How can i upgrade my system?

[dark ariel7]

Hello everyone i have a question, obviously...
i have just upgraded my system from a p3 @ 1.3 to a celeron e1200
now dont bag on it it was only 25 dollars with the mobo!
i want to know if getting a better gpu would help pc performance
right now i have a geforce 2 mx400 it can surprisingly play 720 video from youtube and a 720 rip movie
however i oced my cpu to 2.0 from the stock 1.6 the processor runs a lot better but the system is less stable i blame the gpu because linux says something about my gpu not working
when i downgraded in the bios to run the gpu @ x2 mode it became considerably more stable. i also blame it because it seems to crash more when using the gpu more also it is by far the hottest thing in my open air pc with a fan sometimes pointed at it. the cpu never really hits the 50's idles at ~40c i ahve 1 500mb piece of generic ram and run in an asrock 4coredual vsta
my question is should i upgrade my gpu if so to what?(please keep it at 30$ max)
i have a pcie slot 4x
should i also get more ram?
i never seem to use it all exept once in a blue moon

i was looking at this but dont know if it will run on my mobo

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131339

 

[C12Friedman]

You can get that GPU, it should run fine on your mobo. Your OC instability could very easily be caused by other issues but my belief is your issues are caused by running "open air". Cases serve a few purposes, one of which is to direct airflow around components. Your north bridge and ram should have some airflow to allow the heatsinks to work effectively as well as the CPU and GPU - note that the GPU you intend to order is passively cooled which means it needs air directed toward/around it or it will most likely overheat.
Summary:
The graphics card you want should work (see above).
Airflow over the mobo and components is needed for proper heat dissipation.
More ram - your call, I don't see the need.

 

[dark ariel7]

thanks but i have a fan pointed at the pc and as i mentioned non of the part ever get hot except for the gpu
if you know of a gpu that has its own cooling that would be great but i dont think i need it besides im only running open air because i have yet to buy a case but i will pretty soon.
the reason i asked for the card was because i have heard that a card that is too good for a system can slow it down i also really want the hdmi

 

[C12Friedman]

I think the biggest challenge would be to find drivers for your OS. A card too "good" for your system will not slow the system down but will itself be "bottlenecked" by the components around it. It will not perform to it's full capabilities but should perform reasonably well. For the price, I think it's worth it to try - provided drivers can be found.

 

[dark ariel7]

i use ubuntuthe drivers should not be too hard to fin it probably runs with the catalyst driver becuast it is an amd/ati card
i also run windows

 

[C12Friedman]

i use ubuntuthe drivers should not be too hard to fin it probably runs with the catalyst driver becuast it is an amd/ati card
i also run windows

You aren't completely lost there, then I think it would be worth it.

 

[dark ariel7]

last quick question is, does this card look like its worth the money?

 

[dark ariel7]

nvm on the last post had not refreshed the page in a while, thanks

 

[dark ariel7]

I just read in multiple places that a 2.1 video card may or may not most likely not depending on maba work on a pcie 1 slot
does anyone know if it would work on an asrock 4coredual vst
if not anyone have any super cheap video cards that would work
all i want to be able to do is play wizard 101 at mid to high settings and watch 720 video maybe 1080

 

[C12Friedman]

Found a 2.0 card with 1 GB vram in your price range
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814130586
Probably a much better match to your system also
The cheapest Radeon PCI 2.0 I found was $40 (w/shipping)

 

[dark ariel7]

thanks it is definatly in the list of possibilities but do you know of an ati
do you recomend passive cooling?

 

[C12Friedman]

This one after rebate puts it right around $30 AMD/ATI and 2.0
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127557
I personally like active cooling on a video card but passive cooling can work fine

 

[dark ariel7]

thanks in performance how would you say this stacks up against the nvidia you posted
also no info on the 2.1 card?

i have to say it is a little odd that you are the only person that replies, thanks

 

[C12Friedman]

Here's quick comparison of the two - the specs are somewhat confusing - ask if you have any questions.

