Hey everyone. I don't game at all right now. All I do is video editing (not professionally) and webdesign. I hope to also play Blu-Ray rips on my computer. It seems like all the guides on TH are for gamers and I wanted to know whether I should go head and get a card like the Radeon HD 2600 XT or whether this is too much for me for my needs? I plan on getting an HDCP capable monitor too so I can watch the Blu-Ray rips at 1080p.

You want to go with an ATI card for blu-ray,
I would recommend anything between a 3850 and a 4850,
ATI cards decode the high def movies on the card (i believe) with no extra software,
Nvidia wants you to buy PureVideo to allow decoding on the card,
Yeah ATI cards are the way to go when it comes to doing things with HDTVs and HTPCs. All ATI cards from the HD 3xxx and 4xxx series will give you excellent performance with Blu-ray and they include Native HDMI.

This would be an inexpensive choice:

SAPPHIRE 100255L Radeon HD 4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFire Supported Video Card - Retail

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814102792

Blu-Ray adviser

http://www.cyberlink.com/prog/bd-support/diagnosis.do

This should be enough for the thing that you do.

I seconded that

In fact, you could buy a HD3450 and it will support support bluray playback. but it's a very weak card for 3d gaming (if you're going to gma eone day).

The 4670 is a great entry card, at a very good price.

If you have a 780G motherboard, you could go with a 3450 for hybrid Crossfire, but your best bet is a 4670.

It's the best card in the sub $100. AVIVO's great. If you decided to game, then it does well at 1280 x 1024. It's the best card for around $79 offered in years.

If the economy holds up (at least my personal part of it), I'll get a 24" LCD and a Blu-ray drive next February. Though I play several games, I also like anime in HD and want to stop buying DVD's in favor of Blu-ray.

I have read a lot of positive reviews on the 4670

Would a passive 4650 be a better bet when they emerge?

I'd tend to go for the actively cooled card when possible - I've seen passive cards run far hotter that I'd ever want. The lower spec actively cooled cards don't make that much heat anyways - they tend to run pretty quietly.

There is 9600gso for $50 after mir and free shipping, compared to $80 plus $8.25 shipping for 4670 (which also happen to be out of stock at the moment).
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814130356

Performance is only slightly above 4670 though, so it's really no noticeable advantage there.
http://www.techpowerup.com/reviews [...] 70/26.html

As for heat and noise, the aftermarket dual slot cooler with bigger fan spinning at lower rpm will both keep the card cooler while producing low noise.

Stick with the HD4650 for playback, if you're not gaming, then it's the better performer with more playback features than both the GF9600GSO and HD2K & HD3K series, and more than enough for the tasks you listed. And in just about anuthing you're doing it's better than the HD2600XT.

In general the HD4850 would be overkill, generate more backplate heat (even with an aftermarket cooler [which you could apply to either]) and draw alot more power both at idle and heavy 2D.

I prefer passive on an editing rig because it means you can leave it unattended rather securely, and if you're not gaming and not overclocking then it'll run just fine, even for ambient if you have sufficient case cooling.

Reliability and longevity over slightly lower core temps and minimal impact on case temps for such a low power card. Problem is you have to wait for them.

If you want a little more you could always go with the HD4670, and get a nice OEM cooler like the one on the HIS;
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161249

Maybe a little more power than you need for a non-gaming machine, but it's quiet and ejects all the heat out of the rig, even though I still prefer passive cooling.

I definitely think the 4670 would be the absolute best video card for your uses.

You won't notice a difference with video playback. The gpu will take some of load off cpu, but as long as cpu isn't bottlenecked to 100%, playback will be perfectly smooth anyway. Decoding is done on cpu, gpu only helps accelerate.