which type card for older dell?

[zigzag03]

a buddy brings me a dell GX280 to upgrade, and it clearly ain't no slouch... its a 3.2ghz p4, 2 gig ram with room for 4, and an open pci-e x16 slot. so i figure just double the mem and drop in a late model vid card and this will be not a complete dog. i'm wondering what card would work, a newer 2.0 or 2.1 maybe? or do i have to stick with first generation pci-e cards? and maybe more to the point, is it a waste to spend for newer cards. he's a console gamer, so i don't know how much he'll do with this machine other than having a good home rig and web work. the onboard video here is maxed at 8 meg, so almost any card will be a considerable improvement.

may i have your opinions? thx zz03

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

I wouldn't put any money into fixing up that computer.

 

[zigzag03]

you're telling me this won't make a competent home machine, really?

 

[OILFIELDTRASH]

It could be a web browser and maybe some youtube vids in 480p but thats about it imo. Definitely not a gamer.

 

[DaveSimmons]

If it's running XP, 2 GB RAM and onboard video is already fine for non-gaming use.

If he wants to do gaming, most games from the last few years expect a dual-core processor with each core running 25-50% faster than that P4.

So for gaming, building an entirely new PC makes a lot more sense than upgrading that old P4.

 

[toyota]

"clearly ain't no slouch... its a 3.2ghz p4"

wow, lol.

sorry but there is NO point in putting a decent video card in that old pc. a 3.2 P4 does not even meet the requirements to play most newer games even on the lowest settings.

 

[happy medium]

he's a console gamer, so i don't know how much he'll do with this machine other than having a good home rig and web work. the onboard video here is maxed at 8 meg, so almost any card will be a considerable improvement.

Forgive those guys......

Just grab this gt210 for 35$ and 15$ AR , that will play video's better and make his computer feel overall much faster. It might sound cheap but it will be much much better than integrated graphics and its only 15$ar.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814162041

EDIT:MAKE SURE you update to the lates bios and chipset drivers first , just a tip.

 

[MentalIlness]

Update the bios on a Dell ?

 

[happy medium]

Update the bios on a Dell ?

WHy ? You cant do that anymore?:hmm:

 

[RavenSEAL]

WOW

 

[zigzag03]

sorry folks, didn't think it was that dumb an idea, but ok

 

[happy medium]

sorry folks, didn't think it was that dumb an idea, but ok

its not a bad idea for a web surfing setup, just not for gaming.

 

[fuzzymath10]

Even for movies, a cheap new card will allow it to playback HD formats. Internet video will be hit or miss since hw acceleration is still a bit of a mess, but for anything pegging your CPU 100%, you can probably go on for awhile. Just be glad you don't have to use AGP; you can at least reuse the new card you get later on, and cheap cards are around $20-30 which is nothing.

On this forum, anything slower than a 3.6GHz Core 2 Duo (or even quad) is too slow