This may be a really stupid question, but two years ago i bought a Dell Dimension 1100. Only now i've decided to upgrade it after crappy performance from it's basic Intel 85865G, however, i've realised it only has 3 PCI slots.

Is there any way of putting PCI-E cards into it? Or what good PCI cards are available? I'm not looking to buy a new motherboard, just a graphics card.

No, there is no way of putting PCI-E cards into PCI slots. There are not any good PCI cards available. You have no choice but upgrade motherboard.

Ditto what Dagger said.

Unfortunately Dell decided to save themselves $2 and leave an AGP/PCI-e slot off your mobo rather than look out for their customers. Typical disposable Dell, and way to force you to buy a better system.

If however you play older games at fairly low res, then there may be some PCI cards worth considering that are far better and more compatible than your GMA integrated. What res and what games?

Look for a cheap used Radeon 9250 128 bit. They are $40-50 new. It's 4 year old DX8.1 technolgy though, so keep that in mind if you want to play newer games. You need really low expectations or you are sure to be dissapointed. The $100+ PCI options like the X1300 are better, but are too weak for the price too.

edit: Here is a new one for example: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814161184

DX8 just don't cut it anymore. Basically, all games from the last few years, even lower level casual games, require at least DX9 to run. It's not just a matter of low performance, the program won't start at all.

Not true, The orange box can be played on DX8.0 hardware. You can play Halflife 2 on DX 7 hardware. DX8.1 cards like the 9250 are supported for BF2 and Morrowind. other games that support the radeon 8500 (DX8.1) are NFS:carbon, C&C 3, and Fear. maybe he/she just wants to play WOW.

But yes, there is a difference between can you play them and would you want to play them on a R9250.


(edit: not farcry)

I have an old dell dimension 2200 and it only has 4 PCI slots, whats a cheap PCI card?
I'll mainly be using that computer for old games and compatibility reasons.

128-bit X1550 is the best PCI gaming card I'm aware of. Just the price is so huge, even if it was in stock. And compared to PCI-e ......... painful options.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814103031

might be bottlenecked buy my crappy 1.2GHz celaron

Look for a cheap used 128-bit Radeon 9250 or FX5200. Preferable avoid 64-bit versions.

ok thx

Thanks everyone, i think the X1550 or the 9250 are good options, but it says on the ati site that the x1550 has a PCI-E interface?. And is the fx series mainly for video creating/editing?

And to Pauldh, i'm playing WoW and wanting to get CoD4. At 800x600 resolution and lowest settings i'm still looking at 10-20 fps, with frequent stutters every few seconds, some lasting 2 or more seconds

Would x1550's sell retail anywhere in Australia? I might check on eBay, or wait until newegg has them in stock

it only says that because PCI has such a negative connotation towards the VGA consumer market

http://www.diamondmm.com/X1550PRO256P.php
There is the PCI version for sale on Diamonds website.

And here is the PCI spec sheet:
http://www.diamondmm.com/images/ma [...] _sheet.pdf

So they make it for both interfaces. It's Too expensive, but yeah, make sure you do get a PCI version not PCI-e for whatever card you buy.

Thanks heaps paul, i think my mind is set on that now, until i earn more to blow on a completely new pc.

Any idea on how many fps i would be looking at whilst playing cod4 or wow with the x1550pro?

WOW you should be fine. But I wouldn't expect much from COD4 out of an X1550. Should be playable I guess as it's above minimum spec. Think of the X1550 as a X1300 pro, if you can find performance for either in a 128-bit version, that should give you an idea. Halflife 2 would play pretty well.

Again, the price is hard to swallow though.