Dumb vid card question

[Maverick]

It's been years since I last bought a separate vid card for my PC. Now the games that are coming out won't run on the built in card in my HP.

The question I have is how many "flavors" of PCI cards are there? The last card I bought was an old AGP platform. I am unsure if there is a difference between PCI, PCI Express or PCI whatchamacallit. I know the HP has a PCI slot open for a vid card but do not want to have to buy 2 or 3 cards to find out what the heck kinds of PCI cards there are. In my box there is a single PCI slot, no dual card slot as far as I can see.


HALP!

[BaldEagl]

A PCI slot is a regular peripheral slot.  Video cards usually plug into an AGP slot or a PCIE x16 slot.  PCIE x16 and PCIE x16 2.0 are cross-compatible.

Cards come in three basic varieties these days; PCI, AGP and PCIE x16 although AGP is being phased out.  If you do have an AGP slot there are various versions of AGP and they are not cross-compatible as they use different slot keys depending on the version.

Nvidia and AMD are the two big card designers and their designs are manufactured by a variety of companies in a variety of flavors to fit all users and budgets.

Once you have identified what typw of slot you have the next question will be how big is your power supply.  Modern cards typically require 400 watts or more with about 26 amps on the 12V rails and may require 6 pin or 8 pin connectors from the power supply.  Some even require two connectors.

If you have your HP model number handy most of this information is available on-line with a little research.

[Maverick]

Thanks for the info. I did some checking and this is what the unit has. It seems there are 3 styles of PCI slots in there. Two of which are for graphics cards.

■PCI Express x16 x 1
■PCI Express x1 x 1
■PCI x 2

I know the PCI x2 are standard expansion slots but the other 2 look like graphics style slots. How do I tell them apart visually? Like I said it's been a while since I dabbled with vid cards.

Networking Type
■Integrated 10/100 Network Card
Optical Drive Type
■DVD±RW Dual Layer
RAM Technology
■DDR2 SDRAM
Recommended Use
■Home Use
Hard Drive Interface
■Serial ATA
Processor Speed
■2.8 GHz
Installed RAM
■3 GB
Processor Type
■AMD Athlon 64 X2
Audio Input
■Microphone Jack
■1 x Line In
Audio Output Type
■Line out
Bus Speed
■2000 MHz
Chipset
■NVIDIA GeForce 6150
Controller Type
■Serial ATA
Data Link Protocol
■Fast Ethernet
Depth
■16.3 in.
Expansion Bays
■2 x 5.25" (External Access)
■2 x 3.5" (Internal Access)
■1 x 3.5" (External Access)
Expansion Slots
■PCI Express x16 x 1
■PCI Express x1 x 1
■PCI x 2
Family Line
■Hewlett Packard Pavilion
Form Factor
■Desktop
Graphic Processor
■NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
Hard Drive Rotation Speed
■7,200 RPM
Height
■15.24 in.
Installed Cache Memory
■1 MB
Installed Memory
■3 GB (DDR2 SDRAM)
Installed Video Memory
■128 MB
Integrated Input/Output Ports
■USB 2.0 x 6
■FireWire (IEEE1394a) x 2
■RJ45 Lan Port x 1
■PS/2 Mouse x 1
■PS/2 Keyboard x 1
■RJ11 Phone Jack x 1 (Input)
MPN
■GN561AA#ABA
Max Supported RAM
■8 GB
Modem Type
■Modem
Number of Memory Slots
■4 x 240 Pin DIMMs
OS Certified
■Microsoft Windows Vista Home Premium
OS Certified Unknown UPC
■00883585318643
Operating System
■Microsoft Windows Vista Home
Optical Drive ReWrite Speed
■32x (CD-RW)
■8x (DVD+RW)
■6x (DVD-RW)
■12x (DVD-RAM)
Optical Drive Read Speed
■16x (DVD)
■40x (CD)
Optical Drive Write Speed
■40x (CD-R)
■16x (DVD+R)
■16x (DVD-R)
■8x (DVD+R Dual Layer)
■8x (DVD-R Dual Layer)
Other Features
■15-in-1 Memory Card Reader
Processor
■2.8 GHz
Processor Manufacturer
■AMD
UPC
■00883585318643

[1701E]

A picture is worth a few words, so I shall use one as a visual aid:



The big card at the top of the Picture is an "NVidia GeForce 7900GS" which fits in a 'PCI-E x16' slot.  The slot right above that is a 'PCI-E x1' slot, typically used anymore for things like soundcards.
So:  Long slot = PCI-E x16 (1.0 & 2.0) and Short slot = PCI-E x1  (Only looking at the Green slots in the Top Right in this description)

I took that Picture with the motherboard upside-down of what you will see when you open the case, just as a reminder.

[BaldEagl]

OK, so now we know you have a PCIE x16 slot.  If you take the side panal off the case there should be a sticker on the power supply.  We need to know the watts and the amps listed for the +12V rail(s).

[Maverick]

Looking inside the case I found the PCI 16 slot. Thanks for the picture 1701E. I also have that very small 1" long slot next to it. I can't figure what that little sucker is for.

I looked at the power supply and it looks like I'm hosed there. It's a 300W supply.
+5V & 3.3V rails max 175W
+12V & +5V rails max 268W

I guess I'll have to try and find out what a 400 to 450W power supply can be had for. That's going to push back the vid card purchase a bit. Darnit.

[1701E]

The one 1" slot is next to it, or above/below the PCI-E x16?  If above/below it's a PCI-E x1, basically a higher bandwidth PCI.  Only slots need to look at in the pic are the one the card is in, and the one that is 1" long under it (Is above really, but upside-down pic), those are the PCI-E slots.

As for the PSU, 300W is low, but what you'll want to look at is the #A listed under the 12V, not that the Wattage isn't important.

Should read something like:  Numbers will vary of course.

               <BrandName>
 <Input>
<Output>   5V    3.3V   12V  12V2 (if applicable) -12V  ~~
<Current>   30A  20A    18A   18A                ~~~    ~~~
<Power>     | 150W  |
<Power>     |                675W        |               25W        |


What you need to look at is the "A" number under the 12V Rail(s) and if those total are under 30A the PSU won't do well with new Video Cards.

Also, a PSU won't be cheap normally, if it's cheap it's likely off-brand and not one you want.