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Please help

beaner

beaner

beaner

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Joined
24 Nov 2007
Posts
4
Hi there told to come to this site by a guy who was doing some plumbing for me (that sounds weired) any way i need some help with a graphics card.
I have a dell 5150 pc pentium4 3.0ghz processor,512 ram,70gb hard drive. The graphics card that came with it is a Radeon x300 se 128 mb. I would like to upgrade as my kids have brought me Unreal Tournament for xmas and this wont run very well. I am not that clued up on computers so that the reason i am here. Was told to get a 8800 gt from this site. Would this fit straight in to my pc as i see there is something about PCI express (not sure what this is)
Any info would be great (after you all stopping laughing at this question).
Many thanks
Beaner
 
If the motherboard has a PCI-Express slot then an 8800GT would run just fine in that machine, and you'd see a massive increase in performance to boot. Your plumber knows his stuff. :)

Welcome to the forums, and feel free to stick around because you can learn a lot here. Don't be afraid to ask questions, as silly as you think they might be, because we're glad to help.

P.S. You might want to also consider upgrading your memory and/or processor if you're after playing recent titles. "Bottlenecking" is caused when one component, say the graphics card, has to wait on a slower component and in games like Unreal Tournament 3 (unless you meant the original UT) you will probably find your CPU and RAM would hold back an 8800GT quite a lot.

If you meant the original UT then you'll be fine, and won't need to spend as much money as the 8800GT. ;)
 
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Another ? what does PCI express mean, i take it the graphics card is the one which the monitor plugs in, it has a video out if that is the card. I took the side of and it fits in a slot like the memory does. Is that what it is. I really am thick.Sorry
 
You're right about the graphics card being the bit where the monitor plugs into with the TV-out business on it, and PCI-Express is a type of slot on the motherboard that you can plug a graphics card into.

There are currently three flavours of slot. PCI, AGP, and PCI-Express: -

400pxagppcipciepciex1buyn2.jpg


PCI is the oldest and is now defunct, I am not positive but I don't think any of the X### series came in PCI format. AGP is getting on now, and PCI-E is the new standard. As you already know, it's important to buy the right kind of card to fit the slot. I hope this helps. :)

P.S. I had to use an X300SE for a while when my graphics card died, so I know your pain. :(
 
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HA! Sorry I only laugh because I've just upgraded the exact same machine for my kid brothers. Put a 500Gb drive in it. Anyway, I digress..

There are only two issues I can see. Power supply - the power supply in your PC is probably only a 375W one as per it is in the 5150 we have. It might not cut it as some people are getting their cards slowing themselves down because the PSU cant cope or something.

Secondly the actual space. Now I was going to put my old 1800XT in their machine just to see what would happen but it physically wouldn't fit due to the plastic air channel on top of the CPU heatsink. Mind you an 1800XT takes up two slots and the 8800GT only one so it might just clear it.

I ended up just putting a £50 7600GT in there instead. That is a big jump up from the X300 too and is a third the price of an 8800GT and it fits fine and doesn't use too much power.

Hmm.. if there's any way you can get an 8800GT, see if it fits / works and if not, return it and get something smaller such as a 8600GT :) An 8600GT would still be a huge upgrade from the X300 and is only about £80. You'd again have to check if it worked power wise as like I said, I can't vouch for anything higher than a 7600GT - but it should be fine.
 
I'd suggest a Radeon X1950Pro instead of an 8800GT as it's cheap now and comes in single-slot flavour, but I agree with you in general about buying something less powerful (and less expensive) than an 8800GT as the rest of the system would likely bottleneck it to the max.
 
Ok I've had a look and apparently ATI recommend a 450-Watt power supply or greater, 30 Amps on 12 volt rail recommended (assumes fully loaded system). According to the Dell Forums "The 375 watt Dell PSU has Dual +12 Volt rails of 18 and 17 Amps and a combined +12 volt amperage rating of 30 Amps. " Now I know Dell rate their PSUs very conservatively so you might well get away with it. But again, it's a risk.


I was just thinking 8600GT as it's a much smaller card, uses less power and will def fit. The 8600 reqs are: Minimum of a 350 Watt power supply. (Minimum recommended power supply with +12 Volt current rating of 22 Amp Amps.)

But then again the 1950Pro is about 20-30% faster in every aspect than the 8600GT. But the GT is DX10..

Ooo choices!
 
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That Dell PSU would easily run an X1950Pro. I have a friend running an 8800GTX on 30A. :)
beaner said:
Found the x1950 on here good price it looks, but there are a few different types would any of these do
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Aye, don't be fooled by how many of them there are. They're all built to a reference design, so the only real differences are in the cooler, the warranty, and the clockspeeds.

Go with the OCUK one, it's a bargain. :)
plasticmekon said:
1950Pro is about 20-30% faster in every aspect than the 8600GT. But the GT is DX10..
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The 8600GT is far too slow to run DX10 and look even remotely nice. :p
 
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Tom|Nbk said:
I had to use that damn X300 for nearly a month, I was seriously emo by the end of it.
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Aww they aint that bad! I've got one in my laptop and it did me ok for a few games.. even FEAR ran playable at 1280x800!

Still when I got it installe don my DT with an x1800XT it was a wee bit better! :D
 
plasticmekon said:
Swapping the PSU out in a Dell isn't as easy as all that I seem to remember.
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The Dell PC's are designed as "chuck away PC's" by that I mean It's extremely hard to upgrade ANYTHING in them because they make it so you have to go buy another from them or somewhere else in order to have a better system and literally chuck away the older system.

Thankfully the graphics can be upgraded which is a big plus since that's one of the most critical parts.
 
How about the HD3850pro? Just above £100 and a lot more powerful than 1950pro, it doesn't consume a lot more power and is similar in size with single slot cooler. It's got to be the best value for money card at the moment.
 
plasticmekon said:
Aww they aint that bad! I've got one in my laptop and it did me ok for a few games.. even FEAR ran playable at 1280x800!

Still when I got it installe don my DT with an x1800XT it was a wee bit better! :D
Click to expand...

Im seriously wondering how FEAR was playable at that resolution when I couldn't even play CSS @ 640x480 at minimum details :p.

I'd also bet my CPU and RAM is 5x that of your laptop :p ;).
 
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