Hey everyone, first post!
I've been given an old (as in, only got PCI slots) Packard Bell running a P4 2.9Gb. I've been out the PC market for an age but I want to be able to play all the old games that I used to when I last had a PC like Half Life etc. Not too fussed about anything post 2005 as I got a 360 for that. Besides the old games, I also want to be able to use it for HD playback and general word processing/web browsing.
So, to this end, I increased the RAM to 2.5Gb and installed Windows 7 which ticks off the word processing/browsing element; it is really rapid. Unfortunately this is where I've become unstuck as all the information out there for PCI graphics cards is so far out of date and everyone's opinions differ so much that it's difficult to decide what is for the best! Besides which, stockists are phasing out PCI cards almost completely now so what some people may have recommended 6 months ago, may well be unavailable now. So basically, can anyone give a definitive answer to: what is the best PCI graphics card? If I can't find it new, I can always scour eBay till one shows up.
In the meantime, I'm currently bidding on a PNY GeForce 8400GS currently on for £20. Should I just stick with this, or is there something better out there for a steal? I don't want to spend too much, it is a bag of cr@p anyway, it was free and the memory upgrade only cost £15.
Your help would be much appreciated!
I've been given an old (as in, only got PCI slots) Packard Bell running a P4 2.9Gb. I've been out the PC market for an age but I want to be able to play all the old games that I used to when I last had a PC like Half Life etc. Not too fussed about anything post 2005 as I got a 360 for that. Besides the old games, I also want to be able to use it for HD playback and general word processing/web browsing.
So, to this end, I increased the RAM to 2.5Gb and installed Windows 7 which ticks off the word processing/browsing element; it is really rapid. Unfortunately this is where I've become unstuck as all the information out there for PCI graphics cards is so far out of date and everyone's opinions differ so much that it's difficult to decide what is for the best! Besides which, stockists are phasing out PCI cards almost completely now so what some people may have recommended 6 months ago, may well be unavailable now. So basically, can anyone give a definitive answer to: what is the best PCI graphics card? If I can't find it new, I can always scour eBay till one shows up.
In the meantime, I'm currently bidding on a PNY GeForce 8400GS currently on for £20. Should I just stick with this, or is there something better out there for a steal? I don't want to spend too much, it is a bag of cr@p anyway, it was free and the memory upgrade only cost £15.
Your help would be much appreciated!
