Graphic card Upgrade Question?Please Help!?

[kashan123999]

Hello All,I am a Complete newbie here,I found this forum very responsive and Good (not like yahoo answers),Searched all the way but could not "PROPERLY" find the answer of my question...
I have a crappy Dell Optiplex GX280 Small Mini Tower CPU, I upgraded my psu to 450 watt....Please tell Me which Graphic card should I buy,Which will be the best bet,Price Medium ranged,And MOST IMPORTANTLY,Will Fit in My Small Mini Tower Casing???...I am considering NVIDIA 9600gt,9500gt,GT240 or in case of ATI, 4670,5670,4870 (Difficult)...I know It is Very terrible,bottlenecked system but please tell me...My friend has the similar system with 9600gt and he is running COD4,MW2 smoothly though on medium settings...So I also want to run it and also want to play some RTS, and more FPS games....

 

[shin0bi272]

well you'll probably need a single slot card either way you go so that's another limiting factor... also whats the amperage on the 12v rail(s) on your psu? The real limiting factor here though is your cpu. its a single core 2.8-3.4ghz p4 prescott so there isnt a great solution short of a complete system overhaul (and a MUCH larger case) that will really solve all your problems. [edit to delete previous info]

[edit to insert new info]
oooh nvm I found a dell site that has the ability to measure the inside of the case via an interactive display. The biggest card it looks like you can put in it is a 9" card. but the good news is that unless your 2 pci slots are occupied you can get a dual slot card! buuut unfortunately your pci-e slot is 1.0a .... which means it will not support a pci-e 2.0 card. Soooo youre limited to a max of the nvidia 8800gts (do not get the 8800gt or the 8800gts 512mb because they are pci-e 2.0)... even then it might be a tight fit and you may have to go with something even smaller... but best estimate (since the card's specs put it at the pcb being 9.0" and with the bracket its 9.5" but I think that's including the part of the bracket that mounts flush with the back of the pc as being that extra .5") that's the highest card your mobo can take and that will fit in your case. Not sure if there's a comparable one from amd/ati but you can look.

 

[kashan123999]

I have got the answer but not an OPTIMISTIC ONE ,anyways thanks shinobi272...