integrated video for office PC?

[Adcadet]

Hey all -
so my parents IT support staff (me) has about given up on supporting their old P2-266 machine. I'm building them a new machine for Christmas, and I'm trying to decide between a motherboard with onboard video vs. not.

Here's the specs (feel free to comment):

Without onboard video:
MSI KT6-Delta LSR (KT600, sound, LAN, USB2)
Barton 2500+ (333 MHz FSB)
512 MB RAM (is 256 MB enough?....they'll be running WinXP)
ATi radeon 7000

With onboard video:
MSI M7NCG 400 (Nforce 2, GForce 4 MX, Realtek AC97 sound, etc)
Barton 2500+ (333 MHz FSB)
512 MB RAM

I'm hoping that integrated graphics will be just fine - they do office stuff. I also don't want any sort of a tech support nightmare, 'cause I'm the tech dept.

Now, for my wife's machine, I'm thinking of going with a real video card (Radeon 7000 for $32....good enough for her Photoshop needs I suspect)

 

[Tannin]

XP on 256MB is horrible.

Mind you, XP on 512MB ain't exactly neck-snapping, but that's what you get when you run XP.

I have no opinion worth mentioning on the video question. I'm too long out of touch and not really interested in computers anymore to do much else bar listen to Cougtek and LiamC and the other experts here. (Usually, of course, ignoring their advice anyway. But a good deal of that was Tea's impulsiveness. Perhaps on my own I'll be a better student.)

 

[mangyDOG]

I have been using the ASUS A7V8x_MX for quite a few office machines. This uses a new VIA integrated graphics chip and it works well for all office apps. I have fired up a few games and providing they are the older type (Civ etc) these also work well. The only problem I have encounted with this particular chipset is for some reason under Windows 98 I cannot get the drivers to recognise anything except a default monitor so the refresh always sets to 60Hz - this problem does not occur under WinXP.

From what I understand from the specs on the integrated nVidia graphics chips they are quite a bit more powerful than the VIA solution so I would expect that unless your parents discover the wonders of FPS 3D games over Christmas (Doom3 or HL2 anyone?) the nVidia onboard video should be more than adequate.

Cheers,
mangyDOG.

 

[Mercutio]

I think I'd stick with a card rather than integrated graphics. But then, I have a well-known dislike of certain N-word hardware manufacturers.

Still, the ATI 7000 makes a very nice 2D image, and that's more than I can say for nvidia, Intel and S3-based integrated graphics.