The graphics card in my Compaq died on me on Wednesday last. Since then I’ve been using my Dell to research new graphics cards. It hasn’t been as straight forward as I was hoping it would be. With so many different choices, it been difficult making a decision.

• ATI vs Nvidia
• PCI-Express 2.0 vs PCI-Express
• DVI vs Dual DVI
• HDMI, HDTV, HDCP, Tv-Out
• GDDR3 vs GDDR4
• Overclocked vs Superclocked vs Default

I’ve had to read up on what each feature meant to get a better understanding of what each card is capable of. And then there’s the choice of manufacturer.

• ASUS
• BFG
• Club3D
• EVGA
• Gainward
• Gigabyte
• HIS
• MSI
• Point of View
• PowerColor
• Sapphire
• XFX

I still haven’t come to my final decision yet. It has to be soon though, because the longer I delay, the longer my PC is out of action.

From reading reviews, it seems the best on the current market in my price range are the Radeon XD3870, the GeForce 8800GT or the GeForce 8800GTS.

Choices…. so many choices!

Update

After lots of research, I eventually decided on the EVGA GeForce 8800GT 512MB. I also ended up buying a Corsair Memory 620Watt HX Series Modular PSU, because the current PSU isn’t powerful enough for the new card.

I just hope the delivery is faster this time than it was with my last purchase from the same online store.

It’s only been a few months since I changed cars. A couple of weeks ago I had to take it for the National Car Test. It failed

Thankfully, the things it failed on were not very major. I got them fixed and brought it back for a re-test today and it passed without any problems.

So the car is good to go until the next test, which isn’t until August 2009.

After reading that Wordpress 2.3.3 was an ‘urgent security release’, I figured it was probably best to upgrade. So I did.

I also took the time to upgrade all active plugins, delete the plugins I was no longer using and install some new plugins that looked worthwhile.

It took a while but I’m glad to have gotten it over and done with. I just hope that there isn’t another ’security release’ needed anytime soon