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Graphic Card

17 years ago

Hi, Is it difficult to install a graphics card. My old one is a G Force6100 nForce 430.

I have installed a dvd drive before and found it amazingly easy...is the G/card the same and if i was to do it would i have to change anything else.

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Comments (4)

zep516
17 years ago
If this is a Desktop, this will be easier then the dvd drive, it just plugs into a connector slot on the board, insert the cd that comes with it and install the drivers..

What is the make & model of computer and operating system?
kbranksome
Original Author
17 years ago
zep516,
It is a desktop, sorry for not including that.
It is not a recognised model computer, I had it made up for me .
Operating System:Windows XP Home edition.
2gb Ram
2gh AMD Athlon processor
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The simplest way to tell if you are able to get at the rear of the tower easily is to look for the video plug. If it is in the vertical column with all the other plugs you have a shared video. If the plug is lower down and seemingly isolated from the others you would have a separate video card plugged into the motherboard. If you bought this computer new and never specified anything to do with video it would be fair to assume you have a shared system. What make and model is your computer? Most mass produced computers today use a shared system to help keep costs lower. What this means is that your have the video card built right into the motherboard along with sound and USB ports. For most people this is totally acceptable. Those doing serious photo editing or heavy duty gamers a separate video card is a huge asset for 2 reasons. It allows the buyer to select a much higher quality video card restricted only by needs, knowledge and cash available for the purchase. (A good video card can cost as much or more than a budget computer) Plus it allows them to use all the onboard memory for the running of the computer because a separate board has it's own memory and sometimes quite a lot of memory. To muddy the waters a bit we now have to consider DVI video plugs too. These are for digital monitors. If you look at the link I found about half way down it shows the connectors on a modern video card. You have the blue 15 pin analog connector and next to it is the DVI digital connector. Here is a link that might be useful: Video explained
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Well if the Dimension computer has a separate video card - as opposed to onboard - and if both computer have the same video slot (AGP or PCIe) you could move the card from the dimension to the Inspiron to see how it looks before spending money perhaps. Newegg, linked below, show 12 video cards in the $10 to $25 range and 159 in the $25 to $50 range. Frys are another good place to look. Here is a link that might be useful: Newegg video cards
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Comments (11)
You did alright price wise, as others have said. Remember that and do not feel cheated, it is a reasonable computer for reasonable needs. However you really need to consider the word "gaming" in relation to a 20 year old. Is he going to take this tower to tournaments, I doubt it has or can have the punch needed for that type of activity. A video card for serious gaming can cost as much as that computer. One of my computers has 2 six wire power connectors to the video card alone as it needs 125 watts and I am not a gamer at all at any level. The documentation suggested I needed a 650 watt or better to use the video card successfully. The power supply is totally inadequate at 300 watts. A cheap power supply will not fit the needs and factory built machines for the masses do not use high end parts. Should you decide to upgrade the power supply make sure HP used a standard sized power supply rather than a custom build of non conventional sizing. Even the quad core processor will not take high end gaming I suspect. As I wrote at the outset, don't feel cheated. You bought a very nice gift for an age group above you with the best of intentions. Buying electronics for any 10 to 25 year old today is almost impossible without their input as we old foggies (me, not you :~) ) really have no idea what their needs or wants are. All computers look like black boxes on the outside but inside is a very different story. Ha ha, just before posting I took another look at the thread. Zep's 15.0 post says it all.
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I m looking 4 a desktop with >=8 GB RAM, wifi & graphic card of 2GB
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Comments (5)
That's the big question: How Much do you want to spend? What Game/Games is he looking on playing? What Processor is Required for that game/games? How much RAM is Required, I assume it's 8GB (Minimum)? I'm assuming that you need a 2GB Video Card for this game, right? Need to figure out what size Power Supply is needed and then buy from a reputable Manufacturer! For a Gaming Computer, I would recommend having one built or building it yourself. This way you can get exactly what you want, not the cheap part most Prefabs bring to the table. Although these days the major computer manufacturers do offer choices as to some of the components, but not all! For a Gaming Computer, don't skimp on the Power Supply! BTW, if he is Gaming online against others, he'll most likely want to play with a LAN Connection (Local Area Network) and not WiFi Connection. The LAN Connection will be much faster and will supply the speed at a more even rate than the WiFi Connection. For example: My Desktop LAN Connection got a Download Speed of 73.60 and an Upload Speed of 75.80. My Laptop with a WiFi Connection got a 38.60 Download Speed and a 48.90 Upload Speed. My Laptop has Better specs than my Desktop, but it really doesn't matter when talking about WiFi or LAN. If I would hook my Laptop up with a wired LAN Connection, I'd get right around the same speeds as my Desktop did.
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zep516
17 years ago
Well it should be an easy exercise, In the link below is a tool you can download this will provide you with some additional information about the internals of the pc very handy esp. for your computer as you may not have a manual as such.

It creates a profile of the pc, just don't copy the information it presents to a forum like this...

It will identify the mother board I don't think you need that information to replace a Graphics card but it's handy information to have..

Here is a link that might be useful: belarc
owbist
17 years ago
I am more than a little confused, everything I see refers to an onboard video card. Give us the make and model of the motherboard please. You can use the link Zep provided to see what you have on the computer (or your bills for the parts when purchased)

In your previous post on this subject you said you had 1920mb of RAM, that suggests to me that your current video card is embedded on the motherboard. If this is so you will need to go into the BIOS and disable the onboard video card once you have inserted the new card so the new card will be recognised.

Is this a retail box or OEM? If OEM then download the drivers from the makers site if needed first, if retail you have a CD so no worries.

This is not a difficult task. Shut down and remove the power cable from the rear of the tower. (Do not just use the switch on the power supply on the back as this does not completely shut things down, note the LED light on the motherboard continues to glow.) Be sure to keep a bare arm or hand on the metal casing at all times while in there to dissipate any static electricity from your body that might harm the delicate parts Insert the card and screw the plate to the back panel of the case, you cannot make a mistake because the slots are different.

Connect the power cord and boot the computer hitting probably the Delete key during the initial startup to access the BIOS. Once in the BIOS you can use the left and right arrows to move from window to window. Once you find the page with the video use the down arrow until you reach the video settings. Read the instructions on the right side for how to change a setting on your specific BIOS as different makers use different methods. Make the change then press F10 to save and exit, agree when asked.

During startup the computer will pop up a message saying it has found new hardware and will ask for instructions. If this was a retail box purchase place the CD in the drawer and follow along. If it is an OEM video card you should have gone to the makers website for drivers.

Here is a link that might be useful: Previous post

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