Need some advice

[Ch3micalAli]

Well in June my dad's going to upgrade his computer and give me his old one. When I get it I want to upgrade a few parts. One of the parts that needs to be upgraded is the graphics card. Here are the stat's, it will help explain.

Intel Pentium 4 2.5ghz
Gigabyte 8IE Motherboard
2X 256DDR RAM
G-Force 4 MX-440 64MB VGA Card

I was thinking up upgrading the graphics card to the GB 6800GT. Now my question is, with the above parts will the 6800GT run well or do I need to upgrade it a little more.

What do you guys think? Because I really don't want to spend $700 (May be a little too expensive, haven't looked around yet for a good price) on it if it won't work well.

Any advice on the card and what needs to be upgraded.

 

[technoman2]

Hi and Welcome,

The only way to find out if it will work is check out the cards website and see what they say.

Now, you will need a board that supports a PCI-Express do you have it?

I would go with a AVG Graphic card and why do you need to spend so much are you a hardcore gammer?

Before i forget buy some more RAM if your board support Gig Ram get 1 GB thats only if you are a hardcore gammer.

Anymore questions please ask.

 

[zoomtm]

there are 6800gts in agp not just pci-e

 

[technoman2]

ok thanks, so what do you think Ch3micalAli ?

 

[Ch3micalAli]

1) I'm pretty sure my MOBO can handle 1gb RAM
2) I'll check if i have a PCI Express slot. I'll get back to you on that one.
3) I've been advised for 1gig RAM. I'll get that.

Thanks for the advice

btw, I am a hardcore gamer

 

[technoman2]

before you buy RAM let me check it out for you. If your motherbaord can support AGP get an AGP Card.

Your board does support AGP so i would get hold of that!



A-8IE
Intel 845E chipset

Processor
Socket 478 for Intel®Pentium®4 processor

533/400 MHz FSB


Chipset
Intel®845E

Intel®82801DB ICH4

Realtek ALC650 PCI sound controller chip

Super I/O: ITE8702 chip

1 x 2M bit flash ROM


Memory
Type: DDR266 (PC 2100) / DDR200(PC1600) 184 pin (2.5v)

Max capacity: Up to 2 GB by 3 DIMM slots


Internal I/O Connectors
1 x FDD

2 x UDMA ATA 100/66 Bus Master IDE

2 x USB 2.0 (4 ports by cable with rear USB bracket)

3 x cooling fan pin headers

CD/AUX in


Expansion Slots
1 x AGP 4X, supports 1.5V display card only

5 x PCI (PCI 2.2 compliant)


Rear Panel I/O
2 x USB 2.0 ports

1 x LPT, 2 x COM ports

Audio (1 x Line-in / 1 x Line-out / 1 x MIC) connector

PS/2 Keyboard/Mouse connector

1 x Game / Midi port


CPU/AGP/DIMM setting
CPU FSB / Multiplier adjustable via BIOS


Power
ATX power connector and ATX 12V connector

Power-off by Windows®98/ Me/ NT/ 2000/ XP shut down and switch


Form Factor
ATX (29.5cm x 20.1cm)


Other Features
IDE, SCSI, LS120, ZIP, CD-ROM and USB bootable

Suspend to RAM (STR)

Supports USB KB / MS wake up from S3

Poly fuse for keyboard over-current protection

@BIOSâ„¢, Easy Tuneâ„¢ 4, Q-Flashâ„¢, GMCâ„¢


Bundle Software
Anti-Virus OEM version

GIGABYTE Windows Utility Manager

Adobe Acrobat Reader

IAA (Intel®Application Accelerator)

 

[Ch3micalAli]

Cheers technoman. I was about to look that up myself.

One more question; should I keep the 2 256's and add a 512, or scrap the 256's and put 2 512's in there?

I'm thinking about keeping the 256's and adding a 512. Thoughts?

 

[alvino]

I don't think you have PCI-E. Your old graphics card is too old to have supported PCI-E...it wasn't even invented then. If you're a hardcore gamer, then get the 6800 GT. If you just want to game and do normal stuff like surf the 'net, then get the AGP version of the 6600 GT.

 

[technoman2]

Depends how good your RAM is and how much slots you have you have 3 DIMM slots so what i would do is place 512 and 256 in and leave the lowest quality RAM out.