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WTB PCI Graphics card.

facattack

Veteran Member
Joined
Mar 7, 2007
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Location
Bucks County, PA
Searching the internet reveals several PCI express cards but no regular PCI. Well, maybe a NVIDIA Geforce 8400 GS... but I had that before. I'm wondering if I can a slightly more powerful card with more VRAM.

Also need DVD-ROM drive for installing software in DVD-ROM format.

Then again, maybe not...


The computer is a Dell Dimension 2400. Worth upgrading? While it sits here incomplete I'm bugging...
 
Better PCI graphics than the 8400, easy. A quick check of my favorite retailer shows the GeForce 610 (about 3 times as good), GeForce 210 (about 50% better), and Radeon HD 5450 (about double if you are willing to switch vendors but much less heat generation) with PCI connectors from multiple manufacturers. One might be a misprint, not all. More VRAM, well they peak at 1 GB. Prices were about $80.
 
Damn. I was gonna sell the PC for 40 but its my only Windows computers at the moment. It has a Intel Celeron. 2.40ghz. 512mb RAM. It only has 2 RAM slots, DDR.
 
Before you spend any big bucks you should check-out the specs on your mobo and see what it supports in the the way of PCIe.
 
I did a visual check. There are several long, white connectors. None of which have that annoying key thing to keep a PCI-express card stuck in there.

Oh well... anyone have a computer for sale? I'm looking at something that can run Windows 8 64 bit or Windows 7 64bit.

I have a ATI Radeon 6450 HD graphics card. I have two gb of DDR2 RAM. Do I need DDR3 for 64bit? My computer has a Pentium D processor which is I think 32bit. I have no idea if it can take 64 bits... Dell Dimension e520.


Might as well... for sale: Quake IV, Call of Duty: World at War, and Company of Heroes.
 
I did a visual check. There are several long, white connectors. None of which have that annoying key thing to keep a PCI-express card stuck in there.

Oh well... anyone have a computer for sale? I'm looking at something that can run Windows 8 64 bit or Windows 7 64bit.

I have a ATI Radeon 6450 HD graphics card. I have two gb of DDR2 RAM. Do I need DDR3 for 64bit? My computer has a Pentium D processor which is I think 32bit. I have no idea if it can take 64 bits... Dell Dimension e520.


Might as well... for sale: Quake IV, Call of Duty: World at War, and Company of Heroes.

That "annoying key thing" keeps your card snug on the mobo so it won't pop out due to heat stress and such. Put you finger on the locking tab and it moves left or right, just takes a little patience (you never want to 'John Wayne' it). If that Pentium D is the Smithfield, which it most probably is, its a 64-bit chip. Google Tiger Direct, Newegg, Micro Center, Fry's, or who ever you like, and get yourself a CPU/Motherboard combo for under $100 - they ship free on a lot of those deals.
 
The Dimension 4200 has only PCI slots according to the Dell website.

Pentium-Ds were capable of 64-bit. However, Windows 8.1 64-bit won't load because certain instructions are not available on a Pentium D. Windows 7 and 8 64 bit will run but rather slowly because the instructions get emulated. Some Celeron D models supported 64-bit; model numbers ending in "0" are 32-bit only. Intel product marking is an awful mess. Even if you have a Celeron D with 64bit support, you would most likely be better served by something newer.

You need RAM that matches your motherboard. DDR2 would be mostly late Pentium-4 and the Core 2 era or AMD motherboards using AM2 sockets. Most of the more modern motherboards (Intel socket 2011, 1336, 1150, 1155 or AMD AM3+) will use DDR3. Check specific model of motherboard; there were some oddballs that used different memory from normal. If you want 64-bit OS, you probably will be better served with one of the later motherboards with DDR3. The chips are faster; the virtual machine instructions are better; and the memory limits are higher. Even budget systems now can handle 32 GB over 4 DDR3 slots; most DDR2 system were restricted to 8GB and DDR2 costs a lot more. With 1GB, 2 GB, and 4GB DDR3 sticks all priced about the same per stick, there is little reason to skimp on RAM.

Note that the current higher end integrated video from both Intel and AMD exceeds the capability of the HD 6450 so you might not to use a graphics card.

CPU performance of later chips is much better. Core2 is about 50% better clock for clock; Haswell is twice as good clock for clock. The under $300 Pentium boxes often seen in Best Buy will provide 2 cores, each twice as fast as what you have, while cutting power consumption by 2/3. The new Celerons are rebadged tablet chips and are quite slow and not a good choice for any gaming use.
 
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