I was wondering if anyone could help me. I have an old Dimension 5150 that I'm wanting to upgrade. The only thing I'm uncertain of is how high can I go with a graphics card. I know my board supports pci-e. It is a pentium 4 2.8 ghz. Im upgrading the ram to 3 gigs. Here is the board number 0RD203. Any help would be great. Thank you for your time.
Well I bet your board supports AGP 8x, so a 7600GS would be good. However, if you want the best of the best, the x1950xt from Gecube is the limit. I would recommend that card, but I've had it before and unless you order a aftermarket cooler for it, the thing will most likely die after a couple of weeks from the load temperatures.
according to this link for the 5150 specs then you have a pci/e x16 slot http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5150/en/sm/specs1.htm#wp1052310 layout link http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5150/en/sm/techov1.htm#wp1067881 watch your psu as is rated for 305watts when getting a new videocard. might need a more powerful 1.
Thanks. I know that I'm going to upgrade the PSU. ddp is right it is PCI-e slot. Any recommendations on a card now? Also how big of a power supply would you recommend me upgrading to.
depends on what you are going to do with the card will also determine what card is picked for the size of psu needed to supply that card if needed.
Well what started off as me wanting to hook my pc up to my lcd tv eventually lead to the urge to get my system somewhat up to speed with todays games. In a word Crysis. Crysis on a HDTV would be sweet. I can't wait. Thats why I'm on the hunt for a decent video card. I'm still running a pentium 4 but I believe I will be ok for a while.
Well, a P4 will not suffice if you get a good graphics card, as it will bottleneck it. If you get a card like a ATi 3870, 3850, or nVidia 8800GT, you will need a better power supply. Prebuilt PCs incorporate very cheaply made PSUs, which can sometimes catch fire and/or send a surge of volts through your system when they become overloaded. I would recommend a Corsair VX 450, and the cards above.
