Can you upgrade a graphics chipset to a graphics card?

[ladyofwinter]

Hello,

I'm looking at buying my kids computer and was looking at the Acer Aspire All-in-On Z3101. My problem is that they want to be able to play Starcraft 2 on it and according to the specs, this computer comes with the 512 MB NVIDIA® GeForce® 9200 chipset. Can a chipset be upgraded to a card?

Thanks...

 

[wolfram23]

Yes definitely. You add a graphics card into a PCIe slot and hook the monitor up to that. It'll disable the onboard graphics chip.

Oh wait. I just looked up that computer. In that one, no not really. It's actually more of a laptop than a desktop and unless Acer is willing to put a graphics card in it before it ships you're going to have a hell of a time doing it.

 

[Griffolion]

May i suggest that you build your own PC?

For the price that I'm seeing that machine with, and with what you say you want it to do, you may be better off building your own from scratch.

In answer to your actual question, no a chipset cannot be upgraded to a card. A discrete card can be added in via a PCI-Express 2.0 slot, however i am suspecting that does not have one available due to it's form factor.

For the record, that chipset will not play starcraft too well.

What is your budget?

 

[wolfram23]

Well the Aspire Z3 is apparently $600. Just checking their site I found another same priced PC
http://us.acer.com/ac/en/US/content/model/PT.SF602.003

This one you would definitely be able to put a graphics card into.

That said, for the same price you could build your own that'll be significantly faster. If you have anyone tech-savvy in the family, putting it together is very simple once you get all the parts. Also depending where you're from, if you buy the parts at a local store (or at least the motherboard and CPU) they will install the CPU for you, which is the "hardest" part of putting it all together (but still not tough).

If you'd like to do something like that let us know and we can help pick stuff out for a decent rig. Like Griffolion said, what would the total budget be? And I would assume you need a monitor, mouse, keyboard as well. Maybe speakers too?

 

[jjb8675309]

starcraft favors nvidia so if your power supply and budget can handle it I would go for somethign along the lines of a gtx 460 1 gig, but there are still a lot of factors at play here, what is your monitors resolution and what is the make and model of your psu

 

[ladyofwinter]

Thank you all for your answers. The only tech-savvy person in the family is currently in Singapore on business and he won't be back until April. So, I'm kinda on my own. Maybe I should just have Dell build one? My budget is around $1000 for monitor and system. I already have a good keyboard and mouse. But, I suppose speakers would be a good idea too.

 

[wolfram23]

Yeah or you can look around there's quite a few custom PC builders, just a quick look I found this place http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Xtreme_2000/

It's under 1000 with good components. The only change I'd make is maybe upgrade the GPU a bit like a 5850 (comes with 5770) but I'd wager even the 5770 would make you guys happy, it's a decent card.

 

[ladyofwinter]

Thanks so much for the link. I will most-likely be ordering from them. All your help has been appreciated!

 

[ladyofwinter]

Best answer selected by ladyofwinter.

 

[Mousemonkey]

This topic has been closed by Mousemonkey