Graphics card upgrade

[Nikki_j]

Hello all,

 

i was just wondering if anybody could help me with my graphics card problem. i have been wanting to upgrade my graphics card for a while now as most games that i buy just wont work or lag a lot when i install them but i'm not very good with computers and i am finding it difficult to know what graphics card to buy.

i dont really know which would work well with my computer and i am very weary of buying one in case its either not good enough or its too powerful for my computer, so i was wondering if anybody could tell me what i need to look at so i can choose one, or recomend a series or a card for my computer?

my computer is also a slimline, meaning i can only get low profile cards.

all the specs for it are on this page

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00787165&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=uk〈=en&product=3285315

any help would be greatly apreciated

 

thanks in advance

 

Nikki.

[DirtyPolo]

Hey Nikki,

 

Your motherboard will support a single PCI-E expansion card, if this is not already in use then you can add in a graphics card that uses this port.

 

This is a Nvidia 9600GT, it is a slim card at only 19mm x 230mm, will this fit in your machine? [size-wise]

 

Hopefully someone else can contribute to this as my strongest toic is not slim line cards or PCs :P

[Nikki_j]

hi dirtypolo

 

thankyou for the quick reply!

its nice to have some idea of what cards i can look at now! its been a struggle to see which cards are compatable with my computer :)

 

nikki

[DirtyPolo]

One thing I will say, is that if you are intending to play newish games, then your processor isn't fast enough at 1.8 GHz, as with the lastest games needed over 2GHz, just as an example, on the back of my Fallout3 case it specifices a processor of 2.4GHz as minimum spec.

 

Also your system only has 1GB of RAM, it may benifit more with gaming aswell as everyday tasks if you added in a second stick of 1GB to give you the boards maximum of 2GB RAM

 

But if you intend on playing older, classic games then it should be okay but for those, you wont need such an expensive graphics card either.

[Nikki_j]

thankyou for the extra information!

 

i dont think i'd be able to afford a new processor as well at the moment but i think an extra stick of ram would be good for my computer on a whole, so ill definatly be looking in to getting some more ram now :)

 

nikki.