Need help picking a card

[justgeorge]

I read all of the stickies and I don't feel any smarter than I did before I started. I'm going to do what one sticky suggested tell you about my computer. I'm running Vista Home Premium SP2. I have a 500GB WD hard drive which I'm probably going to end up changing due to failure. I may stay with the Caviar Blue 500GB or move up to Caviar Black 1TB.

I want to get a much better video card but I don't know one from the other. All I know about video cards is the make the picture. I took the info and tried to fill it out best I could. I don't know where or how to find out how many pins, or if I need SLI, or what my mobo is even compatible with. Acer is not big on giving out information on their products. I build kitchens and need a graphics card that will render a decent picture without bottoming out due to lack of space. I'm thinking 1TB. Doesn't need to have bells and whistles, but I don't want something that I'll have to replace real soon either.

APPROXIMATE PURCHASE DATE: I assume this refers to when I plan to buy. ASAP
BUDGET RANGE: After Rebates USD $75-140
USAGE FROM MOST TO LEAST IMPORTANT: fairly high end graphics, home use, not for gaming
CURRENT GPU: ATI Radeon X1650 256MB PCI express x16
POWER SUPPLY500W CoolMaster extreme power plus
OTHER RELEVANT SYSTEM SPECS: make/model of CPU: Intel core 2 Quad, MODEL Q6600 MoBo: Acer FG965M , Memory 4GB
PREFERRED WEBSITE(S) FOR PARTS: (e.g.: newegg.com, ncix.com
PARTS PREFERENCES: No preference
OVERCLOCKING: No SLI OR CROSSFIRE: Don’t know if I need it, or what mobo takes.
MONITOR RESOLUTION: 1680x1050,
ADDITIONAL COMMENTS: must have fan

Hope this helps, Thanks

George

 

[benski]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127481

 

[justgeorge]

Benski
Thanks. Looks like I missed the boat on that one they are out of stock.

I forgot to mention my HD is SATA with a RAID controller. I don't know why the RAID is on there, I'm only running 1 HD. A friend of mine suggested the Nvidia GTS450, but that looks like a lot more care than my system will handle???

 

[benski]

Your system should "handle" any PCI-E card, but the 450 is overkill if you don't plan on doing any gaming. Any 1gb 5570 or a GT 430 would suit your needs and be at the low end of your budget, the 5570 would have the advantage of running 3 monitors if you ever desired.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130579&cm_re=430-_-14-130-579-_-Product

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814102875&cm_re=5570-_-14-102-875-_-Product

 

[justgeorge]

Benski
what does integrated with a display port mean?

 

[benski]

It just means it has a display port connector built into it. Some of the 5670s have an HDMI connector istead of a display port.

 

[justgeorge]

I don't have high def on anything, my monitor is a vga does that make any difference? Unfortunately when i replaced that I didn't have brains enough to get something better

 

[benski]

I don't have high def on anything, my monitor is a vga does that make any difference? Unfortunately when i replaced that I didn't have brains enough to get something better

Cards will either have vga connectors or come with an adapter to use them so it won't be a problem. I am suprised that any 1680x1050 monitors were made without a DVI connection, they really make no difference though and your resolution is technically high def.

 

[justgeorge]

Benski wrote:

I am suprised that any 1680x1050 monitors were made without a DVI connection, they really make no difference though and your resolution is technically high def.

Just turned this this around and you are right it does have a DVI-D back there. This thing came with 2 cables. I remember now I had them both hooked up. When I took it into the shop to have a hardware diagnostic run on it, the tech told me I didn't need the DVI to unhook it. Is that because the X1650 didn't use it??

Malmental:
I build high end kitchens, all custom work. It helps to sell a job if the customer can see crisp sharp pictures of what they are about to buy. I'm just not getting that with the card I have, not to mention that a full room display covers everything right down to how it's built, screws and all. The last job I did the card bottomed out right in the middle. I had to shut down and open it in another job file. Too darn much work to do it that way. Not to mention I had to download the 2 files to CD and have a friend of mine run a rendering on his computer. I suppose you could say the work I do is a lot of high end rendering.
George

 

[justgeorge]

I'm going to have to pull the case open and measure the one that is in there. I've looked, but I can't find any specs (for my card) with the size.
Tomorrow is Turkey Day and I'm going to have a house full of kids, not a good time to do it.

 

[justgeorge]

Hope your Turkey Day went well, I stuffed my face until I could barely move.

