^

Or if some kind soul could direct me to a place where I can find supported cards & teach a man to fish, I would be grateful. The mobo is part of an inspiron 518 w/ an E4600 processor, if that's of any use to anyone.

8/14/2008 8:36:57 PM

From what I can see on dell's site, the motherboard on that computer does not have a PCIe x16 slot only 1 regular PCI slot and 2 PCIe x1 slots. There are some PCIe 1x video cards, but they're few and far between and not going to give you any satisfying performance for your money. These two are both options that should work, but you won't be playing games with insane graphics or anything:


PCI
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131082


PCIe 1x
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161197

For the money, the first one would probably be a better option. Like I said though, these aren't going to cut it for new games or even high settings on older ones. The first one does at least support HDCP so it can connect to new high-end hdtv's and can output copy protected HD content like blu-ray.

Unfortunately the particular computer you have makes upgrading to even mid-grade quality graphics a non-option. $60 PCIe x16 cards will blow these ones out of the water, but you'd need a completely different motherboard to use one. It's also doubtful your power supply could handle a decent graphics card, so that would have the be upgraded to. The problem here is that Dell cases (and to a lesser extent HP and Gateway) do not conform to ATX standards. This means the screw holes on a replacement motherboard or power supply may not (read as probably won't) line up with any screw holes in the case.

In short, no there is no card that will fit your machine that is really worth the cost. The PCI one up there will get you playing some games, but you'll be using mostly low graphics settings even on some 3 year old games.

[Edited on August 15, 2008 at 12:21 AM. Reason : ]

8/15/2008 12:09:40 AM

^

my little bro ran into this issue...it ended up being cheaper (in the long run) to just sell the computer and build a new one that wasn't top of the line...he spent the same amount of money on the new computer build (again, it wasn't top of the line, and he bought a lot of parts on rebate or used from tdubbers/craigslist), but he had a better, standardized computer

8/15/2008 8:46:21 AM

Sorry guys i should have been more forthcoming on my information...I've already replaced the power supply to account for the drain a vid card would bring, and I was afraid ya'll would confirm my suspicions on a quality vid card.

As it turns out, I have one of these lying around the house
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131082

I've budgeted about $275 for the vid card improvement, and the user wont be playing any state of the art games. I just want her os and tthose seek & find/reasure hunt games she plays to drive smoothly.

8/15/2008 10:06:52 AM