Aces High Bulletin Board
Help and Support Forums => Technical Support => Topic started by: allmeta1 on March 29, 2004, 02:18:00 PM
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I`ve been thinking of upgrading my video card.As it turns out I can`t.It seems that my Dell has an integrated video card and I would need a new mother board.Dell tells me that even with a new board they can not garantee that i would get a newer card.I guess my question is what can I do to "fix up" my comp for better gaming?I was thinking of adding more RAM but i want to be sure it will make a difference.Thanks for any help!
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more RAM always helps.....
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Somehow that doesn't make sense allmeta1, either i'm missing something or you've got bad advice. Even if you have an "onboard" video card you can usually (I'd say always) disable it. Nowif your MB doesn't have an AGP slot your limited to adding a PCI based video card which restricts your options.
If you get a new MB your only restriction should be power supply "form factor" and output...if you have a 350 watt atx PS you can add any MB you want.
Realistically you probably have a older lower end dell system and even if you add ram you will still have a bottleneck. Since were getting close to a new generation of MB's and chips you can findsome great deals...frys has an ECS board and AMD 2400+ for ~$70. ECS boards are often junk but this one isnt bad at all. You could do MB combo case & Video card for ~$200 or so. Add ~$35-60 for 256 or 512 of memory and use your old HD etc and you can rebuild a decent budget box for $250.
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I did some more checking.It seems that i do have 2 spaces to add stuff on my computer.However,it seems that i need a plug in on my MB that is brown in color.I have white ones.I was told that i could change MB`s and transfer my processor but this will void my 3 year warranty with dell.After all is said and done i think it would be just easier to buy a new computer.Turning this dell into a frankenstien is too much of a hassle if you ask me.Thanks for the help everybody!!:aok
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well mr metal, usually the white slots are pci; you could put a pci vid card in it, but still pci cards are kind of weak. Brown slots are agp, agp slots are more powerful -- you want agp. You could always buy a new system, but then you are forever enslaved by "the man". Have you considedered parting out your existing machine? You can knock together a powerful system for around $500-600. You can even build a new one from scratch for less than $1000. I have not bought a pc since the early Pentium days. I say, throw off the yoke of oppression and build your own! Then you have in-home tech support 24x7!
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What exactly are you running???
Processor
Memory
video card (on board what?)
????
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if your pc is slower then 1.0ghz its most likly 3-4yrs old and at the end of its life as a current gamer .
Ecs makes some solid mb's if bought from the right place ,(but they arnt screamers ) I have 2 ecs mb machines and they run rock solid
for a modern gammer though id recomend
Asus A7n8x - x or - deluxe mb 70-120 us
Amd 2400-2600+ cpu
if your buget allows duel 256 or 512 3200 ddr
(you can use a single stick of ram til you can add more )
and a good 350-430 watt ps
now toss in a decent video card 9600 pro - ti 4600 at least or better and you have a great gaming machine
If you reuse monitor, hard drive ,cdrom, floppy you can build this for under 500 easily and it will play all the newest games .
Dell will tell you that you need a new pc (sales thingy ) but some of them are upgradeable . Open up your case and get your mainboard number off of it and i'll look it up for you and tell you if it can take a vc upgrade ect ...
(note it will be monday or tuesday befor i get back from racing but ill see what i can find out then)