UncleMo Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList....&SubCategory=48 all pci cards All of these options are so horrible that I hope you save up for a new PC and card. They are that bad. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goirish34 Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 All of these options are so horrible that I hope you save up for a new PC and card. They are that bad.Trust me Mo, I know that pci is just....really bad and I truly would love to get a new system. I am tying to support my wife through college for one more year, and Then I can buy my new system.It wil be a glorius day when she does graduate.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UncleMo Posted November 17, 2006 Share Posted November 17, 2006 ok, then I salute you for doing the right thing then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goirish34 Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 ok, then I salute you for doing the right thing then.Thanks Mo, I appreciate you feeling my pain of being an adult...damn tho, sometimes I wish I was an irresponsible loser...its alot more fun... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronicMan Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Don't spend like 90+ dollars on a PCI video card... You could get a motherboard and a 3400+ athlon for 71 bucks a week ago on Newegg (special). And add in a video card (PCI-E cards are pretty cheap), it's around 110... Have to wait for some cheap deals. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goirish34 Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Don't spend like 90+ dollars on a PCI video card... You could get a motherboard and a 3400+ athlon for 71 bucks a week ago on Newegg (special). And add in a video card (PCI-E cards are pretty cheap), it's around 110... Have to wait for some cheap deals.How hard is it to replace a motherboard on Compaq, Thats the way I would rather do it, just upgrade my mother board and hard drive...Is it really difficult Ironic?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronicMan Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 How hard is it to replace a motherboard on Compaq, Thats the way I would rather do it, just upgrade my mother board and hard drive...Is it really difficult Ironic?? One thing I hate about OEM computer (Compaq, HP, etc) is that most of their cases are mATX form, which mean that most motherboards would not fit into the original case. But you can spend around 0-20 dollars on a nice case, after rebate. There will also be some instance where the motherboard is "screw dead" to the case, it'll be probably hard to get them out. Check how the motherboard is screw onto the case. Another problem would be their power supply. Sometime, these power supplies have those special attachment that only could be plug into their original motherboard. Might have to change that too. You could find a pretty cheap and reliable ones for around free-30 dollars, after rebate. Basically, if you want to do an upgrade your motherboard on an OEM computer, you have to pretty much have to replace the case, if they are mATX form; and the power supply, if they need the special attachment. Shouldn't be hard to replace a motherboard, if you know what motherboard you need for your processor and RAM. Just be a little careful if you pull out the processor, don't bend the pins. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkB Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 I'd strongly recommend a new motherboard with AGP at the very least. PCI-E is making a rather big impact, but it will still be a while before card prices come down to an acceptable level. PCI simply won't cut it these days with modern graphic rendering engines, and you'll simply be wasting money by buying a PCI card, as it will be struggling with the games of yesterday, never mind tomorrow. You really are better off going for a new board and upgrading from there, rather than spending hard-earned cash on a PCI card, only to have to upgrade your card and motherboard in a year or two anyway. For reference, the bandwidth of PCI is 133 Mb/s. The bandwidth of AGP, however, is 2.1Gb/s. If you want to venture into the world of PCI-E, 1x slots run at a lowly 250Mb/s in one direction (x2 in dual - 500Mb/s), while true 16x slots run at 4Gb/s in one direction (again, x2 in dual - that's 8GB/s). If you do end up shooting for PCI-E, make sure the card you get is a true 16x card and not just an 8x card modified to fit a 16x slot. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
goirish34 Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 I'd strongly recommend a new motherboard with AGP at the very least. PCI-E is making a rather big impact, but it will still be a while before card prices come down to an acceptable level. PCI simply won't cut it these days with modern graphic rendering engines, and you'll simply be wasting money by buying a PCI card, as it will be struggling with the games of yesterday, never mind tomorrow. You really are better off going for a new board and upgrading from there, rather than spending hard-earned cash on a PCI card, only to have to upgrade your card and motherboard in a year or two anyway. For reference, the bandwidth of PCI is 133 Mb/s. The bandwidth of AGP, however, is 2.1Gb/s. If you want to venture into the world of PCI-E, 1x slots run at a lowly 250Mb/s in one direction (x2 in dual - 500Mb/s), while true 16x slots run at 4Gb/s in one direction (again, x2 in dual - that's 8GB/s). If you do end up shooting for PCI-E, make sure the card you get is a true 16x card and not just an 8x card modified to fit a 16x slot.To both MArk and Ironic, I really appreciate the help...I think I might venture the pci-e way, but not until after christmas......Ill have to teach myself...or come here alot to ask questions...but thanks again for answering...means alot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronicMan Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 No prob! Glad to help. I bet to differ on the price of AGP and PCI-E video cards. As of right now and the future, it's pretty clear that PCI-E video cards is cheaper than AGP counterpart and they also perform much better. If anyone wants to get a good/top of the line video card, you might want to wait until more DX10 video cards to come out. No need to overpay for it... 500+ is pretty ridiculous. