SSF upgrade?

[erickp]

I just inherited a Compaq EVO d510(d51s) and it's a small form factor unit. I'm not a PC guy(mostly Mac) but I'd like to try and upgrade as much as possible so I can play games like WoW, Battlefield, Etc. I know it's not the ideal gaming machine and I'm not going to build a new one so I'll like to just update the "Graphics Card" and "Memory". At the moment it's running off the integrated Intel Graphics chip. Can anyone recommend some decent graphic cards that would fit this unit? I would greatly appreciated.

SPECs:
Compaq EVO D510 (Intel 845G Chipset)
Intel Pentium 4 - 2.4GHz w/533 front side bus

Memory: DDR 512megs

SLOTS:
PCI - 2 full hight half-lenth slots on riser board
AGP - 1 AFP 4x, 1.5V(low profile, total bays=3)

Power Supply - Custom Power Supply - Full-ranging APFC(no line select) 90 to 264VAC / 175W




Thanks!!!

~e

 

[SilentKiller5]

At least get another 512MB of RAM, that's quite necessary for games like BF2 (if you want them to run at smooth frame rates). Since you're stuck with an AGP interface, your graphics card upgrades are limited, but I'm guessing since you aren't much of a PC enthusiast, you don't want a high-end system. In this case, I'd reccomend you try an X800 GTO. You can get them for as little as $121 (open-box) on Newegg, and it'll be able to get you nice, smooth frame rates at med/high settings in BF2.

So the budget could probably be:

-$50 for 512 MB RAM
-$125 (shipping included) for X800 GTO

That's $175 for to transform an ordinary mainstream computer into a mainstream gaming computer. I don't think that's too bad .

*EDIT*

Sorry, didn't take in mind your power supply. You might need to upgrade it to get enough power for an X800 GTO, but I'm no expert on power consumption, so ask someone else .

Link to X800 GTO: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16814102609R

In terms of RAM, I can't reccomend anything to you without knowing what types of RAM your motherboard supports... if you could check, then I could give you a reccomendation.

 

[erickp]

Thank you for response.

I'll look into the X800. Someone else recommended the Nvidia 6200. Is this card similar? As far as power supplies,according to the Nvidia 6200 spec's it does require a minimum power supply of 300w. So I'm assuming it'll be similar for the X800. Are the power supplies the same for Small Form Factor?

As far as memory, it's using PC2700(184-pin DIMM). I looked it up on Crucial and it seems pretty reasonably priced. Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
~e

 

[prozac26]

X800 pwns 6200. Don't get a 6200.

Your power supply could be good enough for the upgrade, you might need to upgrade that too.

 

[SilentKiller5]

Thank you for response.

I'll look into the X800. Someone else recommended the Nvidia 6200. Is this card similar? As far as power supplies,according to the Nvidia 6200 spec's it does require a minimum power supply of 300w. So I'm assuming it'll be similar for the X800. Are the power supplies the same for Small Form Factor?

As far as memory, it's using PC2700(184-pin DIMM). I looked it up on Crucial and it seems pretty reasonably priced. Any other suggestions?

Thanks!
~e

Yeah, as prozac said, don't go for the 6200. The X800 GTO owns a 6200 any day, and still beats out a 6600 and even any 6800 when Overclocked.

For memory, according to your memory type, this should be good:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16820141470

It may not be the least expensive of its kind, but it's genuine Kingston memory, so you can trust that it's some quality RAM.