Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General Common Interests New Video Card

I just played a couple of games and this card rocks!! I'm slowly trying to upgrade my comp so this was the first step. Next I would like to add some more memory but this damn rambus memory is still so expensive. I currently have 384mb but would like somewhere in the 1GB range. One question I have for you guru's... My new vid card is 8x/4x AGP compatible but my comp is only 4x compatible. How can I step it up to 8x and is it worth it to do it? BTW my comp is a Dell Dimension 8100 and it's been very solid for the 3 years I've owned it. Thanks in advance for any help regarding the AGP compatibility issue.

Sorry should have been more specific I meant GeForce 4 Ti



$50 is way cheap though.

If your computer is 3 years old you probably won't notice any performance difference between 4x and 8x AGP. For the future you may want to think about a change. Rambus is expensive and dead, Intel was the biggest user and they don't use it anymore. So your money may go further if you gut your machine. I'm talking new motherboard, DDR memory and CPU. A 512MB Rambus stick will run you about $170? For about $30 more you can have a good board(8x AGP), 512MB of good DDR memory and a fast AMD CPU. Plus you'll be using technology that's still in use and fairly cheap to upgrade going forward. Yes your current drives and videocard will still work with this new stuff!

I wish I had been on and I could have saved you the hassle and let you know the 5200 sucks. A radeon 9100 will outperform it.

If you get a new motherboard you are going to need a new case and power supply as well. Dell is notorious for using slightly proprietary case and power supply designs. Things may appear to fit but you can run the risk of frying your brand new board. I would honestly stick to what you have, and save up towards building a whole mew box soon.

By the way, did you get a 128MB or a 256MB 9800PRO. Some 9800PRO's can take a bios flash that will make them a 9800XT. My 256MB built by ATI 9800PRO sure did and now I have a fully functional 9800XT. Just another thought...

True in some cases but rarer than what the internet would lead you to believe. Easy to find out if your computer is one of those too!

I got the GeForce FX 5700 Ultra about 6 months ago good card but quickly slipping behind the new cards.

Power supplies are standard, the only thing you need to worry about is wattage and quality. 350 to 400 watts should do fine. Most mid tower(16.5 in.tall) and above cases will take an ATX motherboard. ATX is the size also known as the form factor of the motherboard. There are other sizes like mini ITX and micro ATX but plain old ATX is pretty standard and I believe fits a wider range of cases. I like AMD over Intel again for the "bang for the buck" factor. AMD CPU's and motherboards are less expensive than Intel and offer similarly performance. 64 bit AMD's are not included in this statement because the out preform Intel and are still spendy in my eyes.

As for the new hard drive if you want to make it easy just put it in as a slave drive and the 20GB as the master.
It's like putting in a CD or DVD drive except you have to format(easy)it before you can put data on it.

I know it sounds like a lot but it's not as bad as it sounds. I taught myself how to build computers before I went to school and learned how.
Send me a PM if you want to know anything more specific.

Doesn't XP automatically format a HD? Anyways, yeah it's easy. I added a 120gb HD to my computer (it as slave with 40gb currently acting soley as a paging file), and if I can do it, anyone can do it.