Ok, so I dug into the case this morning. After looking at it and measuring it; I realized I'm not sure what is being measured from where.
On the image "back of card", there is a yellow line. It is 4 1/2" long. Height should not be an issue it's a pretty deep case. Length, I don't know Image "end of card", the light blue line indicates the end of present card. That is about 7 3/4" long. Do I have room for an 8.25 x 4.37 card? (The Gts450) I should don't you think? It's only on sale a couple of more days, so I have to make some kind of decision.

I also couldn't figure out how the old card comes out. From all the stuff on YouTube I should just have to unscrew a couple of screws and slide it out. Mine looks like there are 2 clips that hold it in place. See "Black clip & Green clip pictures" I tried to raise the black one up but I was afraid to pull too hard, in case I broke it. The green clip I think is supposed to work sort of like the end clips that hold your ram in place. I think it just flips back until the card is seated then it snaps back into place. Again since I couldn't get the black one to move I saw no point in messing with the green one.
The last image is the width space I have.
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o103/shopchallenged/backofcard-2.jpg
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o103/shopchallenged/endofcard-1.jpg
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o103/shopchallenged/blackclip.jpg
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o103/shopchallenged/greenclip.jpg
http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o103/shopchallenged/PCIlayout.jpg

 

[justgeorge]

I checked out both of those cards. The 512 is too small. Also Newegg is a lot cheaper than Amazon, is there some reason for that? Same card.
Also I compared three brands of the same (??) card and the prices were all over the place. Isn't it the same card?
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Productcompare.aspx?Submit=ENE&N=100007709&IsNodeId=1&srchInDesc=GT430&page=1&bop=And&ActiveSearchResult=True&CompareItemList=48%7C14-130-580%5E14-130-580-TS%2C14-125-346%5E14-125-346-TS%2C14-133-356%5E14-133-356-TS

You seem down on the GTS 450, is there any reason? It's almost the same money and a much better card, or isn't it??

Right now I have a grey box running around my screen saying input not supported. Somthing is on overload.
George

 

[justgeorge]

When I said too much card, I ment was it too mucch DDR, more than you system ill handle. See I told tyou I know nothing about them :lol:

 

[justgeorge]

What would be at issue?? I would like to get something while it's still on sale. (Preferably today or tomorrow.) You mentioned the 2 slots, after looking at my pictures, would I have room for that? Or does 2 slots mean on the mother board?
Would you agree that the way to get that sucker out would be to lift that black clip up and the green clip being pulled to the left. Looking down into the case as in my pictures? God I can't tell you how much I appreciate this help.

I'm trying to learn stuff on www.beyourownit.com free lessons, but they are talking about machines built way before mine. He's still talking IDE ribbons on the HD. They go over the basic parts, but the inside of what they show in the videos looks nothing like mine so it makes it harder to see where they are when they talk about something. For instance I tried finding that RAID block on the mobo. I thought I'd be looking for a small square (rectangular) block with a cable running from somewhere.
The course is free so I can't gripe too much. I spend a lot of time googling stuff; trying to learn what the hell I'm doing. How these kids at 15 and 16 are building machines from scratch is beyond my comprehension. Hard to teach an OLD dog new tricks I guess. :lol:

 

[justgeorge]

PS Size does matter :lol: The 256 I'm running now locks up right in the middle or first part of a job. The card has to be able to hold a significant amount of stuff in the memory. Not to mention still be able to give me a top quality render when I'm done.

 

[justgeorge]

Does it plug into the yellow slot, or do I just have to pull one of those plates out on the back?

 

[justgeorge]

wrong yelloew good you checked http://i118.photobucket.com/albums [...] layout.jpg

 

[justgeorge]

how about this one, it's a better shot anyway http://i118.photobucket.com/albums [...] ckclip.jpg

 

[justgeorge]

Try going back up 7 posts and see if the link for the 3rd on down works, meanwhile I'll see if I can send a new link

 

[justgeorge]

http://i118.photobucket.com/albums/o103/shopchallenged/blackclip.jpg

 

[justgeorge]

If you were me would you go for it??? I hate to miss that $45 rebate deadline, but once I buy it I can't return it. Once I claim the rebate it's mine plus I don't think Newegg takes things back unless there is something wrong with them anyway.

 

[justgeorge]

Thanks My worry with the 240 is I'm not sure how much the graphic requirements for this cabinet program might change in the next year. Lot of grumbling on the forum about an upgrade. I just don't want to come up short on performance.

You deserve about 6 badges for hanging in there.

Thanks again George

 

[justgeorge]

Best answer selected by justgeorge.

 

[justgeorge]

I'll probably be back asking how the F do I put it in
George

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey