Ok, new grpahics card time...

[Nutcase]

My poor pc is a dell that I got cheap. Reaonable cpu (3ghz), resonable ram (1gb), reasonable everything really except a crud graphics card :( It's a radeon x300 se with 128mb hypermemory (whatever the heck that means!). No fan on the card. Looks to be PCI-E.

What I do know is after about 1/2 hour of CS the comp crashes from overheating :(

So, any suggestions for a QUIET but effective replacement? I just bought one of these: http://www.dabs.com/ProductView.aspx?Quicklinx=49D8 for my HTPC, and it's silent, so something similar I guess? Budget of ~£100 inc delivery.

Oh, how can I tell if I have PCI-E or PCI-E 16 please? Last time I was properly clued up on hardware was when AGP was new...:embarassed:

Cheers muchly :D

edit: ah, I think I have a pci-e x16 as it's full length. Looks like I can get the same card as my htpc if I have to: http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=42HM&CategorySelectedId=11137&NavigationKey=11137,366360000,4294957147,12,429496 3789

[Zirax]

One thing you are going to have to factor in is how good is your psu?
These newer cards drain a horrific amount of power!

I personally have a x1900xtx 512mb and I would have thought you could have got an x1900xt and clock it to xtx speeds easily on ebay, but they aren't forthcoming at the moment, very odd. This only has 256mb ram but could be tempting
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=49NJ&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,41590000,43990000

I haven't looked at Nvidia for a while but this might be worth considering
http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?Quicklinx=48JM&CategorySelectedId=11137&PageMode=1&NavigationKey=11137,42740000,43990000


Had a look around and apparently the x1950 is spanking the 7900gs in reviews.

One thought, do you just play CS and is the gfx card overheating your only problem? If so why not rig a fan inside the case blowing air directly onto the card, might warrant an investigation

[semi-pro waster]

Zirax has summed it up pretty well, the X1950pro is better than the 7900gs but a shade more expensive, I don't think you will get either for exactly £100 but if you shop around maybe within £10 of the budget + probably delivery. 256mb Ram will easily be fine unless you are gaming at 1600x1200 or above and since you are using an X300se I doubt that is the case.

If you can't stretch that far then maybe look to a 7600gt if going brand new (better than the 7600gs) or possibly a 7800gt if going secondhand.

Oh and Hypermemory means it is the devil - actually it just means it uses system Ram normally so it only runs at DDR sort of speeds rather than DDR3/4 like a good graphics card would. :)

[Nutcase]

Cheers guys :)

Am now looking at this one:

http://www.dabs.com/productview.aspx?&SearchType=1&SearchTerms=7600gt&PageMode=3&SearchKey=All&SearchMode=All&Quicklinx=45DW&NavigationKey=0&RecordOffset=10&%20&v=2#infoarea

A little bit more than what I wanted to spend, but it's got very good reviews in there, including a couple of people mentioning it's quiet.

So my current one has no memory on board? No wonder its rubbish! :angry: PSU is 305w which is towards the bottom edge I guess, but on a dell forum a couple of people have put uprated cards in the same system, including a 7600GT without issue.

It's def the current card overheating as the heatsink is way too hot to touch when it's crashed :angry:

[semi-pro waster]

I personally wouldn't bother with an overclocked version, you can normally overclock to that sort of speed if you are bothered but any 7600gt would prove to be a massive jump anyway. An Albatron 7600gt (http://www.aria.co.uk/ProductsList.asp?Category=289&SubCat=GCX-N7&Name=&Page=1&NumberPerPage=50&SortBy=) comes in at around £85 inc Vat but no delivery from Aria, however I can't vouch for the volume of it. Scan appears to be even cheaper for some 7600gt cards (http://www.scan.co.uk/Products/Products.ASP?CatID=15&FilterCategories=436&Thumbnails=yes) but again I can't say for certain how noisy they are since I haven't had any of them.

And sorry I didn't explain it very clearly but your graphics card might have some memory onboard but Hypermemory cards tend to use about half their quoted total Ram from system Ram.

[Stan_Lite]

If your PSU is only 305W, I'd definitely stick with Nvidea - iirc they use a lot less power than ATI. As long as you don't have banks of HDDs, you should have more than enough power from your 305W to run a 7600GT.

Stan :)

[Nutcase]

Thanks again :) I'm liking the aria one (and they do a card reader internal in black which I've been considering...) so might go for that.

Anyone think of any reason why I shouldn't click buy? :D

[Nutcase]

The deed is done :) Hopefully I'll be back on CS soon :D

[Nutcase]

Hmm, Monday us a Bank Hol, so I guess I'll get it Tues as it's now been despatched. Can't wait that long for a mew toy!

Back to playing with my server I guess :(

[Mark]

Hopefully it'll fit too. I've found clearnces on some Dell systems to be rather lacking. For example, my Dell doesn't like vga silencers.

One other thing to bear in mind is that Dell rate PSU wattages differently to other manufacturers (Dell's ratings tend to be lower).

[Nutcase]

Yay it's here :) Was going to wait until its dark to fit it (need to be working on car!), but sod it :D