this late stage - payment was sent via paypal (from a balance so dont get stung for charges)

I think that all people who take part should send an extra small amount to saaya to cover paypal charges and his time etc.

I take it that compo starts when all cards have been received by participants - when cards being shipped etc?

EDIT: I presume that some sort of rules and category descriptions will be emailled to all those who have got a card.


Goreblast

[saaya]

rules will be posted by holst when he gets back i think, or did he post them already? :D

dont send me any money, i might get a better deal for shipping costs and compensate the loss for the fees i had to pay for some credit payments on paypal... if not i will let you know, for now its ok. i want to know exactly how mucvh money i lost for those fees before i ask you to send me money :)

[goreblast]

Holst / Saaya

I know you only want to have people use exactly the same card, but I have (i think) found a few UK shops that sell the same ECS xabre card as newegg and snogard. List follows:

http://www.becs.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php/products_id/4042_Elite_XABRE_400_64MB_DDR_TVO_8xAGP_Graphics_C ard

http://www.orion-computers.co.uk/products%204.htm

http://www.redstore.com/fx/prc_gen.php?genre=PC&cat=GPC

http://www.mindmachine.co.uk/acatalog/OnLine_Catalogue_AGP__64MB___Graphics_Cards__113.h tml

http://www.rodio.f2s.com/text/prices.txt

Not sure if these all have it in stock or not, but may be helpful if demand is very high.

Goreblast

[saaya]

snogard has 80 cards, all from the same batch ;) (the last or one of the last batches built)

[kleptophobiac]

What about AMD barton OVER 2.5?

[saaya]

?

[kleptophobiac]

would that fall under amd or extreme categories?

[Holst]

Yep, although you can clock down and enter the clock speed limited catagory.

I should post thefinal rules up once the cards ship.

[faruquehabib]

Originally posted by Holst
Yep, although you can clock down and enter the clock speed limited catagory.

I should post thefinal rules up once the cards ship.

maybe post the rules in a new thread so everyone will know to go to them

[benonmsn]

WHERES MY CARD :D