Possible graphics card upgrade for a Dell Dimension 9200

[spiki]

My nephew's Dimension is getting a bit long in the tooth and he has asked me for some advice on a cheap upgrade for his system.

He's mainly playing CoD 4&5, the Orange Box & L4D on a 19" inch monitor. Games look just alright but not much eye candy.

Not 100% sure on his specs but something like this:

C2D E6300
ATI X1300 - not completely sure if its this or an X300
2 GB DDR2 Ram
250Gb HDD
375W Dell PSU
Vista HP

He's saved up about £70 to buy a new graphics card - what would you recommend given his set up?

Thanks for your help.

 

[danv]

Hi Spiki - You are in a fortunate position where you can upgrade your PSU to run a higher spec graphics card. The 9200 has a standard PSU spec rather than any OEM Dell unit.

I upgraded my 9200 with one of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-PP

which allowed me to run a GeForce 8800GTX 768mb. Previously I used a 8800GTS 312mb.

You may need to upgrade your PSU before considering any graphics card that uses more than one PCIe six pin power cable.

 

[reflux]

One of these would be an excellent upgrade:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-109-GW&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1009

Should run all his games at max and and doesn't require extra power from the PSU.

 

[danv]

sorry - just read the part about the £70 budget.. In that case I highly recommend Reflux's recommendation.

 

[Ritsugamesh]

+1 to Reflux's suggestion

 

[Metalface Mark]

Hi Spiki - You are in a fortunate position where you can upgrade your PSU to run a higher spec graphics card. The 9200 has a standard PSU spec rather than any OEM Dell unit.

I upgraded my 9200 with one of these:

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-002-PP

which allowed me to run a GeForce 8800GTX 768mb. Previously I used a 8800GTS 312mb.

You may need to upgrade your PSU before considering any graphics card that uses more than one PCIe six pin power cable.

You wasted your money m8, the standard 9200 power supply is extremely good, ive had a 8800GTX running on my daughters for a good while, recently updated it to a GTX275 and still had no problems.

 

[spiki]

Thanks for all the replies much appreciated - will pass this onto his lordship and bust the piggybank open soon.