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagoCubs720 Posted November 18, 2006 Author Share Posted November 18, 2006 Ok, if I was to get a new motherboard, is there someone (would Best Buy's Geek Squad do this?) that could install it for me? How much might they charge? I was also planning on getting a new flat-panel monitor very soon. Should I just give my computer to my parents and buy a new one? I'm really stuck on what to do, because I don't really play video games a lot on my computer. My current PCI card is 128 MB, and the one I was thinking about is 256 MB. How will this affect performance? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngdot Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Geek squad is a total rip off... http://www.geeksquad.com/servicesandpricing/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagoCubs720 Posted November 18, 2006 Author Share Posted November 18, 2006 Geek squad is a total rip off... http://www.geeksquad.com/servicesandpricing/ it would cost $39 I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smokin_Joe Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Ok, if I was to get a new motherboard, is there someone (would Best Buy's Geek Squad do this?) that could install it for me? How much might they charge? I was also planning on getting a new flat-panel monitor very soon. Should I just give my computer to my parents and buy a new one? I'm really stuck on what to do, because I don't really play video games a lot on my computer. My current PCI card is 128 MB, and the one I was thinking about is 256 MB. How will this affect performance? I would, you're talking about upgrading technology that is over 5yrs old. You could buy a new A64 system at newegg for around $500-600 including flat panel monitor. The extra ram on the videocard lets you run all the new texture upgrades like 2X uni's, 2X faces, updated stadiums, bori's grass/dirt mod... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IronicMan Posted November 18, 2006 Share Posted November 18, 2006 Actually, if you get all the parts and build it yourself, a new A64 system (3200+ - 3400+) could cost up to 350-400 with a 17in flat panel if you can find some cheap special. PC RAMS nowadays is rising due to more people building computers (Core2Duo). As for your question about memory on video card, I believe it doesn't impact performance much, unless you plan to use AA, AF, and other eye candy. The extra RAM on a PCI card is pretty much useless, because it's already pretty slow. Better to get a new motherboard and a PCI-E X16 card. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagoCubs720 Posted November 19, 2006 Author Share Posted November 19, 2006 well, after a ton of blue screen errors, a million boots of safe mode, and countless reinstallations of drivers, I got my POS video card to work again. I will have to live with it for now, until I can save up for a new computer. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagoCubs720 Posted November 20, 2006 Author Share Posted November 20, 2006 That's it, I'm done. What steps do I need to take to completely remove the GeForce from my system? The computer already doesn't even detect it anymore, but it is still plugged in the PCI slot. I want to also completely remove the drivers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngdot Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Not sure about that, but check out this auction on ebay http://tinyurl.com/yysy9w Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagoCubs720 Posted November 20, 2006 Author Share Posted November 20, 2006 Not sure about that, but check out this auction on ebay http://tinyurl.com/yysy9w thanks, but I don't have $2,000 right now Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ngdot Posted November 20, 2006 Share Posted November 20, 2006 Just saying, it's an option. I'm sure the dude selling it would set up some sort of monthly payment financing or something for you, not everyone can be expected to drop 2 grand at the drop of a dime. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAM Posted November 22, 2006 Share Posted November 22, 2006 fnding a mATX board for a prebuilt isnt a big deal. BUT, one thing to consider about replacing a motherboard on a prebuilt system is that you will probably have to go out and buy a new OS. the discs that came with your PC are USUALLY watermarked for that original hardware. sometimes you may work around that but 9 times out of 10 it will come back to bite you. usually in 30 days after you've gotten everything set up the way you like it. also the limitations built into your prebuilt PC as well. they don't make em so you can upgrade forever- that would be bad business. building your own is always the best way. you know exactly what you get. it is easy - compatability is the key with hardware. don't always think it's cheaper though. i've built boxes for guys that ran around 3 or 4 thousand just for the tower. it all depends on what you want to do, how upgradable you want it to be and how long you want it to be semi- current in terms of technology. you can build a frankenstein for cheap but if you're going that route you may as well just buy one off the shelf. if cheap is the goal there's no way you can compete with say - DELL on the prices they get their parts for. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChicagoCubs720 Posted November 23, 2006 Author Share Posted November 23, 2006 My computer is only a year old, so I've decided that I'm not ready to shell out some big money to buy a new, state-of-the-art system. So I'm going to go ahead and buy the 9250. I still need to remove my old PCI card. Can I just uninstall all the drivers, and then turn off my computer and remove the card? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RAM Posted November 25, 2006 Share Posted November 25, 2006 download drivercleaner it should be free. it will remove all the old drivers totally. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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