Save and Conquer

A few months ago, the video card on our server stopped working. The computer is only 4 1/2 years old, but that is getting pretty old in the world of computing. I have been debating rebuilding our workstation that my wife uses for solid modeling and finite element meshing. That computer is 4 years old, so I could use the AGP video card from that in the server. New video cards are PCI Express and are incompatible with the old AGP standard.

I got to pricing parts for the workstation, and the cost to build a really powerful, but not insane computer came to around $800. I could go cheaper, but a new workstation for engineering work should have 4 gigabytes of RAM and a fast video card. The video cards run around $300-$350. After adding all that up, I got to thinking about that perhaps I could find an AGP video card on-line. There were lots of them for around $20 plus shipping.

I was ready to order one, but then decided I would drop by the local electronics superstore after work. There were some AGP cards on the bottom shelf of the video card display. There was one that was convection cooled, which is good for a server, for $45 with a $40 rebate. I hate rebates! But then again, this was the perfect card for our server for a total of $9 ($5 cost plus $3.60 tax plus $0.42 postage). So I held my nose and bought it. After determining that it worked well in the server, I filled in the rebate forms, copied them, and sent them in. I received the check for $40 today.

I am happy with the new video card for $9, but did I mention I hate rebates?

Stumble it!