Can videocards in pre-built machines be upgraded easily?

[caenelgren]

Short version =p :

I'm looking at this T6536 eMachine desktop specifically and would want to pair it with this X1900GT. I was unable to find the power supply rating, which is what worries me. Does anyone have any idea if mainstream purchaseable desktops are easily upgradeable with a decent video card? Any ideas or suggestions? The help is greatly appreciated.

Long version 😉 in case you have more ideas for my situation:

At the moment my girlfriend is living in Tennessee and I'm here in Nebraska (long story 😉) and she's been wanting a better computer to play the Sims 2 on. Right now she has a slow Athlon (I'm bad at this, she ran CPU-Z and it shows it's a Palomino running at 1154.6mhz with an 11.5 multiplier..does that sound like it's running the way it should be?) with a Radeon 9000 AGP and 256 megs of ram, so yeah the Sims 2 wasn't going so hot.

Unfortunately being stuck at school I don't have a reliable means of just building her a desktop and getting it to the post office, so I was hoping to buy something on-line and get it shipped to her directly. She can be a bit fussy though 😉 I had a lot of fun on places like cyberpowerpc.com and ibuypower.com but she's not a fan of the cases. She loves lights but doesn't want something with bright lights in the front or with a cover over the drives, so that rules out pretty much all of them..eBay would also be ruled out since most will only ship to the verified addresses and my paypal account goes to me directly, and she has no credit card. So it's an odd spot. That's why I figured maybe I could buy her a pre-made computer and get it upgraded enough to run her game well.

I know something like the Cyberpower Back to School Special would be better not only value-wise but also future-wise. I'd also thought about posting in a forum asking if someone could build and ship a pc for me, but there's currently a special on the eMachine desktop which includes an LCD monitor for about $50 less than the Cyberpower and she needs to replace her CRT anyway, so it'd be very convenient.

Any advice or other possible options would be fantastic!

 

[fbrdphreak]

eMachines = bottom of the barrel components

You need to verify it actually has a full PCI-E slot, but just count on the PSU not working.

The X1900GT would be overkill for Sims 2. Look at something like an NVIDIA 7600GT for around $100.

Is her current system custom build or pre-built? If it is custom built, upgrade the parts for her and keep the existing box. Cheap S754 mobo + cheap S754 AMD Sempron (or Athlon 64) + cheap DDR RAM + current HDD + cheap PSU + 7600GT or comparable budget card = great budget system

 

[caenelgren]

Thanks for the prompt reply! So far all the reviews and information I had found on the desktop state that it's a full PCI-Express 16x slot, but I'm not sure if there's anything else about it I would need to take a closer look at. The reviews I've read also point out that the eMachine is obviously going to be a cheaper computer without any quality components, but I'm mainly looking for something easy and functional.

Thanks for letting me know about the 7600GT also; I don't play the Sims 2 so I'm not too sure how stressful it is 😉 if a 7600GT can run it fine then it should be easier to find a nice upgrade for.

And unfortunately she doesn't work with computers, she just uses them. She's not comfortable trying to replace much in a pc and wouldn't know how to upgrade; what she has now is custom built but no one over where she lives would be able to swap parts out for something new. That's why I'm being forced to go the pre-built route.

 

[fbrdphreak]

Don't you ever go see your GF? You can build it and hand deliver it.

You can try eMachines, but I wouldn't count on that PSU being worth anything.

 

[caenelgren]

Originally posted by: fbrdphreak
Don't you ever go see your GF? You can build it and hand deliver it.

If only it were that easy =P With school right now it's a little hard, and it's one of those things where "when a girl wants something, she seems to want it at the next possible moment" 😉

Yeah, otherwise the PSU is the thing that would be worrying me too. I think I'll just try convincing her more towards a more reliably built system for gaming (ie a known gaming brand or from a gamer directly), unless she actually gets distracted enough for her to wait till the next time I'm visiting.

Thanks again for the input

 

[fbrdphreak]

I'd tell her to wait, but unless the manufacturer offers higher end video cards as a configuration option you're going to have to worry about the PSU. Something higher level than eMachines should have a decent enough PSU, but again its a crap shoot.