Best and Cheapest Video Card

[Jun aka Pekto]

I read that the 9800GT Standard is better and faster than its Green Edition counterpart? So I reckon that the standard edition is more expensive?

I'm a little leery of Green Edition cards. Normally to achieve lower power consumption, slower ram is used or perhaps some underclocking is involved.

Anyway, 500w is plenty for even the fastest non-SLI/Crossfire or ATI X2 cards. I'd give it a try first with your psu before buying an expensive one.

I had a supposedly reputable Antec Tru-Power II 480w psu (bought in 2005) and it malfunctioned last year. I'm betting the psu problems of the past few years were related to this:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague#Symptoms

Newer ones (after 2007) should be more reliable although I'd still check to see if similar defective capacitors are still being used.