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I want to buy a video card. So, when buying one, should I only worry for getting the one with the right slot? In this case, my motherboard has 1 PCI Express Slot.
You should take at look at your budget and decide what price range your want to settle on beforehand.
"The great mass of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one" A.H
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Ok, that sounds fair. I just want to spend $100. Is there anything else I should worry about?
This is my motherboard:
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http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
Seems decent. Another issue would be making sure your power supply has enough power should the card consume high amounts."The great mass of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one" A.H
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how do I find that out?
On the link that you gave me on specs it says:
"System Requirements Minimum 350W or greater system power supply (with a minimum 12V current rating of 18A)"
I'm going to go for that video card, but I just want to be sure that I'll be buying the correct one.
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That's the correct one.
"The great mass of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one" A.H
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Well I have this as a power supply: Bestec ATX-300-12Z BD.
So I guess that going for 350 wattz wouldnt be wise. Any thoughts Demo?
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You're right. Time to go on a search for a card that your psu meets the min requirements OR look for a better PSU.
"The great mass of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one" A.H
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350W would NOT be a wise upgrade. But this 400W Corsair that's currently on sale for $40 after rebate w/free shipping would be a good choice:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...
Make sure to make a wise choice for your video card too. The 9500GT is NOT a very good card.
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Here is one I think Jam would approve of
http://www.futurepowerpc.com/script...
"The great mass of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one" A.H
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The power supply that jam proposed, is it compatible with mine?
Next week I'll buy both things together.
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Compatable with which card? Or do you mean your motherboard?
"The great mass of people ... will more easily fall victim to a big lie than to a small one" A.H
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"Here is one I think Jam would approve of"
I sure won't approve of it for $110. Newegg has them for $75.
Hey nelo87,
I've got a much better alternative for you. If you get a Radeon HD4670 (or the even cheaper HD 4650), you won't need to upgrade the power supply. The money you save can be put towards something more useful - memory! 384MB isn't enough for gaming, it's barely enough to run XP decently. Upgrade to 1GB.
MSI Radeon HD4670 512MB 128-bit GDDR3 PCI Express 2.0 - $70 (after rebate) + shipping
Apollo Radeon HD4650 256MB 128-bit GDDR4 PCI Express 2.0 - $59 (after rebate)
Check this out:
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Hello Jam,
Well thank you for giving me more options. I sure need them. Last week though, I ordered RAM and I just got it today. I have 1.5 GB overall, but 128 MB is being taken by the video graphics card that came with the computer when I bought it.
Also, how do you know that I won't need to upgrade the power supply for the Radeon HD4670? I trust you, but I would like to learn how to look for these things too. I tried looking for a wattage, but I didnt see anything.
thank you for helping me
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"how do you know that I won't need to upgrade the power supply for the Radeon HD4670"
Did you read the article?
"its main advantage is a low-power requirement—the 4670 doesn’t need an external power cable, which for some upgraders is a really important feature."
"I tried looking for a wattage, but I didnt see anything."
From another Tom's Hardware article about the HD4670:
"With a maximum power draw of only 55 W, the HD 4670 draws less power than many modern CPUs, which explains why no auxiliary power connectors are needed for this device"
"as a way to inject new life and capability into a PC that’s more than a year old, the HD 4670 qualifies as a "best technology buy" for such systems. About the only thing that might do more would be to bump up memory to 2 GB for Windows XP and 4 GB for Vista systems."
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I went directly to newegg and clicked on specs.
Ok then, I'm going to get this.
Thanks for the help.
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I was about to buy the card. But I noticed that my monitor won't plug to it. It's different.
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"It's different."
An adapter to 15pin dsub is included with the card...buy the damn thing.
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