Old Dimension E521- trying to upgrade video for son

Check the color, length, and placement of the slot. Usually AGP is brown, and farther away from the case than a PCI slot (which is white). If the MB uses AGP, I'd say there really isnt a card to get, the cheapest and most powerful is the HD 2600 PRO from ATI.
If the motherboard has PCIe, the best for $60 is probably 8600GT or GTS if youre lucky. Other than that, most choices are more than $60.

maybe you could get a new mother board with integrated graphics just look for the same cpu slot type

There are a few smaller pci slots and the one that looks like a video card slot is a little longer and has a hold down clip on the end. Its blue maybe black in color - is there some software or something I can use to look and see if its pci-e?

It's a PCI-e 16x slot. Your PSU has 22A on the 12v rails, but doesn't have a 6-pin power connector, so the 8600GT mentioned above would be a good fit.

8600gt i have requires at least 350 watts it might not be right for you

If I were to go to the route of the 8600gt would that be able to run world of warcraft for him? Should I be worried about the power supply? I really do not want to upgrade the entire computer - just the video card.

Dell - N305n-03
input 100-120v / 9.0a 50-60 ghz
200-240 /4.5a
Output +5v / 22.0a -12v / 1.0a
+12va / 18.0a +3.3v / 17.0a
+12vb / 18.0a +5vfp / 2.0a

max comined power on +5v a 3.3v output is 150pw
max combined output current on +12va % 12vb output is 264 w


so not seeing any 22's anywhere- I have no idea what any of that stuff means. Just a single mom trying to help her son out. Thanks for the help guys -

Andrea

Edit: carver_g beat me to it.

264/12=22.

Wonderful - so with all that out of the way I need to find this 8600gt - I went to newegg and the cheapest was

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814136019

Someone for mentioned :

"Your PSU has 22A on the 12v rails, but doesn't have a 6-pin power connector, so the 8600GT mentioned above would be a good fit. "

Will the video card work - I have no idea what a 6pin power connector is - but this one is cheap and has no rebates which works for me. Thanks again for all the help.

Andrea

I ran an 8600GT in my E521 for almost a year with no issues on the stock psu.
I even ran my 8800GT in it with an upgraded psu.
This is the card:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814150229

So
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814136019
that video card will work with the PSU since someone said
"Your PSU has 22A on the 12v rails, but doesn't have a 6-pin power connector."


type - ddr2
size 512 mb
channel single
dram 250.5
cpu/8
4
4
4
12
17
t1

That particular 8600GT does not require the 6-pin connector- you should be fine.

Here is a pair of 2x1GB RAM sticks for $37. Replace the 512MB stick that's already in there and you should be cruising. This will significantly increase performance in every aspect- boot up times, web surfing, gaming. Last year that pair cost $150. RAM has never been this cheap. I'm not saying you should buy it right now, but it would definitely be a good option to upgrade to in the near future.

before getting the ram look into the mhz transfer rate for best performance

I have been following this with great interest because I have a Dell Dimension E521. I would like to upgrade the video card because I would like to run RealFlight G4 sim. Do you think the 8600GT would be a good card for the sim? I sure would like to here the results of Andria's upgrade.

Ken

I brought 4 gb of ddr2-800 made for my Dell Dimension e521 computer for $53.72 total including tax. It has am AMD Athlon Dual Core Processor 3600+. Eight hundred MHz is the fast memory you can install in this computer The AMD Athlon processor has a 1ghz memory bus. This is best deal I have seen on memory for m Dell E521.

4alldeals

4 All Deals Item #22903962
1GB DDR2-800 Dell Dimension E521 Memory RAM
Price: $13.43
Quantity: 4
Inventory SKU: 53819-01
Date: 4/17/2009 8:53:37 PM

Subtotal: $53.72
Shipping & Handling: $0.00
Sales Tax: $0.00
-----------------------------------
Purchase Total: $53.72

If it's PCI-e I'd say your best bet is a GTX295. No overkill there.

Im hoping that guy was being sarcastic

You guys wanting to upgrade to a gpu will be seriously...seriously limited on performance and even with this cpu upgrade you won't be able to run games like GTA which thrive on quad cores....

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6819103274

Since i doubt your dells support overclocking there is a CHEAP! cpu with a stock 3ghz clock

You could also look on ebay and maybe pick up a cheap amd 6000+ for around the same price...or even the cpu from newegg for a lower price on ebay...

Best of luck

I have a an E521, you can run the 8600GT in it with no problem. Although i would suggest looking at the ATI 4670, its a much better card for the same price. If you do get the 8600GT, make sure it uses DDR3 memory as most of the 1GB cards use DDR2. Neither the 8600GT or the 4670 need or able to fully utilize 1GB of memory anyway.

As far as ram memory, unless you have Vista, 3GBs is more then enough and XP can't even utilize 4GBs.

If you upgrade the GPU, you will see very little difference in FPS compared to upgrading the CPU, because WoW is a CPU intensive game. I had a 64 X2 3800 with x850, upgraded to an HD 3850 and... hardly any difference.

I need to do the same thing with the same computer and realflight ,..Maybe by now you know what option works in this circumstance?...I'm puzzled still..I purchased a pci express card and it didn't fit in the chassis..(GEFORCE 7300LE 256MB)..It has a nvidia 6500 integrated video and I'm not sure if I should disable that before adding a card,..but I havn't got to that far as the card would not fit physically..My son really want's to fly the Realflight G3.5 simulator,.and I'm looking for answers...hoping you worked it out...Thanxxx

the 7300LE came standard on most E521, the card will fit