Hi. I read the Tom's Best GFX Card for the money, and decided on the Radeon HD 5670 to upgrade my aging computer. I was going to use the template, but I think it will be easier for me to just wing it.
Firstly, this is an old computer. Compaq SR1830NX:
MOBO: Asus A8AE-LE
I have added two 1G sticks of G.skill RAM, for a total of 3Gs including the two 512 factory sticks. The ram is compatible, and recognized by my operating system.
No longer running the Factory installed WinXP MCE, instead reformatted with Win XP SP2, but have since done all windows updates and am running SP3. Reinstalled all drivers.
I installed the Radeon HD 5670 and the computer would not start. It would power on, but no booting happened at all, not even a splash screen. It was suggested that I replace the PSU, so I did. I upgraded to an Antec 620W, more than double the Wattage of the factory PSU (300W), and I was very excited to start using my new card.. Hoping to run games like Civilization 5, Starcraft 2 (currently not runnable with my system), and Counterstrike: Source (which my onboard GFX processor runs adequately)
Had the same exact problems as with the old PSU when I tried to boot.
Felt like a moron when I realized I should probably change the Primary Display Adapter setting in the BIOS to PCI-E. Unfortunately, this also did not fix the issue.
Is this card not compatible with my system? I still have a week or so to RMA. Is the card faulty? If not, which card would you suggest I go for instead?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: Sorry, forgot to mention, the current GFX Processor is the factory, ATI Radeon Xpress 200. It has outperformed my original expectations, but unfortunately it is simply too old to keep up with today's games.
Firstly, this is an old computer. Compaq SR1830NX:
MOBO: Asus A8AE-LE
I have added two 1G sticks of G.skill RAM, for a total of 3Gs including the two 512 factory sticks. The ram is compatible, and recognized by my operating system.
No longer running the Factory installed WinXP MCE, instead reformatted with Win XP SP2, but have since done all windows updates and am running SP3. Reinstalled all drivers.
I installed the Radeon HD 5670 and the computer would not start. It would power on, but no booting happened at all, not even a splash screen. It was suggested that I replace the PSU, so I did. I upgraded to an Antec 620W, more than double the Wattage of the factory PSU (300W), and I was very excited to start using my new card.. Hoping to run games like Civilization 5, Starcraft 2 (currently not runnable with my system), and Counterstrike: Source (which my onboard GFX processor runs adequately)
Had the same exact problems as with the old PSU when I tried to boot.
Felt like a moron when I realized I should probably change the Primary Display Adapter setting in the BIOS to PCI-E. Unfortunately, this also did not fix the issue.
Is this card not compatible with my system? I still have a week or so to RMA. Is the card faulty? If not, which card would you suggest I go for instead?
Thanks in advance!
EDIT: Sorry, forgot to mention, the current GFX Processor is the factory, ATI Radeon Xpress 200. It has outperformed my original expectations, but unfortunately it is simply too old to keep up with today's games.