PNY GeForce GT 430 (1GB DDR3 PCI-e) @ Staples BM YMMV $14.50

Quote from zanbeak : this thread is stupid. i go to Stapells with low stock and find the card PNY 430 with national geographic crap on it, it says 90 bucks. i go to cashier and its STILL 90 bucks not 15. what a dumb thread this is, made me go to stupid Stapells for an obsolete card thats not worth the gas i wasted

You picked up the 2gb version. I almost made the same mistake at my staples. They had the 1gb version next to the 2gb.

Quote from miatale : how is this compare to onboard intel grpahics 3000 from the sandybridge line?

xbmc seems to work better with nvidia or amd

Quote from stm69 : There was some debate over on avsforum about memory bandwidth and if you picked madvr/lav filters. The GDDR5 version of the GT440 seemed to do everything including nice post processing but the GDDR3 version of it did not. I picked up 3 of these cards (gt430) about a month ago for ~$17 at a Staples clearance. It's not quite silent, I can hear it in addition to the CPU fan but has thrown everything that I've tried to play at it so far. I haven't tried any post processing however.

I got this card today and have a fanless 6450 (32 bit). How noisy is the fan? I am undecided which card to use for my HTPC. Thanks

Quote from simjy : I got this card today and have a fanless 6450 (32 bit). How noisy is the fan? I am undecided which card to use for my HTPC. Thanks

Lot of factors e.g. case open, close, what type of case, how far away you sit, sound up, etc...

I have tried Asus 440 with GDDR5, EVGA 8800GT, Sapphire 4850 in my computer case. It's open and I sit about 3 feet away. The GT430 is the quietest (not surprising since it sucks the least power). I hear it at a different frequency vibration than the CPU fan. It isn't loud enough to bug me when audio is playing.

No doubt fanless is the way to go, but fanless not going to be $14.50 either. Guess you just gotta try

Quote from stm69 : Lot of factors e.g. case open, close, what type of case, how far away you sit, sound up, etc... I have tried Asus 440 with GDDR5, EVGA 8800GT, Sapphire 4850 in my computer case. It's open and I sit about 3 feet away. The GT430 is the quietest (not surprising since it sucks the least power). I hear it at a different frequency vibration than the CPU fan. It isn't loud enough to bug me when audio is playing. No doubt fanless is the way to go, but fanless not going to be $14.50 either. Guess you just gotta try

The case is an hp micro server. I already own the fanless Radeon 6450 so even though the gt 430 is more powerful it sounds like it makes more sense to go with the 6450. Especially since the machine also serves as a home media server which always on and is located in a bedroom.

Quote from jaguar717 : Anybody know how a card like this stacks up to a 9800GT (1gb)? I'd love to swap it out for something that isn't scorching hot at idle, but without taking a performance hit (no gaming here, but I do run 2560x1600). Would this be ideal, or are their other modern cards that are comparable in performance but substantially lower in temp & power usage?

The GT 430 is absolutely crushed by a 9800GT. A GT 430 will run much, much much cooler though. They are incomparable for gaming of any kind. If you just need a video card to run your display, then it's OK. I suppose at 14.50 you should just grab one to try it.

I think this post would have a little more views if it mentioned HTPC in the post because essentially that's what this card is for. I already have a GT 430 for my HTPC but it's not a half-height like this one. For the price, it's worth it to check out at my local Staples.

just got one at a nearby staples. Thank you for the post. They only had two tags for GT 430 but for the 2GB version but one of the three boxes said 1024MB which was $14.50. Good thing you specified which version otherwise I would have thought I was out of luck and not even checked for the 1GB version.

edit: I wish I paid attention to the stock checker before I bought mine. All stores near me show "not sold at this location" although I'm wondering why it doesn't simply say "out of stock" or "not available" or something indicating that there was recently stock. I would hate to know that inventory checker is wrong and I didn't bother to check for some other clearance deals while I was in the store.

Well, I went to my local Staples (about 20 miles away) to check on this deal, and sadly they don't carry any of these cards. I asked them and they had no graphics cards on clearance... a bunch of other misc junk but nothing that was even remotely a good deal.

Thankfully I had to go there anyway to get the $20 trade in credit for the phone I just bought. In the end I managed to get a $90 Panasonic 3 handset system for $15.

Anyway... the graphics card deal is definitely YMMV. They had a 2Gb PNY GT430 for $90, which I had them double check, just in case. None of the cards they had on the shelf (maybe 4-5 models) were marked clearance, and there were none in the clearance area. This is in a small town in western NY state by the way...

I finally made it to a Staples both of which showed Low Stock for this card. I asked about both cards, and the guy said he knew about them because they had 1 GT 430 for $14.50 and 1 GT 210 for $13.50, except he had put the GT 430 aside for himself behind the counter several days ago and said he was waiting for it to drop further in price before buying it, so I only had the choice of the GT 210 on the shelf. I couldn't remember which of the 2 was the better card, and he said they are both very close. So I bought the GT 210, and when I got home see he lied as the 430 is more than twice as fast.

I even mentioned to the manager that the card I wanted was being held by the other employee to buy later, and the manager just said "you should've come in earlier before he grabbed it". If the employee had already bought it, it would be one thing, but he said he's just saving it behind the counter until he wants to buy it. Any advice? I'm wondering if I should wait for a different manager and see if it's still there to buy tomorrow. IIRC, Staples employees are rarely willing to hold anything for me, but it's OK to hold stuff for themselves?

