You know what...I WANT TO PLAY HALF LIFE 2!

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:14 pm

Now I struck it...I need to play the damn game. I meet the RAM, PROCESSING requirements, but in the video department....I fall extremely short

. So now I want to get a new Video Card for my computer. Possibly 128-256 megabytes. Anyone know how to upgrade the video card for a Dell Dimension 2004 bought around 2001 or 2003 (I forget which year my parents bought it.

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:29 pm

I will need your specs before I can help you with anything.
Including what graphics bus your motherboard has.
PCI?
AGP 2x?/4x?/8x?
PCI-E?

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:31 pm

I'll have to get back to you on that. But when I read the spec's at Dell's shop while we were buying...tis was 'Integrated Intel Extreme Graphic's Card'...

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:33 pm

That's just a weak graphics chip that's intergrated onto the equally crap Dell motherboard, it couldn't even play CS1.6.

gamer2 · Post by **gamer2** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:35 pm

if you got PCI express i got a Graphics Card that doubles as a Video Capture Card, if you want

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:36 pm

If it's that old of a Dell, I'm doubtful if it even has AGP, much less PCI-E.

soundwave · Post by **soundwave** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:38 pm

My Dell Dimension (2350 I think) had integrated video, and a pinout for an AGP slot, but no actual slot.

MaDnEsS · Post by **MaDnEsS** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:49 pm

HL2 is awsome ive beaten it 5 times on my radeon 9800 wsoo

Post by **Triton** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:52 pm

i probably pwn you all when it comes to great games on a OLD gpu, i have played doom 3 and hl2 on my gfx card, its a 32MB geforce 2 mx 100/200! PWNED! and i get pretty good preformance at low to med. quality settings

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 6:58 pm

Lol, I have that card in an old p2 333 sitting right next to me.

demonofaj · Post by **demonofaj** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:00 pm

The highest my com. can play is Day of Defeat (normal) and everything higher, even HoTD 3, lags like hell. So my com is unupgradable

?

Harshboy · Post by **Harshboy** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:01 pm

me gots a Nvidia Geforce 6800 256 MB gfx card....was the best like 5 months ago......now i'm one behind......

sniper_spike · Post by **sniper_spike** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:23 pm

demonofaj wrote:The highest my com. can play is Day of Defeat (normal) and everything higher, even HoTD 3, lags like hell. So my com is unupgradable ?

I never said that, I'm still waiting for some specs.

Post by **bicostp** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 7:31 pm

<b>IF YOU READ THIS POST ALREADY, RE-READ! I EDITED MOST OF IT!</b>

demonofaj wrote:The highest my com. can play is Day of Defeat (normal) and everything higher, even HoTD 3, lags like hell. So my com is unupgradable ?

Dimension 2400 you said?

Sorry but your board is basically locked where it is for graphics. I mean you can probably replace the processor (standard ZIF slot I think...) and add PCI slots, but Dells aren't the greatest for upgrades.

Sadly, you have no AGP slot. You can get a PCI graphics card (if they still make them.. I'm pretty sure they do), or just run the game at a lower graphics quality mode.

Trying to upgrade your computer to a gaming rig is like trying to make a Chevette win the Daytona 500. Yourcomputer was not designed to be a gaming computer. It's a "do work and check your email" computer, aimed at consumers. I take it it came with Windows and pre-installed software and all that jazz, right? Well, sorry but it would cost you upwards of $700 to make it into an acceptable gaming rig. Sort of like my dad's computer. It was sold as a server. It has I/O and ethernet capabilities like you wouldn't believe, but the graphics chipset sucks. It was intended to transfer files over gigabit ethernet connections, not play Half-Life 2. My PC is like yours, but it's a Compaq Presario 55100NX. It's not the greatest for gaming (2.6 gig Celeron, 64 MB graphics, 750+ MB RAM upgraded

) but it was never intended for it. I use it for multimedia and light gaming (Unreal Tournament on down).

Your Dell PC is a proprietary machine. It does not have a standard chassis. You cannot just bolt a new ATX motherboard into it and expect it to fit. You would have to replace everything, and I do mean EVERYTHING in it to get it to comply to ATX and Intel standards. You would have to gut it, build a motherboard adapter chassis, install a new power supply, splice all the front panel connectors, and then maybe, just MAYBE you could get it running to some standards. But this would be a huge pain in the ass and wouldn't be worth the effort.

What I would do is buy a motherboard, a processor, some RAM, and a graphics card and stuff it all in a case. That way you would have a standard PC that you know everything about. But this is expensive, and for even a decent machine you're looking at a few hundred bucks. You would have to put some effort into it, but I'm sure you're capable of putting it together.

<a href="http://www.compusa.com/products/product ... l">CompUSA mobos</a>

Sorry if I sound too much like a technician; I'm doing a work-study at a computer repair center and I've done a couple board swaps and scratchbuilt a couple PCs already

. I'm trying to get enough experience to get A+ Certified.)

Fool! That's why you should build, not buy! You have greater control over the computer, and you can build it into whatever case you want (to a point), and it's expandable. Plus a board swap will let you use new features such as SATA which I doubt your current board has.</s>

(come to think of it I need a new PC. This one's old-ish (P3 500, 256 MB RAM, 53 GB HD space spanning 5 partitions and 2 physical drives

), and I'm constantly getting out-of-memory errors, and there's some other problems with it. *starts surfing the CompUSA site* *and NewEgg*

Long story short: Consumer Dells suck when it comes to upgrading.

(I got most of this info from consumer report sites which said there isn't much you can do to upgrade, from experience, and from reading spec pages. I may be wrong on some things.)

totokan · Post by **totokan** » Fri Dec 16, 2005 8:04 pm

Note to bicostp:
I did that. Ended up having to have to replace everything except the case.