Video Cards: The Eternal Question

    <b>1. Do you think a new video card would work in this thing? I don´t want to even talk about it unless I am pretty sure it´ll work. </b> If you´ve got an AGP slot, it´ll work. You can buy PCI Vid cards but they are few and far between and won´t perform as well as AGP <b>2. If it will work, what kind should I get, my price range is probably around $100 (US). </b> I have no idea what $100 will get you in the US, prolly an ATi 9600 is the best way to go for the budget concious. Though I must admit I haven´t had a look a Vid Card performance and prices for a year or so, but if you can get a 9800 for that price then by all means. <b>3. Answer #2 again, without your fanboyish attitudes for some of you, I want something that´s at least 128 MB, effective but still in a decent pricerange. </b> No fanboy attitudes here, I´ve got an Nvidia fx5900 and Im promoting an Ati. That´s not to say the 5900 isn´t a good card but the 9800 is a smidgen better. <b>4. If I do get a 128 MB V-card, how well do you think newer games like HL2 or Far Cry will run, I don´t think very well, but then again I can always keep the card if I switch systems. </b> My 128Mb fx5900 runs both games without breaking a sweat, FarCry gives it a good push but HL2 will run flawlessly. I´d personally look at boosting your RAM to at least 512Mb though.

    Dell Dimension 2350 has <A href=´http://reviews-zdnet.com.com/Dell_Dimension_2350/4505-3118_16-20717757-3.html?tag=top´ Target=_Blank>no AGP video slot</a> There are PCI video graphics cards that are better than your onboard Intel video and for less than US $100 but it isn´t clear that you´d get all that much improvement. HL2 and Doom 3 probably won´t play as perfectly as you would want. But here are some of those<A href=´http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/category/category_slc.asp?page=2&amp;CatId=319´ Target=_Blank>PCI video card</a>. I´d go for the highest number series GeForce or Radeon GPU chip available... which looks like the GeForce 5200 or the Radeon 9250.

    You´ll have a lot of trouble even *finding* a PCI graphics card these days, and the performance would not be as good as an AGP card. I would probably suggest something like a &quot;Geforce 4 Ti&quot;, as I doubt that you will be able to find a 9600XT or something similar in PCI. May I suggest a new PC? <img src=smilies/icon_smile_wink.gif width=15 height=15 border=0 align=middle>

    @Eskie: I would get a new PC but *pulls out pockets, showing a lack of contents* Christmas is really my only hope for parts and I´m not gonna get enough for a new PC unless someone wins the lottery. Indy : I know nothing´s going to run perfectly, or ev

    [img=http://www.sloganizer.net/en/image,Eh-unl-Steve,black,lgreen.png]

    To be honest, if you are looking for preformance for you video in this pc, alas you are not goingto get it...unless you had AGP or PCI-X I have 2 pc´s one with an AGP8x Geforce fx6800 256mb on my MSIathlon 3000+ kM4M MOBO with 1gig pc3200 ddr and the equivilent Nforce 3 PCI-X for my K8 MB with the athlon 64 fx DDR400 2 gig mem you honestly need a new MOBO...try and Asus or an MSI...usually 80 or so USD and they have an onboard 64mb graphics card...some MSI MOBO´s have geforce 4 onboard gpu´s. so give the MSI website a look over. [http//www.msicomputer.com &quot;To live is to die....but living is to die slowly..why waste time on trivial things just play as hard as you can&quot; Edited by - Dark_Shadow2004 on 12/2/2004 7:34:33 AM

    "To live is to die....but living is to die slowly..why waste time on trivial things just play as hard as you can"

    Before you buy a new mobo, better check to see whether your Dell will accept an industry standard mobo. Mine didn´t and it is not something you can very safely jury rig as it has to do with the positioning of the standoffs needed to secure the mobo to your PC case as well as where case cooling fans are situated in relation to the mobos CPU, RAM and video card.

    damn... are dell PC´s the much of a pain in the rear? Glad i built my systems...So what makes dell PC´s so popular? is it price or something?

    "To live is to die....but living is to die slowly..why waste time on trivial things just play as hard as you can"

    It´s not really the price or anything that makes Dells so popular, it´s the advertising. I bought the dell when I seriously needed a new computer (my parent´s computer had lag with Age of Empires I) and I didn´t know anything about computers. I see it as my exploration computer, I learned about computers with the Dell, but I know I´m never going to buy a Dell or any mass-market computer again. I could build my own now, but I don´t quite have the money. As for swapping out the mobos, I don´t think the Dell case is designed for that, but I´ll do some research and see if I can. (I don´t really see the point in this, I could just get a new case and all, since I´d have to put in new RAM and all.)

    [img=http://www.sloganizer.net/en/image,Eh-unl-Steve,black,lgreen.png]

    Which is what I ended up having to do. Eh_S Essentially, I was able to take out the guts of my Dell, drives, cards, cpu and RAM and transfer them to an Intel mobo but I also had to get a new case. The point of this, of course, is that I may as well have bought a new setup altogether rather than recycle old technology. But it is possible to do if you must (which I had no choice but to do at the time, regretfully).