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Recommend me a graphics card please

Jon20

Jon20

Jon20

Associate
Joined
12 Feb 2008
Posts
1,516
Location
Shropshire
Hi,

I'm looking for a new graphics card. I've got a Packard Bell iMedia 1628 which currently has a ATI X600 XT 256MB PCI-e x16 graphics card. I'm going to be upgrading the PSU to this http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-006-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088 as it currently uses a 250W PSU that came with it. I've got a budget of around a £100 for the graphics card. It can be either ATI or nVidia. My only requirements are:
  • Its quiet
  • Its a normal PCI-e x16 card, i.e. not PCI-e 2.0, as people have been having problems with Packard Bell computers and PCI-e 2.0 cards not working, even though its supposed to be backwards compatible?
  • Single slot as I'm not sure if a double slot card would fit.

Thanks.
 
Thanks for the replies but aren't those cards PCI-e x16 2.0 (the new version) and not PCI-e x16. I'm looking for a PCI-e x16 (version 1.0) graphics card. I probably didn't make that clear in my first post so apologies for that. But thanks for the suggestions so far, please keep them coming.
 
I'm not sure if this would be any help but the motherboard is a Gigabyte GA-8I945PM-RH. Is there anyway to find out if there would be any compatibility issues when using a PCI-e 2.0 graphics card without actually buying the card? I understand there shouldn't be any problems but some people on the Packard Bell support forum have been experiencing issues when using a PCI-e 2.0 graphics card i.e they get 'no signal' on their monitors. Can you get a 8800 GT that is PCI-e x16 1.0?
 
steve258 said:
No you can't get one with PCI-E 1.0. I'll see if there's a BIOS update available either from Packard Bell or Gigabyte that enables you to use PCI-E 2.0

Other than that you'll just need to make sure the power supply is powerful enough.
Click to expand...

Ok, thanks to yourself and everyone who has posted so far, you've all been very helpful. I've done a bit more research and it appears that the compatibility issues are with motherboards that use VIA chipsets. I don't know how true that is or why it would be a problem. Anyway my motherboard uses an Intel chipset so it may not cause a problem. I'm only being cautious as I don't want to buy a graphics card and then find that it doesn't work.
 
Right, this is the inside of the case
PictureorVideo014.jpg


I'm just wondering if I'm likely to be able to fit a double slot graphics card in? There's about 12 inches of space between the left hand side and the back of the HDD and a couple of inches between the current graphics card and the card below it.
 
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