will any pci-e card do?

[iconic-]

k, well im finally ready to go through with it- and upgrade from agp to pci-e.
along w/ this upgrade i will be getting a new psu and gfx card.

basically i need to know "what i need to know" about ordering a mother board the works for my computer- and if the psu has any dealings with that. And if i have to select one board over another based on if i want an ati or nvidia pci-e card (not crossfire or sli atm)


i just took a screen shot of the summary of my computer from everest-


any suggestions of straight up what i should buy, would be appreciated- i figured a 460ish psu and then whatever mobo i need to get me into sli.

 

[Lahire149]

price range?

 

[giant384]

well if im not mistaken i dont think they make socket 478 pci-e motherboards

 

[Lahire149]

u don't really need an upgrade

but a thing with dells is, if u upgrade u must get a new case, psu, cpu cooler, mobo. their stuff isn't ATX standard

 

[iconic-]

crap on a stick-

i was hoping to spend round 100 each on the psu and mobo- so 200 or a little more total on that- then all out on the gfx card

but yeah- i "need the upgrade" cuz sometime im starting to feel the 9800pro have to stretch its legs... i dont want to buy another agp card cuz that is out of date... and will just presumably cost me more in the long run...

fiddle sticks, im in a bind (last time i buy a dell...)

 

[Lahire149]

fiddle sticks, im in a bind (last time i buy a dell...)

that's what i though when i upgraded all that stuff in my former dell,


color is up to you, it comes with a 420w psu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...&Category=0&minPrice=&maxPrice=&Go.x=0&Go.y=0

6600gt is good mid-range, cheap too
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814135186

good mid-range cpu
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16819103535

good mobo (no SLi)
http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0225984

RAM is needed because your RAM is too slow. (hopefully someone can confirm this for me)
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820227221

all of this is upgradable in the future too, ::

 

[iconic-]

sigh- i wanted to spend 500 dollars to get it up to top level- that was thinking i wouldnt have to REDO my whole computer :-/

I figure then- I'll just buy the ABSOLUTE BEST AGP card I can, then just wait it out till I have enough to build my own computer further down the road.

 

[Lahire149]

sigh- i wanted to spend 500 dollars to get it up to top level- that was thinking i wouldnt have to REDO my whole computer :-/

I figure then- I'll just buy the ABSOLUTE BEST AGP card I can, then just wait it out till I have enough to build my own computer further down the road.

i know what u mean...

best AGP is ATI x850XT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102483
$320

 

[duffers20]

I would agree with you Lahire149 but you could also look at the AGP versions of the 6800GT (or Ultra if you can find one). They would also be very good.

 

[iconic-]

whats the difference between the x850xt and then the platinum edition?
and btw, how do i find out the wattage of psu?

 

[duffers20]

I think the XT PE is just clocked alittle higher than the XT version, although I'm not totally sure about that.

 

[Lahire149]

and btw, how do i find out the wattage of psu?

call dell and ask them, at least that's what i did


and the difference with platinum edition is that it's core is 540mhz opposed to 520mhz