PCI Graphics Card

Draupnir

Hey guys,

My dad has a fairly old dell at this stage which he uses for games, mostly Silent Hunter. Now hes just gotten the new Silent Hunter 3 and discovered its pretty brutal on his current card, a GeForce 5200. However, from what I can see online, upgrading this wont be easy as all the latest cards appear to be PCI-Express.

His machine hasnt got a PCI-E slot or an AGP slot.

Are there any simple solutions to this problem? An adapter maybe? Or is it a case of upgrading the entire system?

Would anybody know of a source of PCI graphics cards, preferably better than the 5200! Or maybe even have one lying around theyd be happy to part with?

Apologies for all the questions in one post!

Thanks in advance

BloodBath

You won't get anything much better than a 5200 on pci. You will have to get a new motherboard and possibly processor. The problem is Dell cases won't take standard atx motherboards so you will probably have to get a new case as well. Sounds like it's time for a full system upgrade tbh.


BloodBath

Draupnir

ok, well ive got an ATI Radeon X800 Pci-express lying around here, they are quite good right?

How much would I be talking to get a case, p4 processor around the 2.8 mark, gig of ram, hard drive size isnt majorly important, a case and motherboard to do it?

Id probably be able to afford around 600 or so. Any ideas?

RicardoSmith

How on earth do you have a ATI Radeon X800 Pci-express lying around ? :eek:

In Jan bought a Dell P4/3GHZ, 250GB HD, DVD Burner, 512MB, XP home, keyboard, speakers, and mouse (no monitor) for 520 inc VAT on the Dell outlet store. I added a 9800Pro AGP to it myself. I already had a monitor.

You could probably do something similar for less now. Personally I found I couldn't beat this price even buying 2nd hand parts. I wanted the XP licence. You need to shop around on the outlet store, it changes on a daily basis.

Equally building one yourself is a bit of fun.

Capt'n Midnight

Judging by the age of the system (hint- post model no.) the PSU is probably wired up DELLwise so you would not be able to use it on another MB/Case. So all you would be able to keep are the drives. Also since it's almost certainly Windows OEM you wouldn't be allowed to move that to a different PC either


If the motherboard don't have AGP then it's two generations behind , your best bet is to put wanted for a high end PCI card but it will still be a PII or PIII.. Best to sell if off AFTER you have copied all the stuff to the new PC (wipe all info off it first )

Draupnir

its a dimension 8250, ive discussed it with him and given him the option of a new pc or just try and get a high end PCI card. ill leave it up to himself, the x800 would be perfect for what he wants, just a case of getting a machine that can take it

BloodBath

Afaik there's nothing much higher than a 5200 for pce, possibly a ati 9200 but i'm not sure if that's much better tbh.


BloodBath

Draupnir

OK Ive managed to talk him into a new box and connect it to his exisitng monitor and keyboard etc.

can someone just verify that the following is compatible:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=111025&cks=FRO

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=305075&cks=PRL

and Ill stick in the x800 PCI-E. Im gonna throw in a couple of old hard drives we have here too. That should be compatible and all he needs right?

*EDIT* that mother board has an ATA and a SERIAL ATA controller, that means I can use either type of hard drive right?

*EDIT* Also, just a quick question, will I be able to move his existing CD drive, floppy and zip drive to that motherboard?

Inquitus

Yep, everything should work fine....

BloodBath

Ummm most modern mainboards have only 2 ide connections. You won't be able to connect 2 HD's, A CD drive, a floppy and a zip afaik. One of them will have to go.


BloodBath

RicardoSmith

BloodBath wrote:

Ummm most modern mainboards have only 2 ide connections. You won't be able to connect 2 HD's, A CD drive, a floppy and a zip afaik. One of them will have to go.


BloodBath

That board has ...
1 x Floppy Port supports up to 2.88MB (floppy)
1 x Ultra DMA 100/66/33 IDE Connectors (CDROM & ZIP)
4 x Serial ATA 1.5Gbps Connectors (4 SATA HDS or SATA CDROM)

Basically you going to need to get SATA drives, CDROM. You could also get a PCI ATA/SATA card for about €40-50 if you needed more connections.

Ciaran500

You can get a simple adapter for the HDD that converts them to sata.