On my Optiplex 170L Desktop's motherboard THERE actually is a place for an agp slot to go. It's got the exact placement for it and the holes where an AGP slot would go. Has "AGP" engraved into the pcb also. It looks like one; could someone just buy an AGP adapter and stick it on there and then just solder it. Is this possible????
It's not worth the time, effort or money...chances are, it wouldn't work anyway.
I agree. Motherboards are soldered by a machine as they are double sided and not all the holes go all the way through. It requires a high degree of precision and dexterity and the chances of a human hand having the precision and dexterity of a machine is extremely remote. Stuart
A lot of motherboards come with reserved spaces for hardware that wasn't necessarily installed on all versions. ISA slots and on-board sound are often 'missing' too. Besides, as mentioned above, the difficulty of getting an AGP slot soldered in it would need to have a bios that supported AGP. Maybe the one you have already supports it. If not, no doubt you have an Intel OEM board and could probably find an AGP bios for that board on their site. You'd use the cmos jumper option for 'recovery' (at least I think they still use that) to install the Intel bios on the Dell.
You're not really green until you're soylent green.
Thank you for all the answers.. I will just shell out the bucks for a new one.