Manufacturer: nVidia ..........................................ATi
Series: GeForce GT 200........................................Radeon HD 5k
GPU: GT218 .........................................................Cedar
Release Date: 2009-11-17.................................2010-02-04
Interface: PCI-E 2.0 x16.....................................PCI-E 2.0 x16
Core Clock: 589 MHz..............................................650 MHz
Shader Clock: 1402 MHz...................................650 MHz
Memory Clock: 500 MHz (1000 DDR)...............800 MHz (1600 DDR)
Memory Bandwidth: 8 GB/sec..............................12.8 GB/sec
FLOPS: 44.864 GFLOPS........................................104 GFLOPS
Pixel Fill Rate: 2356 MPixels/sec......................2600 MPixels/sec
Texture Fill Rate: 4712 MTexels/sec ....................5200 MTexels/sec

 

[dark ariel7]

the ati totally tramples the Nvidia!
would you say it makes more sense to buy the card soon or to wait until i can put some money together to upgrade my whole system?
my cpu is...capable... i actually have played 720 video from youtube no problem not even a little lag now 10280 is another story the cpu was at 100% and during intence parts the fps dropped pretty low
after a few adjustments my system stopped crashing.
my main objective with this pc is to play wizard 101 and to maybe play WOW
right now my gpu gets a 1 in the windows 7 experience index it also does not handle direct x9 even though the nvidia website says that it can i stopped some hardware acceleration and that at least stopped windows from crashing...for now...
any fixes for the direct x issue?

 

[austing]

I upgraded from an e2200 to a C2D e7300 for 30$ and it was amazing, but I used eBay. Im not sure if you trust ebay, but you would see amazing power from a C2D.

You should really try upgrading to atleast 1GB of ram. Cheap @ Ebay.

Your drivers would really benefit from the combatibility of Windows 7, if you cannot get a hold of a windows 7 disc/key, I would suggest downloading Windows 8 for free.

All Nvidia Cards' drivers are supported by Windows 8.

 

[dark ariel7]

i actually did upgrade to windows 7 just a couple of days ago and after painstaking effort got my gpu to stop giving me blue screen. 1 would not try windows 8 though that metro ui look like an abomination meant for tablets
i think i have to upgrade to 1 gig of ram after all windows 7 never goes under 60% ram usage the c2d thing seems like a good idea
i bought my current mobo in ebay and it turned out fine so i would buy from there again

 

[dark ariel7]

i just bought new ram i got pc2 5300 ram a 1gig module and a 500mb they only run at 333
they should be able to run at 667 right?
also i cant run them in dual channel mode can i?
would there be a major upgrade?

 

[dark ariel7]

Btw after the driver and ram upgrades i am running wizard 101 pretty well just want the info on the ram i think i will hold up on the gpu upgrade.
i just need the info on the ram
i am actually running it at 1300 by 900 or similar, the default for laptop screens

 

[dark ariel7]

is this subject dead? should i ask about the ram elsewhere?

 

[C12Friedman]

i just bought new ram i got pc2 5300 ram a 1gig module and a 500mb they only run at 333
they should be able to run at 667 right?
also i cant run them in dual channel mode can i?
would there be a major upgrade?

Actually, you are running DDR ram, which is Double Data Rate. The rate your computer is showing 333 is half of it's double rate -which is correct. Even though the computer shows 333, it's only counting single rate data so you are actually running 667. For dual channel mode, your ram must be matched.

 

[dark ariel7]

would the match make a difference though,
i mean is dual channel much better than single channel or only marginally better?

 

[C12Friedman]

I honestly think it depends upon applications whether there is a discernable difference. I haven't run single channel in forever so I couldn't say for sure.

 

[dark ariel7]

thanks and just yesterday i checked my old ram and it was ddr2 4200 but also ran at 333 why?