Upgrading an nvidia tnt2 card on an old dell 4100

[Lauraw7]

Hi - I'm new to the boards and have a question I hope someone can help me with. I have an old Dell Dimension 4100 that is running windows me and it has an nvidia tnt 2 video card. My son recently purchased Call of Duty and it doesn't seem to work on this system. I keep getting an error message that I need to upgrade my video card. I think I need a pci express card, but I'm not sure so my question is how do I figure that out and can anyone recommend a video card that is not too expensive? The system is 6 years old and I really don't feel like investing a ton of cash into it. It does have 256 mb of ram, that I know as well as an pentium 3 processor, 20 gig hard drive (small I know in this day and age) and is running @ 933mhz. Thanks in advance for the help.

Laura

 

[dmill89]

You need an AGP video card.Given the age of your computer you probably only have an AGP 4x slot so I would recomend an ATI Radeon 9200 or 9250. anything more powerfull than that wouldn't give you any significant improvement due to the speed of your processer and slot. upgradeing your ram to 512 mb wouldnt be a bad idea either.
Video card:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814125204

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102388

RAM:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820153101

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820136009

regardless of what video card and ram you get that game will probably only run on medium settings due to your processer.

ps:If you would like to upgrade your HDD:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144102


http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16822144107

 

[Lauraw7]

ah - thank you....I'll have to get one of them..and have my more computer saavy nephew install it for me...thanks for the info I appreciate it...

 

[bazz2004]

If you are going to run recent games then I'd buy a new computer. There are plenty of bargains around.

 

[Lauraw7]

thanks for the advice - I actually have a new computer and gave the old one to my son. I am trying to keep him from installing all of his games on the new system because then my hard drive will fill up too quickly. He is networked to go online and thought a less expensive solution would be just to upgrade his system so it will last a few more years.

Laura

 

[bazz2004]

I've made upgrades to my old computer which have improved it gradually over the last seven years. It's had everything changed apart from the power supply and motherboard. I'd upgrade to Windows XP Home, increase the ram as suggested by dmill89 and then look at getting a better graphics card. They are all easy to do.

 

[Lauraw7]

I'm working on getting windows xp for it, and I am going to upgrade the ram and the video card. I hate windows me - it has to be one of the worst os out there so I won't miss it when it is gone....thanks for the info.

Laura

 

[PaulWuzHere]

It was always a personal challange for me to get windows ME working well. I did do it after installing its BILLION services packs and updates. Then My friend Kevin came over while I was at school and put Mandrake 9.2 on it... Sad to say it is still on my old computer because I love frozen bubble. ME does SUCK!

(Off Topic)