Dell Dimension 8300 Graphics Card Upgrade

Excellent deal on 7900GS

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150174

7950GT

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814150223

In response:
I know the 8300 is AGP only. I happen to have the 7950GT book-marked for myself and I have pcie. My bad.
I really resent this comment:
"Most "techs" on this forum are reflecting on the basic home desktops ranging from the 2100, 2200, 2250, 2300, 2350, 2400, and 3000 which are budget machines not built for any video graphics card at all."
1.Because it was probably directed at me
2.I have an E521, can't afford an XPS
3.I do have some knowledge on various Dell's (dell community forum member with like 1400 posts)
4.so Raybay the tourch has been past to you, it's all yours
hope you bone-up on your vast Dell knowledge

The 7900GS is $150.00 after rebate 256bit
If you get this and the psu your good to go for under $300.00
Any other questions raybay will answer for you Good luck

By law there is a label and a UL number on every power supply. You may need to remove the power supply to see the label, which is probably facing a case wall. You can also get the specs by entering your service tag number on the Technical support section of the Dell site.
I cast no aspersions about those who use the basic and budget Dell Dimensions. But they are the only ones (and only in a few cases) where the power supply is proprietary. I do not understand where the stories begin, and why they spread. Most Dell power supplies are exactly the same, or better than, the power supplies found in most machines.
All you need to do is compare the UL numbers to know which manufacturer made them, and their specs.

Thanks again for the responses from both kpo6969 and raybay. I don't really know how to decode my specs from Dell site. I don't know where it list my power supply?

------------Specs -------------------
1 G0101 PROCESSOR, 80532, 3.0G, 512, 800FSB, SOCKET N
0 N2194 INFORMATION, DEVIATE TO PWA G0728, LADDER WITH 5R/2R CIRCUITS
1 2R400 KEYBOARD, 104, 6P, UNITED STATES, MULTI-MEDIA, NMB
1 D1161 KIT, MOUSE, UNIVERSAL SERIAL BUS, 2BTN, WHEEL, OPTICAL, PRIMAX ELECTRONICS LTD
2 J0202 DUAL IN-LINE MEMORY MODULE, 512, 400M, 64X64, 8K, 184
1 4Y463 KIT, SPEAKER, 12V, AS500, NMB
1 0R533 CARD (CIRCUIT), MULTI-MEDIA, AUDIO, SB0203
1 K2265 COMPACT DISK READ WRITE/DIGITAL VIDEO DISK DRIVE COMBO, 48X, I, 5.25" FORM FACTOR, SAMSUNG, CHASSIS 2001, V2
1 6D906 CARD (CIRCUIT), CONTROLLER, 1394A, PC INTERFACE, LOOP, TI/SCI
1 9Y452 CARD (CIRCUIT), GRAPHICS, 128MB, NV34, DIMENSION
1 T0732 HARD DRIVE, 120GB, Serial ATA, 8MEG, Maxtor Calypso
1 1Y379 ASSEMBLY, CABLE, Serial ATA, TRANSFORMER SKY DIVE MINITOWER, 1.0
1 P0253 CABLE, POWER, 6P, AUXILIARY, Serial ATA, TRANSFORMER SKY DIVE MINITOWER
1 T1614 KIT, SOFTWARE, OFCSB-2K3, ORIGINAL EQUIPMENT MFGR., ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 R2527 KIT, SOFTWARE, OVERPACK, WXPPSP1A, COMPACT DISKETTE W/DOCUMENTATION, ENGLAND/ENGLISH
1 G2876 KIT, DOCUMENTATON ON FLOPPY DISK, SOFTWARE, CYBERLINK, 4.14, DIMENSION

You have to open up your case and look at the psu label. What your looking for is maximium combined wattage on the 12v rails.
If you have the 305w it should be:
12VA_18a_+ 12VB_18a_= 264watts on the 12v
264w__divide by 12_= 22amps

If it's less you have the 250w

Thanks again kpo6969! I opened my box and took out the psu. The label was on the bottom so I wasn't able to check without taking apart the psu. I have a 305w I think. The part number is NPS305BBA. I googled it and it looks like its a 305w. So do you think I would need to upgrade my psu to 410w if I buy a 7950gt? And you mentioned 7900gs is a good deal. The pricing does look very attractive. But how does it match up with the 7950gt? Or it doesn't really matter for my configuration since my cpu will serve as the bottleneck to utilize either of the cards??

