upgrading video card for windows vista

I have a Cisnet C62 Minitower, Intel Pentium 4 Processor 519J,3.06GHz, 512MB RAM, 200GB Hard Drive, DVD+/-RW and 52X CD-Rom Drives, WindowsXP Media Center Edition 2005.

I recently bought 2gb of ram and installed windows vista. Its running good but i cant use the windows aero because of the video card. what video card can i get that will allow me to use the windows aero features. I don't really play games online, but would like to be able to use the additional features of vista premium.

Also, this is the motherboard I have: Intel® Desktop Board D915GAG

 

It appears your mobo has a 16x PCI-E slot so you can install almost any video card on the market today.

Any low-end budget card is able to display Vista's Areo UI, but no good for playing games.

ATI's X1xxx family of cards are going cheap at the moment because of the new wave of DX10 cards. I would reccomend going with the best card for your budget, but any will handle Aero.

Dave!

 

Something basic like an X1600 Pro will be able to handle Aero fine.

 

you say any low end budget card will play windows aero, does this mean my video card is really really bad or maybe its broken? the computer is only about a year and a half old, i would have thought it would be able to handle it. I saw a ati radeon x700 256MB video card on ebay for 30 bucks buy it now, is this a good deal and would this handle windows aero fine? if someone can give me a direct link to a good cheap card it would be great too. but im willing to bay about 50 for it. Also what about the power supply, i heard if you upgrade the card you have to upgrade the power supply. Like I said, in not looking to play complex games or anything, i use the computer mainly for the internet.

 

No, you'll have integrated graphics, which is so low end it can't run Aero at all. This also goes for most games.
If you can find an X700 for PCI express then go for it, but to my knowledge most of them were AGP.
As for the power supply it depends what you've already got. Usually when upgrading a graphics card it's wise to get a better power supply.

 

please check these stats and tell me if its fine:

VPU:ATI RADEON X700
VPU core interface:256-BIT
memoryDR 128MB
memory interface:128-BIT DDR
Bus support CI Express x16
connector:VGA+TV-OUT+DVI
SUPPORTS WINDOWS XP 2000/2003/VISTA

so thats compatible?
I also found this:

System Requirements

* PCI Express based PC is required with one x16 lane graphics slot available on the motherboard
* 256MB of system memory
* Installation software requires CD-ROM drive
* DVD playback requires DVD drive

 

That should be fine. What rating is the power supply in your PC?

 

im not sure, right now im at work, i also found this site that has some cards for the same prices on ebay can you look these over http://us-dc1-order.store.yahoo.net...&ysco_key_store_id=3btech&sectionId=ysco.cart

the website has free shipping, so i would prefer to get from there and the cheapest possible card that will display vista, but then again, if its worth coughing up a couple more bucks to get a better video card and its worth it, id get it too, just recommend one for me from that list if you could and thanks for all your help!

 

sweet link, thank you, so is this the power info:

Power Supply ATX12V 2.0 or SFX12V 3.0 compliant with 2x2 power connector

 

Unfortunately we need the actual power rating in watts, which is absent from those specs.

 

I will take the cover off tonight and check it and post it. Thanks for your help guys, how about selecting one from that website for me in the meantime?

 

i just called the computer manufacturer, they said the rating is 300W, for that particular card (x700) the website recommends at least 300w, so would it be safe to assume the computer will be fine handling that? I think im going to order the one from ebay because although its the same price it has 256MB, the one form the other site has half of that.

 

Generally with power supplies it's never safe to assume anything.

 

ok, between the following choices, what would you get

ati X600 SE 128MB @ $25.99
NVIDIA 6200TC 128 MB @ $27.98
Ati X1550 256MB @ $53.99
NVIDIA 6600 256 MB @ $48.99

considering your power supply is 300w, you have a pentium 4 with 2.5gb of Ram and 200Gb of hard drive.

 

It'd be a pick between the 6600 and the X1550. Personally, I'd go with the X1550.

 

website recommends 420 w for the x1550, just out of curiosity whats the worst thing that could happen if you hook that up to 300w?

 

Death. The chances are tiny, but the chance of fire is higher than you might think. In my experience, fire often causes death...
Just don't do it.

 

lol,

well can you recommend a card that will be ok with the 300W?