Advice on possible upgrade of raphics card in a dell

beefyd

Hi,

Looking for some advice on whether i can upgrade the graphics in my Dell Dimension 3000.

I am looking for a suitable graphics card that will let me do some decent gaming with recent pc games, unfortunately my current setup fails to meet the specs for most games.

I have a P4 processor (3.0GHz, 800fsb, 1MB cache) and 1gig Ram running Win XP SP2 Home with an 80gb HD so i have plenty of processing power. Unfortunately i have an onboard sound and display setup and i don't know if i can replace this without getting a new motherboard.

here is a snapshot of my motherboard.

Motherboard Information
Motherboard Model 0R8060
Motherboard Vendor Dell Computer Corp.

System Enclosure or Chassis
Manufacturer Dell Computer Corporation
Chassis Type Mini Tower
Chassis Lock Present No
Boot-up State Safe
Power Supply State Safe
Thermal State Safe
Security Status None

Processor Info (from BIOS)
Socket Designation Microprocessor
Processor Type Central Processor
Processor Family Specific Pentium Version
Manufacturer Intel
Procesor ID 00000F41-BFEBFBFF
Supported Voltage(s) 1.1 Volts
Current Voltage 1.1 Volts
External Clock 800 MHz
Maximum Speed 3600 MHz
Current Speed 3000 MHz
Processor Status CPU Socket Populated, Status Enabled
Processor Upgrade ZIF Socket
L1 Cache Handle $700
L2 Cache Handle $701
L3 Cache Handle N/A

Motherboard Information

On Board Devices
Device 1 AC'97 Audio Controller (Sound Card, Status Enabled)

System Power Controls
Next Scheduled Power-on Dec 00, at 00:00:00

Cooling Device
Temperature Probe Handle None
Device Type Fan
Status OK
Cooling Unit Group None
OEM Defined $00000000
Nominal Speed 0 rpm


Any advice would be appreciated.

Ruu_Old

It looks like all you have is a standard PCI slot for graphics which means you are very limited on what graphics card you can buy. Someone correct me if I'm wrong on this.

Blazer

that's correct. Dimension 3000 only have one pci slot. It's not designed to be a gaming system but you could always put in a pci card. they're basically crap cards though..not much power

beefyd

Thanks for the replies.

Looks like i would have to get a new motherboard if i was going to get this pc up to gaming specs.

I will price this option and see if it makes sense.

Cheers

TerrorFirmer

Might not be possible with a Dell to simply change the mobo. With PCI the best card you will get is the 6200 - low end stuff, can run titles like Battlefield 2142 and Oblivion but on low settings.

beefyd

HavoK wrote:

Might not be possible with a Dell to simply change the mobo. With PCI the best card you will get is the 6200 - low end stuff, can run titles like Battlefield 2142 and Oblivion but on low settings.

Found one 6200 card:
http://uk.insight.com/apps/productpresentation/index.php?product_id=PNYOG033MA&nbs_search=C%3D107%26S%3D1073%26lang%3Den-gb%26K%3D%26202981v%3D8%26M%3D

I also found this card with similar specs:

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=66312&_LOC=UK

Any recommendations?

TerrorFirmer

The FX5200 isn't even worth wasting precious time looking at. Terrible card for gaming. Not that mind, the 6200 is alot better but definately better it is.

What games had you in mind? First Person shooters are fairly demanding of Hardware, and to be honest a 6200 is going to struggle on the likes of BF2142, FEAR, etc....playable, easily, but low settings. However for games like Far Cry, Battlefield Vietnam, Unreal Tournament 2004, basically games from the year 2004 and downwards, it's a top card with the ability to run those games at high settings and it will definately easily outperform your onboard, which I assume is the GMA900. Real time strategy titles, like Dawn of War, Company of Heroes etc also run satisfactorily on the 6200.

One thing to watch out for is the amount of memory - that link seems to say its 256mb dedicated, but often the 6200 comes with turbocache, which basically means it has a small amount of dedicated ram and then uses your own system ram to make up the rest. In some 6200s its actually as bad as having 16mb dedicated and the other 240 turbocache! So just make sure you try and get the 256 dedicated version to maximise the gains you can get in performance - because the difference in performance between, for example the 256 ded. version and the 16 ded + 240 turbocache, despite both being 6200 cards, is huge....

beefyd

I am the proud owner of Company of Heroes which does not run on my machine.

I am looking at playing RTS games rather than 1st person shooters so i won't be that demanding on the card but i would like to be able to play the recent RTS games.

Thanks for the advice Havok. I will make sure and check that the 6200 has dedicated 256 ram.

uberpixie

beefyd wrote:

I am the proud owner of Company of Heroes which does not run on my machine.

I am looking at playing RTS games rather than 1st person shooters so i won't be that demanding on the card but i would like to be able to play the recent RTS games.

You should be able to get company of Heros working on that card, but on the minimum settings... Don't expcet anything above that or you will be disappointed.

The game is very shiny when you crank it up, but you do need a good card for it, as with all new gfx intensive RTS games at the mo.

8T8

A motherboard swap could be messy but according to this Dell use a standard mATX motherboard with the Dimension 3000.

If that is true swapping motherboards would be a lot easier but you face a couple of issues;
* Check the back plate of the Dell to see if there is a place for the AGP card
* mATX socket 478 motherboards aren't exactly too common but eBay and the like should have them cheap.
* The PSU in the Dell is probably a bottom of the barrel affair with barely enough juice to drive even a semi decent graphics card.
* Swapping your windows install over without a format can be done but does require a small bit of work.

Of course the financial investment to pull all of that off may not be worth it.

Dabs have a cheap mATX S478 motherboard with the exact same chipset as yours but this board comes with an AGP x8 slot. Get yourself a cheap but reliable 360W PSU & your are good to go with an AGP graphics card say something like an AGP 7600GS that should handle most games well enough.

So roughly conversion from sterling and delivery that will probably come in at that €230 mark or thereabouts.

TerrorFirmer

uberpixie wrote:

You should be able to get company of Heros working on that card, but on the minimum settings... Don't expcet anything above that or you will be disappointed.

The game is very shiny when you crank it up, but you do need a good card for it, as with all new gfx intensive RTS games at the mo.

That's what I would have inititally thought too but my friend - somehow - has the game running quite well on mediumish settings with an fx5200 and only 512mb of ram. It chokes up every once and again during large scale battles but all in all I was pretty impressed, we play LAN games regularly and it looks nice enough, plays acceptably...

A 6200 with a gig of ram should be grand to play the game at a nice fps and have the option of turning the odd settings on or up. Obviously I know you'll have to generally keep the settings low but the game actually still looks quite well on lower settings...

beefyd

Went for the 6200 with 256mb dedicated - no turbocache.

It will get me up and running with a few of the recent RTS and will tide me over till i am ready to get any new system.

Cheers.

Fanny Cradock

I had an old 9250SE 128mb that I was going to offer, but maybe your best off with the one you got!