video card up grade

rascal · October 18, 2004

I have a Dell dimension 4400 with a 1.79 Ghz Pentium 4 512 MB of ram, nvidia GeForce mx/mx 400, think it's 64mb. I play everquest and with the recent graphic upgrades i get a bit more lag than i like. wanting to upgrade the video card. anyone know what fitting type i should be looking for? any guides for installing a card, I've never opened the case on my dell. I think it should be a pull the old one out and plug the new one in as far as hard ware goes. any help would be great. I know static electricity is evil, but not much else.

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=371816

COSilver · October 19, 2004

Should be an easy swap. You're looking for a PCI video board with more than the 64MB of memory you have right now.

Power off the PC, unplug power, remove cover, wear anti-static wrist band (or touch any metal part of the PC chassis before touching anything else in the PC), take scredriver and remove old card, put new card in, close everything up, power back on, Windows should recognize the new card, and ask for drivers - at which point you would insert the accompanying CD and have it find the drivers on the CD, then tweak the display settings to your liking after the drivers are installed. That's it.

rascal · October 19, 2004

thank you. exactly what i was needing.

Z71 · October 19, 2004

According to the Dell website, the Dimension 4400 uses an AGP slot for video not PCI. I would check it to be sure.

Personally, I'm in a similiar boat. I'm looking at a 9800 Pro video card with 128mb fo memory.

rascal · October 19, 2004

what is the difference between a pci and a agp? last comp i looked in was 386 or 486 with 12 megs of ram.

Wingnut · October 19, 2004

Also, after you put in the card, and install the drivers that came with it...Go to the manufacturers web site, and check for updates. They rarely update the driver set on the CDs and have new ones available for download on their site all the time.

deduncan · October 19, 2004

Good input by everyone here. Just as a side-note, Rascal, after Verant did the DX9.0 upgrade, EQ ran like crap on my machine too. I bought an AGP GeForce 5200 256MB video card on Newegg for $73. It runs MUCH better. Give them a look, they're excellent for comp parts.

Z71 · October 19, 2004

I'll second newegg.com. I have bought a lot through them.

SoylentGreen · October 19, 2004

I have a Dell dimension 4400 with a 1.79 Ghz Pentium 4 512 MB of ram, nvidia GeForce mx/mx 400, think it's 64mb. I play everquest and with the recent graphic upgrades i get a bit more lag than i like. wanting to upgrade the video card. anyone know what fitting type i should be looking for? any guides for installing a card, I've never opened the case on my dell. I think it should be a pull the old one out and plug the new one in as far as hard ware goes. any help would be great. I know static electricity is evil, but not much else.

http://www.magelo.com/eq_view_profile.html?num=371816

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I agree with the others, you should have an AGP port. Although it might be a 4x AGP bus, make sure you get a card that will go down to that speed, most of them do. Personally I stick to nVidia cards due to the driver support and customer support. Get a can of air to dust your computer out while you have it open. The best way to deal with static is to hold on to a metal part of the chassis while removing or putting in your new card.

Z71 · October 19, 2004

Can of air? ... everyone that posts on this forum has 5+ HP air compressors. Just take it out to the garage.

5.3LSilverado01 · October 19, 2004

I third and forth www.newegg.com. I have exelent and fast service and they seem to be the cheapest around (for north america). Also A buddy of mine recently bought a Abit mother board and unfortuanly he had to RMA it. When newegg got the board back, a new one was in the mail in less than 24 hours! Total rma time was from monday to thursday, 4 days!

99Silver6.0 · October 20, 2004

I third and forth www.newegg.com. I have exelent and fast service and they seem to be the cheapest around (for north america). Also A buddy of mine recently bought a Abit mother board and unfortuanly he had to RMA it. When newegg got the board back, a new one was in the mail in less than 24 hours! Total rma time was from monday to thursday, 4 days!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Yet another vote for NewEgg!!!

Wingnut · October 20, 2004

Newegg is where I got most of my PC from

Order your memory direct from Crucial.com though. They actually have the cheapest prices on their own stuff right there on their site.

rascal · October 20, 2004

looking at the newegg site, thinking about one of these, what do you all think? should any of them work?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-108-115&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-145-076&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....-170-027&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-145-067&depa=1

thank you.

SoylentGreen · October 20, 2004

looking at the newegg site, thinking about one of these, what do you all think? should any of them work?

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-108-115&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-145-076&depa=1

http://www.newegg.com/app/viewProductDesc....-170-027&depa=0

http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc....-145-067&depa=1

thank you.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I would go for the FX5500, higher GPU Mhz. I would check the warranty on all of them. I had a PNY GF4 4600 for a year, it died and they sent me a new FX5600Ultra, it has a lifetime warranty. I hoping to get a 6800 next.