Quote from Deltaron : I finally made it to a Staples both of which showed Low Stock for this card. I asked about both cards, and the guy said he knew about them because they had 1 GT 430 for $14.50 and 1 GT 210 for $13.50, except he had put the GT 430 aside for himself behind the counter several days ago and said he was waiting for it to drop further in price before buying it, so I only had the choice of the GT 210 on the shelf. I couldn't remember which of the 2 was the better card, and he said they are both very close. So I bought the GT 210, and when I got home see he lied as the 430 is more than twice as fast. I even mentioned to the manager that the card I wanted was being held by the other employee to buy later, and the manager just said "you should've come in earlier before he grabbed it". If the employee had already bought it, it would be one thing, but he said he's just saving it behind the counter until he wants to buy it. Any advice? I'm wondering if I should wait for a different manager and see if it's still there to buy tomorrow. IIRC, Staples employees are rarely willing to hold anything for me, but it's OK to hold stuff for themselves?

well all you have to do is go to the cashier at the front of the store and have them look up the sku.. then say you want it. hopefully that Easy Tech guy isn't working and maybe one of the managers will be able to find it, if its in stock in the store they will sell it to you. if anything it will make the managers aware that one of their inventory items is missing.

Quote from subjektlockheed : well all you have to do is go to the cashier at the front of the store and have them look up the sku.. then say you want it. hopefully that Easy Tech guy isn't working and maybe one of the managers will be able to find it, if its in stock in the store they will sell it to you. if anything it will make the managers aware that one of their inventory items is missing.

I just called and talked to the manager again. He said that the employee who was holding it for himself left for the day and didn't buy it, but the hold is until close of business, so he can't sell it to me until tomorrow morning... except that guy will be opening tomorrow. The manager said he'll put it back on the shelf tonight, and he said he won't be there so he won't mention it to the other employee, so it's a matter of who gets it first.

If the employee doesn't notice it's not in his hiding spot, and I get there when they open and can grab it off the shelf, then I guess I can buy it. I know that employee will be mad at me. However, since he lied about the speeds (he said he researched them in detail so he just told me they were nearly equal cards to get me to buy the inferior card) I'll just quote the rule the manager gave me that holds (even for employees) only last until close of business and it's his fault for not buying it yesterday when he knew I wanted it. Sounds like it'll be a crapshoot tomorrow whether I'll beat this guy. The manager suggested I call and talk to one of the other employees, but I don't think I want to risk that.

Quote from Deltaron : I finally made it to a Staples both of which showed Low Stock for this card. I asked about both cards, and the guy said he knew about them because they had 1 GT 430 for $14.50 and 1 GT 210 for $13.50, except he had put the GT 430 aside for himself behind the counter several days ago and said he was waiting for it to drop further in price before buying it, so I only had the choice of the GT 210 on the shelf. I couldn't remember which of the 2 was the better card, and he said they are both very close. So I bought the GT 210, and when I got home see he lied as the 430 is more than twice as fast. I even mentioned to the manager that the card I wanted was being held by the other employee to buy later, and the manager just said "you should've come in earlier before he grabbed it". If the employee had already bought it, it would be one thing, but he said he's just saving it behind the counter until he wants to buy it. Any advice? I'm wondering if I should wait for a different manager and see if it's still there to buy tomorrow. IIRC, Staples employees are rarely willing to hold anything for me, but it's OK to hold stuff for themselves?

"several days ago and said he was waiting for it to drop further in price before buying it"

wtf? call corporate and have them both fired for doing this.

I walked in today and saw it on the shelf, 2 tags, both tags said the same thing, both had different prices ($54 and $34). I picked it up, had her do a price check, she said it was $15 and we started making out all over the countertop, throwing the card aside and tearing her clothes off.

I'm just happy I finally got in on a staples YMMV deal.

I found it in the computer section, not on a clearance table/ endcap.

Quote from hallowmann : This is not a pricing error, its just normal clearance. This is probably closeout pricing, so it'll be hard to even find a store that kept them long enough for them to be this price. http://www.staples.com/office/sup...ber=325563 No stores in my area have any of them...

also-notice

i used this stock checker. It worked great; however, I bought the last one on the shelf and it still says in stock. I'm not sure if there was one I missed or what's going on...but know that it could happen.

Quote from Deltaron : I finally made it to a Staples both of which showed Low Stock for this card. I asked about both cards, and the guy said he knew about them because they had 1 GT 430 for $14.50 and 1 GT 210 for $13.50, except he had put the GT 430 aside for himself behind the counter several days ago and said he was waiting for it to drop further in price before buying it, so I only had the choice of the GT 210 on the shelf. I couldn't remember which of the 2 was the better card, and he said they are both very close. So I bought the GT 210, and when I got home see he lied as the 430 is more than twice as fast. I even mentioned to the manager that the card I wanted was being held by the other employee to buy later, and the manager just said "you should've come in earlier before he grabbed it". If the employee had already bought it, it would be one thing, but he said he's just saving it behind the counter until he wants to buy it. Any advice? I'm wondering if I should wait for a different manager and see if it's still there to buy tomorrow. IIRC, Staples employees are rarely willing to hold anything for me, but it's OK to hold stuff for themselves?

That's the shadiest thing I've ever heard of. They may as well keep one of everything hidden in the back...laptops, desktops, GPS, cameras, etc. Everything eventually goes on clearance. Definitely call corporate on that one.