My Internet Porn Has Never Looked This Good
Written: Feb 07 '04 (Updated Feb 09 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: ATI Support, Stability, Length of Product Lifetime, HAPPY FUN potential!
Cons: It needs to plug into your power supply.
Massive amounts of wires.
The Bottom Line: This The Bottom Line brought to you by Janet Jacksons right nipple.
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| randomkill's Full Review: ATI All-In-Wonder® 9800 PRO, (128 MB) AGP Vid... |
I find the older I get the more I am all about the joys of instant gratification.
This means I do not want to do mountains of research and review endless pages of geeks arguing over the respective capabilities of certain sound cards or even worse over certain video cards. This in my mind is where the geek rubber hits the geek road and it basically comes down to which card renders Quake (A game of which I never play anymore) the fastest.
HUH, let's review that, rendering a game I never play anymore means what!?
Anyway, being the discriminate and lazy pig which I am, there are still only certain brand names that have followed me on my various and sundry Intel based computers and laptops since I got my first DELL 486. Creative Labs has always been used as the sound card of choice and ATI All-In-Wonder on the video card side.
But you say "ATI is so expensive these days and I read on Toms Hardware page the other day this other video card has better blah blah blah..." sure sure sure and the arguments fly on and every year literally hundreds of new cards from new manufacturers enter the fray.
I know for a fact there are better deals and faster speeds in the world of computer video cards but I GIVE UP!
I want three basic things from any video card I pay good money for... support, stability, and some (and I know this is asking for allot these days) reasonable length of product lifetime.
I just like the idea of paying a certain, maybe higher, price and knowing exactly what I am getting and also I like knowing it will not only be supported for a long time to come but also that support will come from the same company that made it.
I state here for a fact, ATI has been making these video cards very well for years now. Notice the word years.
The secret of the ATI All-In-Wonder is all in the potential HAPPY FUN it allows you.
Think of the ATI All-In-Wonder as your first little step towards a digital home entertainment empire.
With one fell swoop you can hook in your TV cable or antenna or video camera directly into the back of the card by using a little purple boxy looking plug-in console. Then you can sit back and watch and record TV, videos, dvds, camcorders, you name it on your monitor and hard drive. Basically, It makes your computer into a high-powered rock'em sock'em TIVO!
For knowledge of the power of all things TIVO please refer to someone far more consumerly helpful than I shall ever be... the lovely, the gourgeous, the robotically well endowed kris-kochanski.
Forget the idea of needing separate components for your TV, put this powerful baby on your Mother Board and suckle at the teat of mind numbing pop culture twenty-four seven.
Want that image of Janet Jackson's right nipple? Well! there you go, direct from your hard disk to your Blog or web page in virtual seconds. Oh the Humanity! Remember that DVD write drive you got for Christmas, BAM! Now you can send that copy of that luscious digitally imaged Janet Jackson naughtiness to dear old dad up in Alaska in no time flat.
Want to record to VHS or watch all this stuff on your TV, Presto Chango! By simply adding another octopus looking plug on the back of the card you can now send your video signals directly to your very own TV or VCR, no problemo!
Yes, the video signal in and out processing requires you to read the manual and setup a few things here and there in the drivers’ area and in the ATI Multimedia software that comes with the board. This is a sign of a manly geek.
Yes, it needs to plug into your power supply (especially when viewing that well known nipple) so make sure you have adequate power, in other words, How full of junk is your trunk?
Sure, the card ends up making the back of your computer look like the phone switchboard of Lily Tomlin's Ernestine used on Laugh-in but you just gotta make some sacrifices here.
Most of this cutting edge video stuff was once only possible on other cards (I am talking home computers here not video work stations) using something like the Dazzle Video Bridge. Believe me, there was never anything particularly dazzling about those sucky video bridges. Not even Apples once proud graphics power house IMAC allows for so many video capabilities and all around pop and play goodness all out of a single box.
I have one, I know.
I have recently updated my old ATI All-In-Wonder Radeon to the new ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 PRO and all I can say is WOW! Dang that Internet porn looks crystal clear. Oh and I am sure there will be no problems what so ever with any games you might be playing.
With 128 Mega Bytes on the board I have never had a video card that looks this good!
Times, they are a-changin and soon I shall be waving goodbye to my trusty old Pentium 3, 1 gig DELL sludge monster and maybe this time I will just build myself a geeky no-name system.
I am rethinking the use of any of the new Creative Labs sound cards since I want to have Dolby Digital going straight to my BIG stereo speaker system and Creative Labs has made a mess of trying to do just that because they want you to buy their crappy speaker systems. I'm looking at the M-AUDIO Revolution 7.1 or the Mad Dog Multimedia 7.1 (Which I notice nobody on this site seems to have reviewed) for my Dolby Digital Surround Sound sweetness and shall report my findings.
But it's a sure bet that this ATI All-In-Wonder 9800 PRO and all it's HAPPY FUN potential is coming with me.
Comes with...
Remote Control : Remote Wonder
Updates here...
http://www.ati.com/support/products/pc/remotecontrol/remotewonderdriver.html?type=2k&prodType=remote&prod=remotedriver&submit.x=10&submit.y=3
Catalyst Software
Updates here...
http://www.ati.com/products/catalyst/index.html
Pinnacle Studio
Mediator 7
The Elder Scrolls 3 : Morrowind
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 300.00
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Epinions.com ID:
randomkill
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Member: Teddy Pig
Location: Dog Town CA
Reviews written: 67
Trusted by: 40 members
About Me:
Don't judge a book by its movie.
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