Reduced height AGP card advice please

[WhatBackHand]

Guys,
I have an old Fujitsu PC which I'm thinking of upgrading for some gaming for my kids. It has an integrated Intel 82865G graphics controller and I'm looking to put something better in it. It has an half height AGP slot and some PCI slots on a riser card.

I can't find much in the way of half height cards that appear to be any good, would I be better off getting a good PCI card? Any recommendations for either?

It's XP Pro, 2.4 GHz P4 with 512 MB RAM. I'm thinking of spending something around £50-60.

 

[benjo]

Well PCI cards are pretty bad. The only half height card i know of is an ATi X300, but that isnt AGP, and i dont think that would be much of an investment anyway

On a second thought... maybe you could replace the backplate on a new card, and then take the side of the case off?

 

[TALON1973]

hmm well i cant see anything on overclockers but ive had a look on another site ( and without post a link or mentioning names , "all i say is purple shirt brigade" )

cant see anythin for agp but for PCI there is this :


Product Information

3D Fuzion 3DFR6200P

GEFORCE 6200 Graphics Controller

128Mb DDR Memory Interface

PCI Interface

Improves Gameplay & Graphics on your PC

Also features NVIDIA Pure Video

Delivers Crisp&Vibrant Video to your PC

VGA, DVI-I, S-Video Output

Microsoft Direct X 9.0, Shader Model 3.0


its not much.. unless u can find older cards like a 5900 xt or 5950 in pci form then i think thats the best u can get.

 

[WhatBackHand]

So, there's not much I can do then? Money would be better spent on new machine rather than upgrading this one? I suppose I could leave this one for the Mrs then build another "gaming PC" for me and the boys? Wonder what the accountant would think of that option?

Thanks for the advice anyway.

 

[LeperousDust]

I got a 9550 half height agp card last year, or maybe two years ago now. I think that was the best i could get. But if you look hard enough theyre out there. Have you looked into getting an AGP riser card instead?

 

[Lanz]

You can certainly get better half height AGP cards than your onboard. But you may have to chop the top off and bodge it in, maybe using a DVI dongle (as a lot of low profile cards have the VGA on a ribbon)

Most 6200's are low profile.
Some 6600's are.
I think you can get Radeon 9550's etc.

I guess it all depends on what games you want the kids to be able to play, anything from a couple of years ago would be fine, but new games will be rubbish.

 

[WhatBackHand]

Not planning on "new" games, current list is Civ3 but want to play Civ4, MS FlightSim and Prince of Persia. I'm only really looking to breath some life into it until the end of year and intend to replace with something more appropriate! So as long as it can run the above games on a 1024x768 display we will all be happy for the time being.

I've found some low profile 9550 and 6200s but no low profile 6600s, all with 256 MB RAM which would be better as the prices are similar?

 

[nbkpsycho]

Maybe buy a decent AGP card and get a new case aswell if you have the money ??

Here are a few cheap case's :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/acatalog/OcUK_Value_Cases.html

 

[WhatBackHand]

This is a "temporary" solution, I'm saving the real money to get a "real" PC later in the year, everything big, except the noise! But thanks for the thought.