Quadro FX 1800

[absolute_zero]

i'm putting together a workstation, and i've pretty much settled on the quadro fx 1800 for a graphics card. it's a spendy card so i have been looking around for a deal. i've found it for $400 +/- from various retailers, and for less than $300 (system pull outs) on ebay. so my question is this...1. is buying video cards from ebay risky in your experience? 2. is there a difference between pny made quadros and those made by hp? are they all gonna be compatible with my newly pieced together box? can i still get some kinda warranty?

in the hp vs pny quadros all i can find is this
http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:Ml-0ZY2G6UMJ:h71028.www7.hp.com/Hpsub/downloads/MWP-FX3800_Acoustics_Apr09.pdf+are+hp+quadro+cards+different&hl=en&gl=us&sig=AHIEtbSKFT9quc38IIluLlm-VPrvY4rxvw

 

[sgrinavi]

From my experience the quadro cards are all the same regardless of the vendor. I have purchased ebay pulls without issue, but I have also paid the premium to go with buy.com's ebay store to get the full warranty (not that I have ever had to use it)

What software are you using?

 

[absolute_zero]

I'll be running windows 7 64, and using solidworks and adobe creative suite mostly (also maya and hypershot/shot). Thanks for the response!

 

[gescom]

is there a difference between pny made quadros and those made by hp?

As far as I know, hp would sell you a quadro card only within a new HP machine. Anyway both should be ok, mine is pny and I'm more than happy with it (fedora6/64).

 

[sgrinavi]

I'll be running windows 7 64, and using solidworks and adobe creative suite mostly (also maya and hypershot/shot). Thanks for the response!

I think you need a higher end card to take advantage of the new adobe creative suite

If you’re interested in upgrading your system today, the following graphics cards are supported by the Mercury Playback Engine:

* GeForce GTX 285 (Windows and Mac)
* Quadro FX 3800 (Windows)
* Quadro FX 4800 (Windows and Mac)
* Quadro FX 5800 (Windows)
* Quadro CX

 

[absolute_zero]

I think you need a higher end card to take advantage of the new adobe creative suite

i won't be doing much if any video, or animation for that matter. so i don't think adobe's mercury playback engine support will affect me much...from what i can tell any cuda card will have benefits in photoshop/illustrator/lightroom.