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I own currently a DELL Dimension 3000 Intel Pentium (R) 4 3.00Ghz, 2 GB RAM PC3200 400 Mhz DDR,WIN XP Home Edition w/Service Pack 3.
I am needing to know of a great video card to grab, so that I am able to run BF 2. Thanks in advance for the assistance.
A pci video card as good as or better than those mentioned in the link below. I don't think the "budget" Dimension 3000 has a pci-e or agp slot.
http://www.allgame.com/game.php?id=...
You should consider a couple things...
1. If pci is the only available upgrade option, it's gonna be real easy to spend $100US...maybe more if you need to buy a new power supply to support the new video card.
2. You won't have much chance of recovering any of the money you spend to upgrade your machine.
If you give us the Service Tag Number off your Dell, we can give a suitable recommendation for a card, whether new or used.
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Here's how your system shipped...
http://support.dell.com/support/top...
...and the manual
http://support.dell.com/support/edo...
As I thought, you have only pci slots; the power supply is 250 watts.
Cards like this will probably allow you to play BF2.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
...but just barely. And still no guarantee a low end card like this will work with your 250 watt psu.
The best choice between low power consumption and performance would be the very old Radeon 9600; if you could find one. Performancewise, it would be comparable to the 8400GS but require much less +12v power to run.
A dandy pci video card and good psu will tap you for close to 150 bucks by the time all is said and done.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
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Hey, thanks! To bad I can't find one cheaper. Not to bad though. So you think if I get this, I should be able to play BF 2 smoothly? I will be joining a group of online friends.
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Maybe, give us the Service Tag Number from your gf's computer so we can find out what parts it was born with.
As far as the video card I linked to, it's plenty powerful enough to run BF2. I downloaded the demo yesterday and my old ATI AIW 9600XT worked fine with the highest settings.
I didn't try to play online; just single player.Skip
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Well, her PC is in the shop right now (Pawn Shop). I am really wanting to upgrade my DELL Dimension 3000. I can get 2GB of RAM off eBay for like $20.00, but I hear I need a new power supply (to run the video card) ... I only have 250W, and a new video card. I just don't want to get the wrong video card ya know. Hey, thanks for all your help here. I will be playing online with about 30 people, and I don't need it to glitch and all that mess.
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I thought you said you already had 2Gb of PC3200.
Frankly, if you have to buy RAM, video card, and a power supply, you can expect to invest $200 in new stuff. That's way too much money to spend on that thing.
How much memory is installed now? Only the original 512Mb? That's the bare minimum to run XP decently...1Gb would be a nice number.
Any local pc shops in your area where you can buy used memory and a used video card? Craigslist would be worth a try too. I would limit total spending to 30 bucks or so.
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I ordered 2GBs of memory, yes.
I went to canirunit [dot] comIt says I pass on everything but the video card.
I am mainly looking for a cheap but good enough to run smoothly (without lag).
I have cable connection.
The BIG question I have now is this: Do I need a DDR2 card or DDR? Someone posted earlier a card, but it has GDDR2 512MB. My memory is PC3200 DDR. Does this matter? And another thing is to find one that will go with my motherboard. My specs are listed above. Thanks and I am so sorry if I am being a noobie here, but I don't know much about tech stuff.
I been on ebay trying to find a great card for the low budget but not sure what to search for.
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