OK I've been given a Gateway 500S PC Specs: P4 2.0GHZ 256MB RAM AND 32MB Intel Extreme Intergrated Graphics... What Kind of Video Card can/should I get (AGP,PCI etc.) and What Kind of ram can I get also? DDR, SDRAM etc.. Thanks to all who reply.. -Maniac :dogrun:
It depends on the motherboard of the computer. That's probably got an APG slot. It also depends on what you want to spend, it'd probably be worth upgrading RAM too.
Any idea on how to determine what mobo i have? And what kind of ram should I look for ? DDR, DDR2? SD, RD? RAM I just need to know what kind i should get, i plan on buying a GB as far as the video card I plan on $250-300 for that Thanks Again -Maniac
Your computer should use DDR RAM running at (the most likely) speed of 333MHz. Grab a copy of CPUz and it'll tell you what RAM and Motherboard your using.
Ok Used PC Wiard and this is some of the info I got: MainBoard: Intel Corporation D845GRG Cipset: INTEL i845GL Physical Memory: 256MB (1x256 DDR-SDRAM) PCI Bus: YES AGP bus: YES I noticed that it says yes for both a PCI and AGP... so does that mean I can use a video card for either slot? any reccomendation on what i should get. and with the RAM... I'm assuming I only have on 256MB chip in there... and have space for two? Once again thanks to all who help... I don't know where I'd be w/o the HardwareForums.. :beer: -Maniac
Yes, you do have an AGP slot, which provides more bandwidth than PCI---which also have to share, and that's not good considering the amount of bandwidth graphics require. You have 2 DDR DIMM slots total. Now, what kinda games do you want to play?
Now i know i can go AGP I was looking at one of two cards... GeForce FX5500 Graphics Card • 256MB DDR memory • AGP 8X • 270MHz GPU GeForce 6200 Graphics Card • 256MB DDR memory • AGP 8X interface • 350MHz GPU (I will be buying for circuit City) so if anyone see a smiliar card within a 100-150 Price range please feel free to include it in this thread... and as far as RAM is concerned I was thinking about picking up a Kingston 512MB SDRAM to add to my 256 Chip already in my machine..... Comments? COncernse? Please Share... Thanks -Aaron
I have an Nvidia Geforce 6200oc and it treats me well. But i think it would be smarter to spend a little more and buying the 6600gt. Shopping at circuit city may cost more then is necessary and so i would recommend shopping at www.newegg.com
Like I said B4 i will be shopping from curcuit City for a few reasons, 1: Credit Line w/ the store itself 2: Gift Certificate 3: Employee Benefits
I'd look and see if you can at least get a GeForce 6600GT or Radeon X700 (make sure you get the AGP version, not PCIe---PCIe is NOT compatible with your hardware). RAM: I'd grab some PC3200 Kingston ValueRAM as that should be pretty easy to find at retail stores.
Now will I be able to keep thew factory RAM chip in it's orginal slot and then add the Kingston PC3200 w/ out any problems? http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/King...08887/catOid/-12994/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do and is this the PC3200 chip you were talking about Big B? Thanks Everyone -Maniac
Yup, that's it. You should be able to pop it in alongside your existing RAM without issue. For non-enthusiast RAM, the Kingston ValueRAM is pretty good stuff...not to mention easy to find and cheap.
with that 512 PC 3200 chip that'd put me at the 770MB range on RAM which should be good as far as gaming and todays memory intensive programs (CAD, Photoshop, Adobe etc.)till i decide to buy another 512 in the near future right? And back to videos cards.... the GeForce 6600GT mentioned is too pricey for me at the moment... Im just looking for something to hold me off until this summer where I will be building my own rig.... http://www.circuitcity.com/ssm/EVGA...20420/catOid/-13043/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do http://www.circuitcity.com/rpsm/oid...ION%3D%26c%3D1/rpem/ccd/productDetail.do#tabs I was thinking about one of these two... any comments or suggestion on which to buy .... They are both within my price range and both AGP... just a matter of which one to get... Thanks again for everything so far and the continuing help.. -Maniac
Bad news man. You computer doesn't have an AGP slot. If you want better graphics without buying a new system, your best bet is a PCI version (NOT PCIe) of the GeForce FX5200.
Yeah with PCI you're very limited and if you want to do any graphics intensive tasks (ie gaming) then you'll need to upgrade more components.
That's interesting. While the chipset does support AGP and there is a spot for an AGP slot, the connector itself has been removed. I wonder if that's with the OEM specs. Since you just want something to tide you over till you do a rebuild, if there's not a whole lot of serious gaming to be done, go with what's cheaper. The reason for this is that the PCI slots have to share a 133MB/s bus, and that's pretty slow to handle the bandwidth required by modern graphics, even low-end ones. It's going to be a limiting factor here, so you're not going to want to spend a whole lot---especially since you're looking at this as a hold-over.
