Please identify the expansion slots.

R

rafaltrus

n00b
Joined
Dec 26, 2010
Messages
18
Hey, guys!

I am planning to upgrade my PC, and I have figured out all but the video card. I am not an expert in hardware, but I tried to discover the types of slots my motherboard has.

Here is the photo.

http://img18.imageshack.us/img18/3098/motherboardi.jpg

I know that the upper one is the AGP slot, because that is where my old card used to be. I am guessing that two next are PCI (either x4 or x8), and I had no luck finding out the bottom three.

Please help!
;-)
 
How about a brand and model number for that mobo. It would help some. Also give the specs of your pc so that we can help you determine if it even worth it to upgrade.
 
The next two are just standard PCI, no x4 or x8 about it, they are just a standard PCI slot, only used for expansion cards like modems, network cards, etc. They made some PCI videocards but they were only for basic tasks or if you wanted an extra monitor or etc.


The bottom cards are PCI-X slots, basically a double wide version of the PCI slots. Also can insert PCI cards into these slots as well.


You are limited to only AGP cards in this particular instance if you want to upgrade your videocard.
 
AGP is extremely limiting if you're looking to upgrade a graphics card anymore. Almost no new cards are made for the AGP slot, the ones that are are often poorly supported, and they are almost always severely overpriced.

Also, do you have the other specs of this machine? Processor, amount and type of RAM, etc?

Also, what kind of PSU do you have and how much power is it rated for? How old is it?

We really need to know all these things, and what kind of budget you're looking to keep, before a recommendation can be made.

There is a very good chance that you'd be better served rebuilding the whole machine (new CPU, motherboard, RAM) and getting a PCIe card to go with the new machine than spending more money on a completely dead platform like you have now that will be a big disappointment no matter how much money you spend on it.
 
Ugh! That sounds discouraging...
I possess Radeon 9250 as for now, and I thought that a new hard-drive and a video card would help me =P I have 3GB of DDR3 RAM, and (i forgot the full name) a dual processor Intel 3.66GHz
 
There is no way you have DDR3 in any motherboard with an AGP slot, and if you have a dual core it's probably a Pentium 4, which is pretty much useless by today's standards.

Sorry, but there is no question, it is time for a complete rebuild.

The only good news is that for ~$500-600 you can get a new machine that'll be a night and day difference compared with what you have now.
 
If he isnt overclocking, and if he says he has a dual processors, then he is running dual Xeon MP 3.66's, which would explain the PCI-X slots. Or a single processor in this case as they were hyperthreaded i believe

Yes, a complete rebuild may be in order in this particular instance.
 
Because the X1600 is very weak and really isn't worth the $50.
 
rafaltrus said:
why?
and what about the drive?
Click to expand...

Because it will do nothing for you.

Does the Mobo even have SATA ports for that hard drive? Again, if you really want to upgrade we need your system specs to see if any possibilities even exist. My guess is that there are none.
 
Post complete specs.

I think its time for a new system...
 
tiraides said:
Go with this instead:

$30 - HEC Blitz Black Steel Edition ATX mid-tower case (with $10 off promo code factored in)
$85 - AMD Athlon II X2 245 + BIOSTAR MCP6P3 AM3 microATX combo
$42 - Mushkin 2x2GB DDR3 1333 dual channel kit
$60 - Samsung Spinpoint F3 HD103SJ 1TB SATA HDD
=====
$217 - Subtotal (not including shipping, taxes, or rebates)

That should be more than enough for web browsing and most "everyday tasks." I included the case (as you can't really beat that deal) and the Mushkin RAM that you were considering earlier. The Samsung hard drive that I chose for you is much faster than the green drives and it's currently on sale for a bit less. (Go with the Western Digital 500GB hard drive only if you really need to save money. $60 is a really good deal for a 1TB 7200RPM two-platter hard drive.)
Click to expand...

There's a really clean little build Tiraides came up with in another thread for $200. Add your choice of video cards to that and you will be golden compared with where you are now. For another ~$50 you could swap out for a quad core if you want.

Add a second hand (via the FS/FT forums here) Radeon HD 4870 512MB (~$65-75) and you're done for under $300.
 
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rafaltrus said:
I do not expect anything awesome from this PC. This is just a basic upgrade for my elders.
Click to expand...
What exactly are you trying to acheive by your upgrades?

If the machine isn't used for gaming there is little point upgrading the graphics card. If it IS used for gaming then you have to look into what games you want to run and at what settings to decide whether upgrading will be worthwhile or futile.

As for the hard drive there is little point swapping a hard drive for performance reasons unless it's dying (dying hard drives often become very slow). What matters with hard drive performance for desktops is random access time and any 7200 RPM drive will be much the same on that score. A SSD will be much better but at a significant extra cost.
 
based on your 'upgrades' you are wanting to throw away good money after bad. doubt the drive will work for you, and capacity is low for the cost. you are pretty much handicapped by the system, no upgrades will help much. get them a cheap pc with windows 7 for about $300. its a bit more work but everything will be vastly better and improved.
 
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