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Help Choosing PCI Card.

C

claydoh03

n00b
Joined
Apr 4, 2005
Messages
3
Ok heres the deal, im looking for a good video card for standard PCI..(NOT PCI-E!)
I dont want to spend a WHOLE lot but ill do what i have too. So im looking for a little help on choosing one, i dont know much about video cards and never really looked into them.
I dont really know how hard im going to be pushing the card, like i dont know if im going to be playing DOOM III or games like that so lets just assume that i am ;)

My computer is an eMachines T5026, more info can be found at
http://reviews.cnet.com/eMachines_T5026/4507-3118_7-31297819.html?tag=tab
(Note: RAM about to be upgraded to 1GB)
Its a crappy computer i know but im gonna try and do what i can out of it
So just throw some ideas at me and tell me what you think would be the best for me for the best price and why.

Thanks everyone, appreciate it. :)
 
Nvidia 5700LE is the best you can get

Really to get good performance at res over 800x600 you need at least agp
 
Another option you might consider is dumping your current i915 motherboard for a decent i915 with a PCI-Express x16 slot. It's not the world's easiest upgrade but you can use everything else from your current machine.

But if you only want a new video board then your choices are extremely limited. But whatever you get, you have to be absolutely sure to get one which has 128 bit memory and not 64 bit memory. And you can't trust the web sites to properly inform you whether it's 128 or 64. Read this page for a detailed (probably more than you want) discussion of the memory bandwidth issue. If you get a 64 bit card, you're screwed so you have to be careful.

A safe choice is this Radeon 9250. It's only a DirectX 8 board but it's 128 bits and will run modern games reasonably well (for a PCI board).

The fastest new board that I can find is this GeForce FX 5600 which is currently out of stock. It's about the most capable DirectX 9 PCI board you're going to be able to find.

You might also try ebay if you're willing to get a used board. But be very careful about 128MB 5700LE's. Every one I've seen lately claiming to be a 128 bit board is really a 64 bit board.
 
Just take a look here at newegg and under "System Chipset:" select "Intel 915P Express" and under "Memory Socket Type:" select "4 X 184pin DDR DIMM" and then "Search". A quick look at your case suggests you would have to replace it too because it looks like it only accepts mini ATX motherboards (another $20 down the tubes if you use the same power supply). Plus you probably have to reinstall Windows from scratch if you change motherboards and you may not be able to do that whatever recovery disk came with your machine. You might also have to replace the power supply if you want to get a high speed video card because you current one might be too weak to power it. You're probably looking at about $100 for a new motherboard, $80 for a case with a good power supply, plus whatever kind of video card you decide to add. On the bright side, other than the motherboard and the case, the rest of your machine looks okay. It's a damn shame they just didn't include a PCI-Express x16 slot in it. Keep in mind that this kind of upgrade is not for the faint-hearted. By the way, this site has guides and forums on the subject of building your own PC (which is sort of what you would have to do) if you don't already know your way around the inside of a PC.
 
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