And will installing more ram help on game performances? I currently have 2 dimm of 512mb ram (total of 1GB). Which leaves me 2 more slots. I can buy 2 1GB rams to make my total 3GB. But will that do anything for me? Or I can even buy 4 1GB of ram...but again, is there any reasons to?

Thanks again for your helping out a 35 year old kid! You and raybay both rock!

3GB would help u're whole computer experence.

Here's what's coming my way:

- XFX 7950GT AGP card (Amazon)
- Power and Cooling Silencer 410w (pcpower.com)
- 2x 1GB Ram (Crucial.com/btw are they any good? maybe I should have asked before my impulsive purchase)

With all that I am set back just slightly over $500. I will report back on the results once I receive and install everything.

One last thing...I read I need to uninstall my nvidia drivers first before inserting the 7950GT card because of incompatible issues?? I then would need to download the latest drivers directly from XFX after installing the card? Is this true?

Thanks again guys! This forum is awesome!

Btw, I didn't purchase from newegg.com because of tax and shipping would be more than Amazon. I have free shipping with Amazon.

ah crap! forgot to account for the rebates!!! oh well...I thought the rebates is for any XFX purchase. Didn't know the requirement is that you need to purchase it from newegg...

Another thing...everywhere I read, the 7950gt runs hot. Do I need an aftermarket cooling? And if yes, what would be a good one for Dell 8300? Thanks again!

Crucial RAM is of top quality, so no problems there. 2GB is more than enough for gaming if you're running XP. For Vista, more is better.
As for the video card, it doesn't run too hot to require aftermarket cooling. But are you sure it would fit on your motherboard? Make sure before you buy it.

The reason I am asking regarding cooling is because with my ASUS N7600GS Silent 256mb AGP card, GPU temp is at 75C idling according to NVIDIA Monitor, and can go up to 87-88C when playing games. So I am worried that with the XFX 7950GT card it must run even hotter.

I guess the 8300 case is not built for ventilation??? I'm in an aircooled room, so I don't think its the summer heat that is raising the temp.

So a ZEROtherm GX815 Gamer edition probably will not fit on my motherboard??

Thanks again for your time.

Good job!
Crucial is very good, got a 2x512mb kit myself and works fine.
I have a Silencer470 on the way for myself. Getting ready for a 8700GTS when they come out.

@tkusanagi1974, I wasn't talking about the HSF fitting, I was talking about the card itself. And your current card is passive-cooled, which have a tendency to run hotter than active-cooled cards. Most 7950GTs are active-cooled, so don't worry too much.

kpo6969: glad to hear that you have Crucial as well

What is 8700GTS? Is that PCIe card? Oh well...wish I can get a brand new rig. But wife would probably kill me.

Rage_3K_Moiz:

So you mean there's a chance that XFX 7950GT might not fit on my Dell 8300 mobo? Arghh...I certainly hope not...but I never thought that it would be an issue...fingers crossed.

So if XFX 7950GT was able to fit, do you think I will be needing ZEROtherm GX815 Gamer edition? I just read a lot of horror story on newegg that 7950 getting too hard and warped the active fan and render it useless...

And thanks for clarifying that my current card is passive-cooled therefore run hotter.

Man, you guys are so knowledgeable about this stuff! I wish I can be like you guys one day!

Thanks for the kind words, much appreciated mate. As for the cooling, if you do want a third-party HSF, get the Zalman VF-900Cu. It's the best cooling solution for your card IMO.

Again, thank you for such a swift reply. Do I have to take out the existing fan that came with 7950gt then add Zalman VF-900Cu? Or is it something that I can tag on to the card and leaving the existing fan in place?

Thanks again!

Hi again, can I give my own post a bump?

http://www.neoseeker.com/resourcelink.html?rid=140007

I found an image of a mobo with 7950GT installed. And there appears to be a zalman cooler on the motherboard. Is that something I can do instead of attaching the Zalman VF-900Cu onto the mobo instead of the gpu itself? Thanks in advance for your help!