upgrading graphics card and ram ?????

newbie2

I'm pretty new at the hardware end of things, any help on this matter would be great....

I have a Dell dimesion 4600 and a Nvidia geforce fx 5200, ram is DDR Ram 2X256mb and I want to upgrade my card and ram. I have a couple of questions:

1) Can i just get any DDR ram (for example 2X512mb) and put them into the empty slots ? or will i need to get special dell approved ram or get two more 256mb ?

2) Which is the best graphics card to buy - considering I live in Rip Off Ireland, I'm trying to play BF2 and the minimum requirements are a FX 5700, I would on the other hand like to future proof myself.

3) Can a graphics card be the same as a video capture card? - ie can the two come in one package ? I have SKY+ and am planning to archive my recorded progs on to dvd via my pc with a s-video cable (and two audio). I know this can definitely be done with a video capture card but i'm not sure if it has to be separate from a video card!

I know I'm not making much sense but any help would be great....

HungryJoey

Graphics card : How much are you willing to spend ? And Does your Dell Motherboard have an AGPslot in it ?

newbie2

HungryJoey wrote:

Graphics card : How much are you willing to spend ? And Does your Dell Motherboard have an AGPslot in it ?

About €150 - €200. maybe more if i think its worth it..... as for the other question... How do I find the answer? Is there som where i could look?

Thordon

Easiest way is to open it up and look, you could get the model number and look for specs on their site, but thats a pain.

Heres what AGP slots look like, if you have one, it will probably be at one end of a row of PCI slots and will be a different colour than the others, its usually closest to the CPU.

http://www.thepc.info/PCI-AGP.html

Ive heard some dell PC's have been known to come without AGP slots (which is terrible tbh). If you dont have one, you would have to go with a PCI card, and theyre not gonna be able to cope with recent games.

Nvidia geforce fx 5200

This is worrying, its one of the few cards still available for PCI.

As for memory, I heard dell only take RDRAM (or something), not sure, an app like 'Lavasys Everest' should be able to tell you that (Google refusing to give me a link, but its there somewhere, I use it myself).

uberpixie

newbie2 wrote:

I'm pretty new at the hardware end of things, any help on this matter would be great....

I have a Dell dimesion 4600 and a Nvidia geforce fx 5200, ram is DDR Ram 2X256mb and I want to upgrade my card and ram. I have a couple of questions:

1) Can i just get any DDR ram (for example 2X512mb) and put them into the empty slots ? or will i need to get special dell approved ram or get two more 256mb ?

2) Which is the best graphics card to buy - considering I live in Rip Off Ireland, I'm trying to play BF2 and the minimum requirements are a FX 5700, I would on the other hand like to future proof myself.

3) Can a graphics card be the same as a video capture card? - ie can the two come in one package ? I have SKY+ and am planning to archive my recorded progs on to dvd via my pc with a s-video cable (and two audio). I know this can definitely be done with a video capture card but i'm not sure if it has to be separate from a video card!

I know I'm not making much sense but any help would be great....

(1) Go to www.shop4memory.com and run their "memory configurator", typing in your computer details i.e. dell + 4600.

This will come up the type of ram you need and you can order it there and then.

Shop4memory is irish based and offer free shipping. Dacent.

Don't buy off dell, they will rip you off by charging at least double the standard price for ram. (check the prices) Avoid dell at all costs.

(2)As you only want to spend 200 Euro go for a 6600GT or a radeon X800. If you can strech it go for a 6800GT or a radeon X800XL. Jescomputers and comtech.de are selling AGP cards cheap if you have an agp slot....

Avoid the geforce 5XXX series at all costs. A 9800 pro/XT 2nd hand for 100 or less is not a bad stop gap measure(again if you have agp).

(3)A gfx card needs a video in and a video out (VIVO models) + the correct software to perform video capture.(plus the right cables)

Question: What cpu do you have?

uberpixie

Thordon wrote:

As for memory, I heard dell only take RDRAM (or something)

Pure bull. Most dells use bog ddr/ddr2. Only certain models use rdram.

boo4842

Good answers so far.

Easiest way, is an AGP slot is usually a brown slot, different from the other slots.

FYI, I have a 5600 that runs BF2 no problem with 1GB RAM.

I have a P4 3.0 processor though

PS. Best, cheapest card I can think of is an all-in-wonder 9600 or so. Has all you need for basic gaming and video capture.

mp3guy

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307924&cks=PRL

Geforce 6600 AGPX8 256MB 128-bit €142

newbie2

thanks guys for all your help, will take it all on board. Haven't figured out if I have an AGP slot or not yet ( Still in work ).


Quick question - I have 2 empty slots for my DDram 333mhz. Th ones I have now are 2x256mb. Will I have to put 2x256mb in the empty slots or can I put 2x512mb ( making sure that the clock speeds are the same)?

Thanks again
PC Specs Below

Dinner

newbie2 wrote:

thanks guys for all your help, will take it all on board. Haven't figured out if I have an AGP slot or not yet ( Still in work ).


Quick question - I have 2 empty slots for my DDram 333mhz. Th ones I have now are 2x256mb. Will I have to put 2x256mb in the empty slots or can I put 2x512mb ( making sure that the clock speeds are the same)?

Thanks again
PC Specs Below

You can put in 2 x 512 ones if you want. I have a 4600 too and it has an AGP. If you have the user manual there would be a diagram of the mobo and it will indicate an AGP slot. If you open up your case, there would be a few PCI slots that look the same (cream/white maybe) and beside that is there a differant colour slot (mines Green), it looks differant to the PCI slots, and thats the aGP one. But I'd be farily confident you have an AGP space.

Khannie

mp3guy wrote:

http://www.komplett.ie/k/ki.asp?sku=307924&cks=PRL

Geforce 6600 AGPX8 256MB 128-bit €142

If you don't intend overclocking, I would suggest the 6600GT instead. They're a bit more expensive for the 128MB version (versus nonGT with higher ram that mp3guy suggested), but would offer much better in-game performance AFAIK.

Also, if you want future proofing, the 6800GT from jes (at around 260) is the way to go IMO. Cracking card. Make sure your PSU has juice left in it. It should have the rating (in Watts) written on it somewhere.

Dinner

Khannie wrote:

Also, if you want future proofing, the 6800GT from jes (at around 260) is the way to go IMO. Cracking card. Make sure your PSU has juice left in it. It should have the rating (in Watts) written on it somewhere.

Dell PSU's are rated as 250W with a 345W max output. So the power wouldnt be an issue. (I'm running a 6800GT on a 250W with no problems.) And its a brilliant card.