Upgrade Question.

[Nels]

Hi,

I've just been given a Dell Dimension 4300 with the following spec:
P4 1.7 (Northwood)
512MB ram
Maxtor 60GB hard drive
Geforce2 mx400 graphics card
Dell 250W Power Supply HP-P2507F3P
Samsung DVD-Rom SD-616
NEC NR-7800A CD+RW
Netgear WG311v2 wireless card
Motherboard just said Dell Dimension 4300 on the spec check software.

Basically I would like to buy a better graphics card (for games) but am unsure as to what will work with the 250w psu. I would appreciate any help as I believe, from this forum, that power consumption is a big factor when choosing a new graphics card. I was looking at the 9800 Pro, 6800 GT or even a 7600 GT OC. I think you're going to say I need a new Psu and maybe some other bits. Is this machine just tooooooo old to upgrade for sensible money?

many thanks in advance.

Nels

 

[wizardmaxx]

Check the power requirements for the cards you have listed and you may find that they require less power than your current one (the 6xxx and the 9xxx may require more power, the X1xxx and 7xxx series may use less). I would however think of upgrading to a better power supply for the overall good of your system. It will be an investment for future upgrades as well as prices for cases/psu dont drop in price over time that much. The first thing that will suffer from insufficent power will be the hard drive and thats going to cost you more than £30 to replace to start with.

 

[Nels]

Thanks wizardmaxx, new psu on shopping list. Should I go for the 7600 GT OC as it's on offer or is that overkill?

Nels

 

[Sir Random]

That CPU will be a big bottleneck, as it's only 100fsb (400Mhz). Is that 512Mb SDRAM? If it is, then a 7600GT would definitely be wasted with it. Even if it's DDR, I still think it's a waste of money getting a new PSU and gfx card for that rig, it's just too slow for modern games.

 

[Tetras]

Would agree with the above, your wasting your time with a 1.7 Ghz P4. The absolute max I would spend on a graphics card would be £30, £40 or so for a 9700/9800 Pro which would be a nice boost over the GeForce 2 MX in older games but either would still be bottlenecked and you won't be playing anything like Oblivion.

Perhaps a second hand Ti4200 would be more appropriate (£15 - £20) and it won't use hardly any power, I know someone with a similar Dell who has been using a Ti4200 for years (and it still remains "in service" too ).

 

[Nels]

Sorry for the late THANKS guys. (personal reasons)
The ram is 2x256 133
I will probably have a dabble with counterstrike, so what would be my best course of action?