Video Card Question

[Tenko]

Ok, so I like to play games on my computer but my parents bought a Dell Dimension 2400 computer. We are getting a 512MB of extra RAM and a new video card and I'm wondering if this will help for playing games like World of Warcraft? Will that be enough of an upgrade to make it run smoother? Also, I need help picking a video card to buy. It has to be lower than $150, preferably $120 or lower. Also, am I right that AGP video cards dont work on a stock Dimension 2400? Ok, Last questions... http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814170091 will this video card make the game run smoother? Is it worth the money? And lastly can you reccomend anything better that's not overly expensive. All replies are greatly appreciated.

 

[DonNagual]

Ouch.

That system (as with many Dells) has no AGP (or PCI express) slot. This severly limits you for graphics cards. You can ONLY get a PCI type card, and not only are the high end PCI cards are getting harder and harder to find, but even if you DO find one, their performance is very dissapointing for gaming.

Sorry to give the bad news. I feel for ya.

Although PCI cards suck, they are better than what you have now (integrated). Something like this card: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814103167

.... and just to be ultra clear... NO. That card you link to above will not run on your system. That is a PCI express x16 card. You do not have that type of slot on your motherboard. You have a PCI slot (not express).

Good luck!

 

[Tenko]

So I have almost no hope? That stinks! Anways... How much will that card improve gameplay? (I can always keep the graphics turned down) Also, overall with the RAM how much better will it play? Will Ironforge be enterable?... Thanks for the reply BTW

 

[DonNagual]

WoW mimimum requirements:

# Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon 800 Mhz or higher CPU
# 512 Megabytes (MB) or more of RAM
# 32MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (such as an Nvidia GeForce 2 class or better)
# 6 Gigabytes or more of available hard drive space
# 4x CD-ROM drive
# DirectXｮ 9.0c (included with game) and latest video card drivers

Recommended requirements:
# Intel Pentium IV 1.5GHz or AMD XP 1500+
# 1024 Megabytes (MB) of RAM
# 64MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform and Lighting (such as an Nvidia GeForce FX 5700 class or better)
# Two-button scroll-wheel mouse

Looks like you have a 2.4Ghz celeron CPU, right? And 256mb of ram... you are adding 512mb you said, right?

Celeron CPUs were not designed with gaming in mind. They are good for browsing the internet and writting documents, but for gaming, the just don't cut it. However, the one you have should be OK to at least run the game with the settings turned down.

As for the new ram. Just to forewarn you, there is a chance that it may not work. I hope it does work, I really do! There is no way to predict. Motherboards tend to like you to have two sticks of IDENTICAL ram when you are using two sticks. You are going to be using two sticks of different sizes in there it sounds like. One 256mb and one 512mb. Hopefully they are are same speed at least? PC2700?

I'll take a guess and say that the card I link you to above would actually be a noticable difference from your current integrated graphics.

 

[Greenmachine]

Hi. Well first off you are absolutely correct about there not being an AGP slot on your computer, but there is not a PCI Express slot either. The card that you posted is a PCI express card, so it will not work. The only option is to buy a PCI card. If you do not know the difference between PCI and PCIe then go here. http://www.directron.com/expressguide.html

I recommend buying this card - FX5500 256MB, 128-bit, PCI, 4 pixel pipelines
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814143032
In the reviews section someone states that they are running world of warcraft.

What are your other system specs? How much ram do you have?

