Sawed Off

I just installed Oblivion on my comp and my integrated card is insufficient to run it. Is there a way to upgrade those or do I just need a different computer? One day I'll have my very own real computer, one day.

You can upgrade it. You just need to install a real video card and disable the integrated video in BIOS.

That doesn't sound too difficult. I guess another question would be - How do I know if a video card will work with my mobo?

Let's say for example I'm looking at http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814131096 Do I just need to have pci express slots? What's the diff between pci/pci express/sli, etc?

PCI Express is the second generation of PCI, but that doesn't even really justify the gap between the two. Needless to say, you need PCIe for the video card you linked (or anything made this decade that isn't AGP). Old PCI won't do it.

SLI is a method of linking two video cards together to work in tandem. So if your motherboard supports SLI, and you wanted to buy two SLI video cards, you could have them work together. Everything I've read says it isn't worth it, though.

What motherboard do you have? That would be the easiest way to tell you what you need to aim for.

This one.

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/docu ... uct=447312

Don't laugh. It's what I got.

So something like this would work better?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102073

Now I have to make sure I can keep it cool and have enough power supply for it? There's no such thing as a cheap upgrade besides ram is there?

I would say yes that looks like about what you're shooting for.

Heat can always be an issue, but I'd try it out befroe I commited to a new power supply or something.

Mildane wrote:So something like this would work better?

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... 6814102073

Now I have to make sure I can keep it cool and have enough power supply for it? There's no such thing as a cheap upgrade besides ram is there?

Yeah, that would work. I'd personally go with an nVidia card, but newegg seems to not have any nVidia AGP cards worth having.

AGP cards are becoming very rare.

This link is to Tom's Hardware last "Best Gaming Graphics Cards For The Money" for the AGP Interface

I like those monthly articles by Tom's hardware and use them when I am building a computer.

Yeah I noticed the nvidia cards in agp werent up to the same standards as ati on newegg. I'm thinking about just changing the motherboard too if I can get funding but I might be in over my head trying something like that. We'll see.

Newegg is all I have ever really used for online component shopping. Are there any other good, trustworthy sites out there?

I notice a lot of the video cards utilize different types of memory technology. If I'm going to upgrade on this mobo, would I need the card to be standard DDR or does it matter?

Mildane wrote:I notice a lot of the video cards utilize different types of memory technology. If I'm going to upgrade on this mobo, would I need the card to be standard DDR or does it matter?

It doesn't matter.

As for your previous question, I have no idea. I always use NCIX, but I'm not sure their deals would be worth you paying the shipping from a Canadian site.

I've kind of been toying with building my own system on newegg. Just curious, how do you know what kind of power supply to get?

Mildane wrote:I've kind of been toying with building my own system on newegg. Just curious, how do you know what kind of power supply to get?

Go big or go home. I just recently put a 700W PS in my computer, and personally I would recommend > 600W, just to be safe.

From what I've been reading here...

http://www.playtool.com/pages/psuconnec ... ctors.html

it seems that I want a single 12v rail psu with no current limiter, that has all the right connections for my components, and delivers enough wattage to power everything. Sound about right?

So, if you have an AMD motherboard then you can use Nvidia video cards, you just can't SLI, right?

Whether its a Intel or AMD motherboard, it depends on your motherboard's specifications.

SLI is probably a waste of money for a budget system. The performance increase probably just isn't worth it for the extra money.

Get a pretty nice single PCIe card and you will be happy with it.