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Pastimes : Dream Machine ( Build your own PC ) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Street Walker who wrote (1833)	8/1/1998 2:12:00 PM
From: Spots	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 14778

Years ago, when I bought my first PC, I split for a Diamond card (the top of the line at the time, but I forget its name). A few months later, Diamond came out with a successor card, and as far as they were concerned their previous customers were dirt under their feet. They NEVER DID update the drivers for my older card except in a series of more-or-less permanent betas. I spent eons on the phone with tech support about numerous problems, such as GP faults caused by their drivers. Finally, I swore aloud, I swore at the head of Diamond tech support, I swore I would never own another diamond product, and I swore I would tell this story to anyone I could find who was thinking about a Diamond product. So, FWIW, that's my story. Diamond couldn't sell me a ten-dollar bill for a nickel. I don't care how good they make 'em nor whether or not they've mended their ways. My long-term memory is good (short term memory, now, that's another story <G>). I've had nothing but good luck with my Mellenium II, which I've had since it was new. Yes, Matrox had some driver problems (especially on NT) but has made regular, significant driver updates. Slightly off this particular topic, ATI is the same story: Regular driver updates and excellent tech support and customer service (I've never had an occasion to call Matrox tech support). Spots

To: Street Walker who wrote (1833)	8/1/1998 5:16:00 PM
From: Len	Respond to of 14778

SW: A correction. It isn't NT that supports more than 2 monitors (doesn't support any, natively, until 5.0), it is the specific card's drivers that take care of that. Not a real big deal, but just wanted to make it straight for others who may miss that. Another thing I wish to mention.... I don't know if the different resolution issue has been solved with the Matrox cards, but I doubt it. Since NT doesn't yet have MM support imbedded already, I think the specific cards that have been able to develop "work-arounds," (for want of a better term) probably haven't solved that puzzle probably because of something native to the NT fileset. Just my layman's opinion, though. I'd love to be wrong on this one. By the way, don't forget to check out Diamond's site. I think some of their other cards had MM support within NT also. And for less, I think. I seem to remember the Stealth II or something like that. As for Spot's experience with Diamond, I can only say that I've had an equally opposite one than his. Their tech-support personnel have been very helpful, and once you speak to someone, they give you their personal e-mail addy, and answer all e-mails with 24 hours. Plus they post driver updates, at least for the Viper, on their sites at the rate of about one every six weeks or so. They even posted a Viper Bios update that I downloaded and flashed to the card without incident. And the card has a five year warranty. Don't know about the Matrox warranty. That being said, I doubt you'd find much difference in the performance of the Viper and Matrox cards, at least at this price level. And, like I said, if games, CAD, etc. aren't your life's work or pleasure, then I can't see how either would show any visible edge. I guess if all things are equal, and the Matrox cards are that cheap with the same requirements taken care of, I would go with them. I only went the Viper route because I already had one (at $200, no less), so I wasn't about to write that one off. At $99 for the second one, I was able to "average down" (ah, trading terminology in my pores). And that was before the rebates became available. Also, Matrox may allow the mixing of an AGP and PCI card, which the Viper does not allow. That would be a big plus in my book, as it frees up one of the always scarce PCI slots. I don't know if they do, but I would check that out if I were you. By the way, check out Anand's site. He has reviews of both cards, if I'm not mistaken. Might want to check out Tom's Hardware site also. Good luck