Your computer supports 2x512MB sticks max. If you don't have at least 512MB of ram then I suggest buying this in addition to the video card.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145024
Cheers

 

[Tenko]

Well... My parents didn't really have gaming in mind when they bought it... and neither did I... But, then I got World of Warcraft and got hopelessly addicted... Then I bought Morrowind and a couple other games. I really hope the extra RAM works... I guess we could probably return it if it didn't and if we couldn't I guess I wouldn't lose sleep over the loss considering it was from a gift card we won. I bought the RAM right off of Dell under accesories for my specific computer so I'm praying it will work. As long as there's a noticable differance I will be very happy. =)
Also, I told my parents that next time we buy a computer... I'm picking it... they don't like the idea of $2000 gone though... =(

Late Post... - Anways my other system specs are 256MB RAM with a 512MB RAM addition on the way in the mail... I got it right off the Dell sight specifically for my computer as previously mentioned... And I have a 32MB video card right now... The same one my computer came with haha.. Hmmm what else... uhh 2.8Ghz... 40GB hard drive... only 6GB free space... But I am getting some cds and taking off like 3 or 4GB worth of games/mods.

 

[Greenmachine]

Dang don...you beat me to it...hehe. Pretty quick reply. When I first started on this no one else had replied. Yeah you need to match speeds of the Ram. Dell says that your mobo accepts PC2100 or PC2700. I posted the PC2100 but if you need PC2700 then here you go....
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820145407

 

[Tenko]

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/...=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A0136895&category_id=4325 <----- There's the RAM I ordered... Can anyone confirm if it will work?

 

[DonNagual]

Well, there is no question that it will work. I am sure it will. The question is, will it work WITH that current 256mb ram you have in there now?

The new ram you ordered is actually PC3200 ram. Your old ram is likely PC2700. Hopefully your board will take care of things for you, and those two sticks of (different size and speed) ram will play nice together. No way to predict. All you can do is pop it in, and see what happens.

If they don't work well together, then ditch that 256mb and get yourself another stick of PC3200 512mb. :grinthumb

 

[Tenko]

Ok, new question... Since it has 2 extra RAM slots if this new RAM I ordered works... Will a second stick of the same RAM work together right with the other two?
Thanks for the replies everyone... this is really helping me


So I could potentially have 3 identical 512MB RAM sticks if i took out the 256MB one and replaced it with a 512MB one?

 

[nickc]

Tenko

if you buy all three sticks from Dell and they say it will work, it will work.

 

[Greenmachine]

Two extra ram slots?? It appears to me that your dell has two slots total just as I said above. Your comp can have 2x512MB sticks max. In other words, you already have one slot filled by the 256MB stick so you really only have one free slot. If you remove the 256MB stick, replace it with a 512MB stick and fill the empty slot with a 512MB stick, then you will be at your max ram capacity.

See pages 51 & 70 for further explanation
http://support.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim2400/en/F75560LRs.pdf

Hope that clears everything up.....

 

[vnf4ultra]

If you're still looking to get a graphics card for your 2400, then consider this one, the nvidia 6200 pci.
http://www.chumbo.com/Info.aspx?id=304966
It's the best PCI card out there. There also is a 256MB version, but it costs 2x as much.

 

[wirm]

Dimension 2400 has 2 slots for PC2700 DDR-SDRAM. Officially, it will only support a total of 1 GB of RAM, but some people on the Dell Forums say that it will support up to 2 GB.

Personally, my computer has:

512 MB Kingston PC3200 RAM that the computer came with
512 MB Corsair PC 2700 RAM that I bought.


The RAM will only work at 333mhz with a Celeron processor. I've installed a modified Prescot core Pentium, but since I'm using 1 stick of PC2700, it's still moving at 333 mhz. Maybe if I took it out, it would go at 400 mhz.

 

[Tenko]

Well I'm no computer expert so if the two RAM sticks don't work together I won't know what to tweak on my computer really so that's kind of out of the question. I know Dells really aren't gaming computers usually and have limited upgrades... so what's a good media/gaming computer/brand from the start? And what would be a good price?

 

[sw123]

I personnally dont think that your RAM will be compatible with your board(not to scare you, sorry if i did) If you want, you can cancel your order and order the PC2700 version of your RAM. But i could be wrong, because i have a PC2100 256 MB stick of RAM and a 512 MB PC2700 RAM in my PC, and they work just fine. But your computers motherboard is probably totally different than mine, so it may (or may not) work. I personnaly hope that your RAM will work together nicely