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Old Dell Dim 3000 P4 Upgrade...

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Graphics card Expert

I've been doing a little cleaning and minor upgrading to an old Dell Dimensions 3000, with a P4 3.2GHz, I had laying around (was a little bored :D  ) for my youngest son. I've switched out the stock cooler with a Thermaltake TR2-M12, new 500GB IDE hard drive, up the RAM to 1GB and I thought about adding an a PCI slot GPU. The system is running a lot faster with the new hard drive than it was went I got it from a friend a while back. My next logical choose would be add a GPU to help give it a little more graphics power. Here are some GPU's I was looking at and wanted your feedback!
  • PNY VCG84512SPEB GeForce 8400 GS 512MB 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Video Card - Retail
  • EVGA 01G-P1-N948-LR GeForce 9400 GT 1GB 128-bit DDR2 PCI HDCP Ready Low Profile Ready Video Card - Retail
  • Open to suggestions! (Even if it is... (It is a waste of your money to add a GPU")


    Thanks for your feedback!

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    Graphics card Master

    They are both better than the integrated 9400gt is the better of the two. Neither would be considered gaming card so it boils down how light you want to make your pocket.

    Best solution

    those cards are PCI not PCI-E so I'm assuming Dimension 3000's don't have a AGP slot (nor a PCI-E slot).

    In that case, I'm fairly certain the PCI video card will be fairly bottlenecked. that slot usually only has 33MHz bus. The integrated graphics probably runs on an internal AGP bus, even if there's no slot so it has a lot more bandwidth to play with.

    You might want to go cheaper than a 9400GT if you can. It might not make a difference. If I had to pick from those 2, I'd go with the 8400GS since it's cheap. Or even stick with the integrated solution since it's probably fine for 2D.

    On the other hand, for the money you'd spend on a PCI GPU upgrade, you may be able to score a barebones case/mobo/psu (maybe even a P4 775 CPU) that is more upgradeable. Reuse the RAM and opticals and you'd be in good shape (for a P4 at least). Just a thought.
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    Graphics card Expert

    I went with the 8400GS PCI slot video card... Didn't feel the need to spend about twice as much for a 9400GT, when the system it's self isn't worth much more than $100.. IMO.
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