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Member since 2003 • 25 Posts

Thank you in advance for your time and I am grateful for any advice that you can offer.

I recently purchased a Dell Dimension E521. The system specs are as follows:

AMD Athlon 64 X2 3800 (2.00GHz) / 1GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533mhz / 20 inch widescreen ultra sharp monitor / integrated graphics / Windows Vista Home Premium / Integrated Audio

-I have been looking on sites such as tomshardware and computershopper.com to try to figure out what kind of video card to upgrade to as even Half Life 2: Episode One struggles to run with the current set up. I have not played computer games in years and am not sure how to find out what kind of slots I have open in which to install this new card (i.e. PCI, AGP, etc.) I am hoping to spend under $200. Is it a good idea to upgrade now and then buy a better DirectX 10 card in the winter, or is it a better idea to wait for cheaper Directx 10 cards to come out? Does anyone know when these cards will come out? Do certain cards support DVI, while others do not?

I am open to any suggestions that you might have. I also understand that I should consider upgrading my RAM and my sound card in the near future, so any suggestions on those fronts are more than appreciated.

Thanks again -

17 years ago

12552

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Member since 2004 • 12552 Posts

If I'm not mistaken, the E521 uses a PCI-e x16 slot (which is a good thing). My only concern would be your power supply of 305w, which may not be up to the task of handling a better graphics card. Using this power supply calculator, I'd say you're good to go, but if you do run into any problems like random shut-downs, the power supply would be the first culprit. I'd look into the 7900GS or X1950 Pro for your machine, they're both perfect for your system and won't bottleneck anything. The X1950 Pro is more powerful, but the EVGA 7900GS has a step-up program that allows you to trade in your video card for full price within a certain time-frame, and put the money towards a new card from EVGA. A good way to go if you want to upgrade to DirectX 10 next month.

17 years ago

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Member since 2003 • 25 Posts

Thanks for the links - that seems like a pretty good idea. Do you know when those cheaper Directx 10 cards are coming out? Also, if I do need to upgrade my power supply, what should I upgrade it to in order to avoid crashes? I appreciate your help. It's always daunting when a brand new computer is already obsolete...

17 years ago

12552

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Member since 2004 • 12552 Posts

Thanks for the links - that seems like a pretty good idea. Do you know when those cheaper Directx 10 cards are coming out? Also, if I do need to upgrade my power supply, what should I upgrade it to in order to avoid crashes? I appreciate your help. It's always daunting when a brand new computer is already obsolete...js8mc

The rumour mill has the 8600 cards coming out next month, but for the power supply, that's going to be trickier. I'm not sure if that power supply is one you can upgrade, or not - it doesn't appear to be a standard ATX layout from the pictures I can see, so you're going to either find out if Dell makes a more powerful one, or call PC Power & Cooling and ask if their Dell Power Supplies will work on your machine.

17 years ago

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#5 TwistedBishop

Member since 2006 • 33 Posts

I would second the suggestion of just getting a 7900GS. Powerful card, cheap price, won't require screwing with your power supply.

17 years ago

20155

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Member since 2004 • 20155 Posts

Dell supplies PSU's that don't give you much space to upgrade, let alone install heavy power demanding GPU's. I would play safe and get a 7900GS or something, not an 8800

17 years ago

2552

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Member since 2005 • 2552 Posts

I suggest: (if your PSU is adequate) 1. Radeon X1950Pro 2. GeForce 7900GS 3. Radeon X1650XT 4. GeForce 7600GT

17 years ago

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Member since 2004 • 2589 Posts

I have the same question. I have a Dell XPS 410 with the Intel core 2 duo at 1.86 and an ati radeon 1300 pro. I am just getting into the gaming aspect on the pc and don't really know a lot about this stuff. Is there an online place that I can go to that may help me learn about upgradeing and that stuff?

17 years ago

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#9 TwistedBishop

Member since 2006 • 33 Posts

I don't really know of one specific place that will be the resource you probably want.

PC gaming hardware is pretty simple at its core. Your video card is God. Your CPU and RAM closely follow. Your power supply needs to be able to handle your video card. That's about all there is to it.

Being you have a Dell, changing your cpu isn't really the easiest thing. And overclocking is impossible.

That leaves you with three tasks.

1) Find out what wattage your power supply is, and what it's combined +12v rating is. This is crucial for your video card upgrades.

2) If you don't have 2GB of RAM, you'll want to upgrade to that. Just match the ram that came with your PC, ie DDR2-533 or whatever.

3) Get a new video card about every 1-2 years. Google up some benchmarks for the latest cards and read forums like these.

Eventually you'll want to upgrade your CPU. However, considering you currently have a Core 2 Duo, that's a very low priority for the future.

Google is really your best friend in this whole process. I particularly like the Anandtech reviews of PC hardware myself. Just be careful that you don't fall into the trap of obsessing over hardware at the expense of actually playing games. You can make yourself sick looking at benchmarks after a while.

17 years ago

11489

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Member since 2006 • 11489 Posts

I have the same question. I have a Dell XPS 410 with the Intel core 2 duo at 1.86 and an ati radeon 1300 pro. I am just getting into the gaming aspect on the pc and don't really know a lot about this stuff. Is there an online place that I can go to that may help me learn about upgradeing and that stuff?Lorindol

http://www.tweakguides.com/

17 years ago

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Member since 2006 • 5812 Posts

If you do a google search im positive you will find an endless amount of guides for just abbout anything to do with coomputers. And seeing as you have DDR2 ram i would say that you almost certainly have a PCI-E x16 slot. The 7900gs is a great card and very un-demanding on the power supply. And if you get one with decent cooling you will be able to overclock it by loads and loads

17 years ago

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Member since 2005 • 7535 Posts

if your graphics card is intergrated doesn't that mean that you cannot upgrade your card?

17 years ago

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#13 TwistedBishop

Member since 2006 • 33 Posts

Not at all. The integrated graphics are on the motherboard itself. You install the PCI-E card as you normally would any card, and it supercedes the onboard graphics.

17 years ago

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Member since 2003 • 25 Posts

Forgive my ignorance, but before I purchase the 7900 GS I want to be sure of a few things. Can the Dell E521 that I posted run the cheaper direct x 10 cards that are supposedly coming out next month, or will the power supply definitely not handle those? I will be calling around to see about the power supply upgrade, but if I'm stuck with what came from the factory I'd like to be sure of what the maximum I can run is without spending a fortune. Thank you again for any help - I appreciate all of your posts. This forum is saving me a lot of time and frustration.

17 years ago

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#15 TwistedBishop

Member since 2006 • 33 Posts

Historically the budget cards in a line have far less severe power supply requirements. There will definitely be some DX10 card your power supply (likely a 300W 18A model, as I suspect that's what companies like Dell stick us with) can handle.

17 years ago

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Member since 2006 • 2753 Posts

@Lorindol It is confirmed that an 8800 GTS (640,320 mb all the same) will work with your pc. I have it in my spare dell xps 400.

17 years ago

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