Ok so I did a little research and believe this upgrade will be fine. I just wanted some verification or some feelgood from you guys/gals.
My roomate has a Dell Dimension 9200 that he purchased a year+ ago. I believe it has a 375W powersupply, I have not verified but all websites have stated this model only comes with this PSU unit. It was purchased with a 7900GS video card and for all intensive purposes has suited him well. I have finally brought him over to the dark side. Me and my buddy installed a, umm, not so legit copy of COD4 on his machine which allowed him to play single player and with me on a LAN connection, but obviously not online. He finally said he thinks he wants to buy it to play online. I see it is down to $40 online so that has encouraged him to buy it. He has a 19"lcd at 1280x1024 and it plays ok on his card. Everything is turned down at 1280x1024 w/ VSYNC on, otherwise it studders oddly like everyone else notices. I want him to have a good experience and a decent cheap video card that would let him play mostly maxed. I was thinking an 8800GS would do the trick for him and at $105 after rebate its a steal.
I'll turn him into a casual gamer yet! His machine is not half bad. He asked my advice on a PC and did not want one build, he wanted a brand name with warranty. I offered to build one, but he was living in DC at the time.
a year+ ago for $999 he got a Dell Dimension 9200 Small Business PC w/ 19 lcd.
Core2Duo e6300
1GB DDR2 667 memory
120GB HD
7900GS video card
for $1000 I didn't think it was to shabby. I'm trying to get him to spring for 2GB of DDR2 800 memory cause it so stupidly cheap.
Hey Jay! I think the extra memory would be a big bonus, and that card is fantastic for the price. It only requires 7 amps!
Dell has gotten pretty ridiculous with their pricing, offered to build a co-worker a new system but he picked up a Dell 530 with a Q6600, 3 GB DDR2 800, 500GB HD, and a 19" monitor for only $650!
Yeah i know. I mean honestly for what it was at the time $1000 w/ a 19" digital lcd was pretty good. I think I pieced a similar system together for him and it was around $900. It was from Dell Small Business and I had a $300 off coupon code. So he went with that. It's pretty solid and had NO crap loaded on it besides, windows XP pro and a few small Dell support icons. Nothing like the consumer PC's come with. I hate all that junk. I think I only had to remove the Dell support icon and resident app in the system tray and everything else was plain Jane.
Yeah I figured for an occasional gamer the 8800gs perfect for him and cheap.
And XP Pro to boot, pun intended! These days for budget systems Dell seems to be doing a decent job.
I think since most of us here tend to re-use at least a part or two from an old system when building a new system it's still much more economical, and fun, to build a new system by hand.
And XP Pro to boot, pun intended! These days for budget systems Dell seems to be doing a decent job.
I think since most of us here tend to re-use at least a part or two from an old system when building a new system it's still much more economical, and fun, to build a new system by hand.
I totally agree. He was in a large city at the time and didn't want to deal with getting someone to work on it if something broke. Apparently Dell techs run all over the city and all he had to do was call in a warranty claim and they were on the spot. I don't blame him. As for me I haven't bought a machine.... um EVER, I always built them.
He can put a much better card in the D9200 if he wanted to, I run a GTS 640 in mine. Maybe you can get him to do a little overclocking;
http://www.starless.nl/overclock
Yeah he is not going to be into an OC that isn't as easy as a bios setting change. He doesn't play any games except COD4 which i suckered him into. If I can get him to upgrade his video I will be very impressed.
Did you get the card, and is it working? I have the same computer (Dimension 9200) and the same card 7900GS and am thinking about upgrading the card. 7900GS has troubles with several games -- the boards claim design flaws, but I am not sure.
The card you wanted to purchase seems to be still on sale, but today is the last day for the rebate. Dimension 9200 has 375W power supply, but the card requires 400W minimum according to the manufacturer's website:
