I need help selecting a graphics card for my HP Pavilion?

[linkinparkoakley89]

I need help selecting a graphics card for my HP Pavilion?
I bought the desktop 5 years ago. It works great, 1gb ram, I installed Windows 7, 300gb HD. I want to turn it in to a gaming computer to play dreamcast emulators and Halo which does not need the best video cards available. I do not want to spend a lot of money.

I am so far running on a ATI Radeon Express 200 which is integrated in to the motherboard. The computer is a Pentium D 915 two processing cores.

The power supply says not to exceed 300 Watts and there is both a PCI and PCI Express 16x slots.

Is there any computer expert out there that can give me a few tips on how to select my video card or even recommend a graphics card that would work with my computer. I am a complete newb and I am in new territory, I would like to learn.

Also how would I go about installing the graphics card and how to handle the integrated one?

The specs of my computer are at this link:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/document?docname=c00772005&tmp_track_link=ot_faqs/top_issues/en_us/c00772005/loc:2&cc=us&dlc=en&lc=en&product=3256977

All help will be appreciated!!!

 

[king smp]

if you really want to save some money then go for either a HD 4650
you can find the HD 4650 for under $40 USD if you look hard

a little stronger card is the HD 4670 (make sure it is DDR3 memory)
DDR3 is faster memory than DDR2 and increases performance
best memory is GDDR5

next step up would be a HD 5670 GDDR5
which is about $75

all three are low powered cards
they also can be found in low profile/half height if you have a slim desktop
from the picture on your link to specs
it looks like a full size tower so you should be ok

also the safe bet would be one of the HD 4xxx since they are PCI Express 2.0
cards

since you have a tower made in 2006 it will be pci-e 1.0
and the newer 2.1 cards can have issues with running in older slots
but the 2.0 cards will work


probably the best blend between performance,compatibilty and price
would be the HD 4670

this is specs on HD 4600 series on AMD site
http://www.amd.com/us/products/desktop/graphics/ati-radeon-hd-4000/hd-4600/Pages/ati-radeon-hd-4600-system-requirements.aspx

it specifies 400watts but the GPU companies alwsys overestimate
I have a HD 4650 running on a Dell 250w PSU in my wifes computer
though that is pushing it a little bit

as long as you dont run multiple HDs,DVD drives,pci cards etc
you should be fine

a HD 4670 will play Halo nicely
My HD 4650 played it a high settings at 1920x1080 resolution

and dreamcast emulators should be easily played also though I dont use them myself
they are not graphically demanding

here is a nice HD 4670 on USA Newegg
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161315

good name brand
free shipping
and 59.99 after rebate

also I do like Nvidia also
but in this situation of low power and low price
you are better off with ATI

the best bet with a Nvidia card would maybe be a GT240 GDDR 5 but
I am not sure of power requirements

 

[Pilk]

yip kings got you covered. 4650 would be recommended as it does also come in with a low profile bracket which doesn't really seem to be an issue for you.