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Graphics card and/or memory for PC
DouglasDanger
PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
PennsylvaniaRegistered User regular
My wife plays a lot of The Sims 2 and Second Life. These games will run on her computer, but they eventually crash or have serious frame rate issues or virtual memory problems. Her birthday is coming up (Feb 6) and I want to update her computer. I am thinking either a new graphics card or more memory, maybe both. I don't know how to being shopping for either of those things, or even want kind of stuff I need to know to make sure I buy the right stuff.
Her computer is a Dell Dimension (DIM4600), with Pentium 4 2.4GHz and 256MB of RAM. There is a really long number that I have found too that I am guessing is important: 55277-OEM-0011903-00102.
Can any of you guys help me out? I don't have a ton of money to spend. I want a good graphics card, but it doesn't need to be super cutting edge. She will probably just keeping playing The Sims 2 and Second Life. I don't see her playing Crysis or Unreal Tourney or anything that is a "I need to buy the best graphics card I can find" game.
Her computer is a Dell Dimension (DIM4600), with Pentium 4 2.4GHz and 256MB of RAM. There is a really long number that I have found too that I am guessing is important: 55277-OEM-0011903-00102.
Can any of you guys help me out? I don't have a ton of money to spend. I want a good graphics card, but it doesn't need to be super cutting edge. She will probably just keeping playing The Sims 2 and Second Life. I don't see her playing Crysis or Unreal Tourney or anything that is a "I need to buy the best graphics card I can find" game.
DouglasDanger on
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A good site to use to find out what sort you need is http://www.corsair.com/configurator/
I think the 4600 uses an AGP slot, if so, again you're paying more because it's obsolete hardware, but $70 will get you an AGP ATI1650, less if you want to risk the rebate offers. I'd buy ram over the graphics card,
If you're american www.newegg.com seems to be a general goto site.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820161623
ram, it's a brand I've never heard of but they offer lifetime warrenty, so they've got to be fairly confident and all the reviews are good
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161052
video card. not going to set the world in fire, but it's probably going to be an upgrade from whatever you've got.
Other people might have better suggestions, and it usually helps if you list a budget with these type of questions or everyone just guesses. I wouldn't really go for any vid card that was higher powered because of PSU issues. Dells suck when it comes to upgradability.
Kingston is good stuff. You might pay a few dollars for it over the ObscurityTech brand, but you don't have to worry about it being DoA.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102711 at $99
or
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102081 at $56
If you have the extra $50, I'd get the 2600 to guarantee the lack of problems. Though, the 1550 will run it, no problems.
It seems that using the driver CD that came with the card is key to getting it to work, but it'd be less of a hassle to pick the 1550, or the 1650pro.
Diamond Viper Radeon X1650PRO Graphics Card - ATi Radeon X1650PRO 600MHz - 512MB GDDR2 SDRAM
http://www.buy.com/prod/diamond-viper-radeon-x1650pro-graphics-card-ati-radeon-x1650pro-600mhz/q/loc/101/204105916.html
I can't really find any quality reviews for it. Is this worth getting?
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