I just bought this game battlefield 2 and I really want to play it and some other games. I have already upgraded to 2 512 sticks of RAM. I was thinking about getting a new mobo so that I could get a good video card because I read that PCI video cards are not that good. I know that my comp has a Pentium 4. Any suggestions would be appreciated. In depth would also help cuz I am kinda new to this stuff and tryin to learn. Thanks.

Hi, welcome to TechSpot!

replacing the mobo and adding a PCI-express video card (or even an AGP card) may also require you to upgrade your PSU as well.

while it is true that PCI video cards are crap compared to PCI-E and AGP, you can get one that will allow you play most games on low settings. This will by no means make it a gaming rig, but it will allow you to play games for a while at least. When DirectX10 games start to come out, no PCI card will be able to play them

What would be the best card for me to get considering it is pci?

The dell 2400 has a Micro Atx(MATX) motherboard. It can be replaced with any other micro atx motherboard. I replaced my dell 2300's motherboard with a gigabyte 8IG1000MK, but there are many options available that will reuse your ram, cpu and other devices, but allow the installation of agp cards.
All of these should work.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...ice=&maxPrice=
These would be my "top picks," in no particular order.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813123254
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813131460
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16813128222

Note, that the front panel connections, like the power button, leds, etc, likely won't line up with the new motherboard, and WILL require modification to the connector to get it working properly. Also, I couldn't get my front usb or audio to connect either, but it's no big loss to me. The board fits in fine though, the mounts all lined up properly.

Here's my new board in my dell case(that's been modded).

i stand corrected. (my previous post has been edited to avoid giving anybody inaccurate info)

vnf4ultra gave some very suggestions. although another question... his current RAM is PC2100 if i'm not mistaken, yet all the mobos links you provided say PC3200 as the standard, will his current PC2100 work on a new mobo? and if it does... will it downclock his CPU/FSB?

It should work, I think it will just set a memory divider, and not affect the cpu speed. Obviously, having pc2100 will be slower than having pc3200, but it should still work fine.

From the asus spec sheet.
http://usa.asus.com/products4.aspx?m...=3&l2=12&l3=33

From Epox:
http://www.epox.com/USA/product.asp?id=EP-4VKMI

I have 2 PC3200 DDR 512mb sticks in it. I just ordered the ATI Radeon 9250 PCI 256MB DDR video card. Is that a good one? I figured I would just put a card in this comp for now and save up to build a better one for me to play games on. Is that a good idea? My girlfriend just uses this comp for homework.

The Dimension 2400 should only have Celeron processors. I'm not sure how you got a p4, but I'd like one for mine too

the 9250 is one of the better ones that you can get for PCI. I have an FX 5500 by nVidia myself. They should be fairly similar in performance.

wirm: according to http://www.pcstats.com/articleview.c...id=1610&page=4 dell dimension 2400 can come with p4 up to 2.8ghz. However it must be a customized add-on.

I had a dimension S-series and needed an upgrade. I got a gigabyte 8IG-1000p-g mobo and your P4 will work fine in that (just make sure u don't hurt it taking it out of your dell, and by "hurt" i mean crushing pins. also, your harddrive, cd-rom, disk drive, basically all the stuff from your old PC will work in a new one. Just maybe grab a new case, mobo, and a sweet video card, and you're golden. Cya on the battlefield

A question for vnf4ultra.. I have a customer who has a dead Dim 2300 motherboard (I believe).. The replacement board for this box is very pricey, so I really want to just order a semi-cheap board from Newegg like you did.. however, everywhere else on the net that I have read says that the 2300 board is propietory etc.. wont work with the Dell PSU/heatsink/case/blah. So, you are saying that you in fact DID replace the board with an aftermarket model? I also see that this 2300 has PC133 SDRAM.. is this what your 2300 used as well? Are there any other issues that I should be aware of when attempting to swap out teh boards? I need to use all of the current hardware on the new board (including RAM).

Thanks!

Hi people i've got a dell dimension 2400 and i've found this graphics card for my computer its a Visiontek Radeon X1550, http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati...1644&CatId=319 Let me know what you think about it and i would appreciate the help if someone can give me a step by step instructions on how to disable my integrated graphics card so i can install the new graphics card to boost up my pc. Thanks.

Normally the integrated graphics should automatically be disabled by the motherboard as soon as you boot up the PC with the graphics card. But if it doesn't, there's usually an option in the BIOS that allows you to do that.

Is there anyway to upgrade to a PCI-Express motherboard in a Dell Dimension 2400? I bought a monitor and want to use a DVI connection. Unfortunately, the 2400 does not have a DVI port, so I needed to upgrade my card to get one. I ordered a graphics card today, but I learned it only supports PCI-Express. I don't care anything about gaming, and just want the best picture quality from my monitor (for graphic design & photography), so that's why I need the DVI port from my card.

HI! I have the same question....But half the links are dead in here..I made another thread about mine because I could not find this one...

I've got a Dimension 9250 with a Radeon 9250 which has DVI output. So you don't necessarily need to upgrade to PCI-E to gain DVI out.

The thing with mine, is I want to upgrade the graphics card even more. Is the 9250 pretty much the limit, as by looking at the GeForce 5500, it doesn't look that much ahead in specs than the 9250.

I'd upgrade the whole computer, but being that I'm a architectural technician student, I'll have to save up for quite some time for a semi decent rig.

There are better AGP cards than the Radeon 9250. Check Newegg.com for examples. The 9250 is no longer supported by ATI/AMD as evidenced by their graphics driver support.

BTW, do you mean Dimension 8250?

I had the Dimension 2400, celeron 2.4 version. Since then I've put the 9250, a p4 2.8 chip and all up 1 gig of ram. I'm replacing the ram with 2 x 1gig sticks in the next week or two. I'll hold off buying another graphics card till I get the new ram, as I want to see the difference with Autocad.

Also I would want to try and locate a card in New Zealand to keep shipping to a minimum.

I forgot to mention that the mobo does not have an agp slot. Only PCI.

Newegg doesn't ship to New Zealand anyway. Just for some examples of PCI cards see these. PCI graphics card will limit you and they are relatively expensive for what you are getting but it will tide you over until you can eventually get a better PC (if you want, that is).

Cheers for the reply. Fingers crossed that the extra ram will do the trick when it comes to Autocad. I'll start putting more aside for a new computer since mines getting a tad old now.