Surkaz

This may not be in the correct Section. (or may not even be a legitimate question..)

I recently bought a Dell XPS 420 (1.5 -2 Months ago). It has a Quadcore 6600, 3 GB ram, 320 Gigs Hard from Best Buy with the intention of upgrading it.

It came with a 256 (or so I'm told.. I think it was 128MB) Geforce 8800GT.

It came loaded with Vista Home Premium.

I would like to use it for gaming (Tried a few games on it, nothing new tho, like Painkiller on the 1440*900 setting, with medium shadows, bilinear, slows down when there is more than 1 character onscreen and is moving). I've tried other games.. like KOTOR (I, II) and Republic Commando, Jedi Outcast, (Yes, Star Wars games are good).. and similar problems have occured (when there are multiple characters onscreen).

I would like to try Crysis..(I know, said a million times...) on my system.

I understand that I would need a better video card (or 2), and maybe a better processor( or is Q6600 fairly good?)..

Any thoughts on the videocard(s) that would work best with this setup?

monkeymonkey

8800gt 512mb is excellent performance for the price - evga make v good ones can be got for 130 little round ones..

or if you want to pay more theres 8800gtx or 9800gt though the performance gain is only noticeable for monitors over 24".

The Q6600 is still considered a good processor.

not sure how easy it is to upgrade dell pc's tho - check with dell support to be sure on compatibility and that your not breaching any warranty.

emosun

Download the crysis demo to see how your pc will act with it, the demo is free.

Also , the card you have is a very good card. And they definitely don't make 128mb 8800's.

Surkaz

Thanks, I will make sure my videocard is 256 (at least) and see if I can add(or replace?) to get 512 MB. And this dell seems like it was built to mod (easy access panels on top and side etc..) but I will have to make sure..

So, I guess for now all I can consider a reasonable upgrade is switching from 256 MB to 512 MB Videocard. Is it possible to simply add another 256 MB Card?.. That possible with VideoCards?

emosun

Naw not with a dell, and the psu wouldn't support two video cards. And most likely the board wouldn't have that option either.

Go with a single card. And go with a 9 series if you really want it to speed up , 512 will allow higher resolutions but won't improve the graphics power itself.

Surkaz

I made a mistake. My graphics card is Radeon HD 2400 and it is 128MB .... Then I guess I could switch to a Geforce 8 or 9 series (256MB or 512 MB). I'm just not sure if my computer will be able to support it.
Does anyone know a good place to get one?
Also I've tried Crysis.. I can play on the lowest settings (800*600) with all the features turned to their lowest and it still is a little clunky...

I think I will get a better graphics card... and a 1GB of RAM. .anyone know a good place to get both(recommendations for what to use..)

Also, how to figure out if the videocard will work for your computer?.. and whether my RAM is DDR2 or 3....

emosun

Ok yea that is significantly different. Here I thought you had an 8800 , and I was thinking , what is he complaining about? lol. Yea a 2400 pro is definitely a low end budget card.

Are you sure its a 2400 pro? its weird that a dell xps system with those specs would have a card like that.

Ok you can ad 1 final gig of ram to your pc but theres a problem , you would need a 64 bit os to support 4 gigs of ram. Your current 32 bit os only supports 3 gb which i think is more then enough if you are just gaming and not rendering video or something.

Now about the video card. If it is infact a 2400 pro then you could definitely upgrade it to a better one. However your power supply will not support high end graphics card such as an 8800 or 9800. Your pc currently has an 375w/425w standard psu which is not enough. You will infact need to change that too.

Let us know your budget and it will help us find the proper parts for you.

Surkaz

yeah, it's a 32 bit OS. and I'm sure it's a 2400, From system Information:

Name ATI Radeon HD 2400
Adapter Type ATI Radeon Graphics Processor , ATI Technologies Inc. compatible
Adapter Description ATI Radeon HD 2400
Adapter RAM 128.00 MB
Bits/Pixel 32

Hm... might have to look into switching to a 64 bit OS. I think the Q6600 can handle it. How is the antivirus and other software availability for a 64bit OS?

I am open to the fact of getting a new psu as well. I was thinking about $100, maybe up to $200 if there is a really good deal.

Same for the graphics card, about $150 or so, more (above $200) if there is a deal.. but I doubt I need a graphics card that is more than $200 dollars, but maybe if there is a deal..

Also, I wonder how easy it is to swap the psu out.. and add the card.. well, I guess it's time to see.

And another detail if needed is that I have a HP w1907 (19'' at running at 1440 *900 , 60Hz) ..

emosun

In that case I would get this

http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...922&CatId=3670

Along with this.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817139005

And as for 64 bit os's , most new programs are already set up for it but older ones are the ones that have compatibility problems.

Surkaz

yeah, I will order those.. and switch those in. While, I'm at it.. I think I should switch to a 64 bit OS and get that 1 GB RAM too (doesn't cost much to get a stick).... Hmm.. Maybe I should hold off on that.. and just get the Powersupply and the Graphics card..

Surkaz

Also, how easy is it to start playing around with a Dell XPS 420?.. or any PC for that matter. I've been meaning to do that for years (even read up on it a bit) but never really got in to it.

jaxjaguars

i was wondering if anyone knew compatable video cards for emachines t4010 imj having hard time finding one any help will be great thanks

emosun

jaxjaguars , make your own thread.

Also i just realised , your pc is an oem. A company made pc such as dell gateway emachines and so on. You won't be able to buy a non oem version of vista 64bit. You will need to get a 64bit version of windows from dell themselves.

Surkaz

Hmm.. I guess I will stick with 32 bit for now... maybe closer to xmas I will do another change.. For now the graphics card and PSU would be great..

How does this card sound like?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121242
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814261001
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814103050
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...12203&CatId=28
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...27124&CatId=28
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...25730&CatId=28
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...49879&CatId=28
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...30783&CatId=28
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...16132&CatId=28
or
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...18453&CatId=28

The stream processors also probably make a difference.. Trying to figure out why..maybe because some are faster..

So many cards, so many specs.. all the same price.. Hard to figure out what would work best (or biggest bang for buck)..

emosun

Well stick with better brand names like evga and xfx. Not palit and asus. Also you had a ati 3870 in there so rule that one out. And the rest of those are 9600's which are not as fast as 8800's.

So I would get either an evga 8800 gt (like I showed you) or the xfx model. Or you could get a 9800 but there alot more expensive.

Surkaz

Hmm... 9600s aren't as fast as 8800?.. See, here I thought that the numbering meant a progression in the capabilities..

Also what is the difference between the GT ans XFX?

emosun

No , 9600 is the newer line but is not as fast as an 8800. Also , GT is the make of the 8800 and xfx is a brand name. So xfx can make a XFX 8800 gt. 8800 gt being the name.

Surkaz

Alright.. I think I will get the 8800GT you showed me.. and the psu. Although I don't know if I should get one with more Watts... Or is that overkill and I'd never really need it?

emosun

You wouldn't need more then that unless you had multiple graphics card or had a lot of extra hardware in the pc. Such as several drives and fans and water cooling and so on.