Best Graphics Card in $80-150 price range

General Forums Off-topic Chat
21

Yeah, caught the Dell part, but Dell aren’t always bizarre with their case designs. From what I gather, some are ATX standard, and going back in time, some were even AT standard. (My mum was running a Dell case with an old TMC board replacement. In it.)

And to continue, a Dell was bought for a friend of the family, very bog-standard kit. Entry-level, and to my own shock and disbelief, it had a proper AGP slot in it for graphics expansion.

Dell don’t always muck up :wink:

Just figured it’d be worth investigating at the very least. No harm meant :wink:

(Of course, I agree with most folk that to build one’s own machine, is truly far more rewarding in the end :D)

22

It’s been my experience that with nearly any commodity PC maker they create horrible propietary designs that are non-upgradeable.

If you’re going to get a new PC, that’s built and ready and you want it cheap with a great warrenty, get a dell. Otherwise build your own.

23

I just realized that I should probably tell you all some more details about my computer, as I would like to know as much as possible about upgrading.
Tell me what you think about each piece, if you like.
PIECE MY OPINION
-2.8 Ghz P4 CPU Good enough.
-768 (?) megs RAM I’d like a gig.
-2004 Dell 2400 Case I need more information on the case stuff.
-Mobo came with case Same as case.
-GeForce 5200 Nvidia Time for upgrade, says I.
-Onboard sound… :expressionless: Works, but I am a musician… I want to upgrade.

If I were to get a new case & motherboard, and upgrade only soundcard, ram, and GPU, couldn’t I keep the CPU, etc.? And would that be possible for a reasonable price? (A.K.A. Not over $300?)
I probably wouldn’t upgrade any time soon, but I could start planning, and looking for deals. Of course, what I want today will be obsolete tomorrow! :wink:

Sorry to use up all your valuable time. But ain’t that what the off topic forum is for :smiley: ?

24

gpu - 150 you wont find a high end gpu for this price but it will be good.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814130220

mobo 80-150

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813186011
^^ here is one, its really cheap but im not sure quality wise. its got agp and thats what you want

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131573
^ the board i would go for if i had an ultra tight budget like yours

ram - 100 get some valu-ram from corsair or kingston

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820220037
dont know how well these are but the look nice…
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145440
^ same type of thing

sound 50-400 depends what you want. i like the x-fi fatality… but unless you have ultra high end speakers

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829102190
^ my personal choice but again high end

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16829118106
^ probably good for your needs
around 350-400 by the time its done

25

Thanks for all that information, hydravien. That’s helpful.

26

What makes RAM be qualified as Value RAM? Is there something bad about it?

That second motherboard looks promising.

edit: I see now that that means your get 2 x 512 megs. That’s cool, but if I get that motherboard, with 2 slots then 1 gb is my max…

I’m so confusquacated.

27

When you buy RAM also think about the speed of it. The faster it goes the better.

I have 512MB 400Mhz RAM.

If I’m right the fastest RAM you can get is 400Mhz.

28

not true.

value ram is designated that way bc of its speed. latencty. the sticks in my computer are rated for 2-2-2-5. value ram runs at around 3-4-4-7 maybe 2.5-4-3-7 if your lucky.
the letency is just how fast you can access the memory and only really shines in games or overclocking, which is what my ram is designed to do.

value ram is slower in latency but not speed. most parts are 400mhz

that motherboard will handle 400mhz ram i think. you can get insane high ddr speeds think 600mhz and ddr2 at 1066mhz or similar. that costs $

value ram is cheap like 100 for 1024mb my ram was 250 for 1024mb.

you can buy 1gb sticks for it and get 2gb total but it will be around $200 then. or just buy 1 x 1gb stick now and another later on when you have the $.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145579

ask me any more questions on msn if ya want

[email protected] for msn
hydravien for msn and yahoo

29

on second thought, boo hiss that motherboard

Memory
Number of DDR Slots 	2x 184pin DDR
DDR Standard 	DDR 333 (PC 2700)
Maximum Memory Supported 	2GB

might wanna spend a couple $ and get a better one like

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131546

or for 4 mem slots

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131504

^^ that one has onboard video in case you cant afford card right away
i feel your pain on all this. my mobo alone was $200

30

I’ll sell you a slightly used 5500 for $30. :slight_smile:

31

Sorry, I’m clueless as to what you mean by 5500. You mean a GeForce?

No thanks, but that is a great price.