Computer Upgrade Help

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

Ok well I have money put aside to build a new computer this spring/summer but I need my current comp upgraded for the rest of the school year atleast. I have a dell Dimensions 8400 and it is running vista ultimate with I beleive aintegrated graphics card and 512mb of ram. Id like to get a graphics card for it and upgrade to 2gb of ram. Anyone know how I could find out exactly what I need or do I need to open it up to find that out. Also can anyone link me to what I should get on newegg or similar. THanks

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[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

don't understand your issue w/ my previous post, but here goes...

the 8400 comes with a pentium 4 board, 3.6 giga hert processor...decent box...

vista is a waste, i got rid of it from my pentium 4 and went back to xp which is much faster/efficient. what you should look at is does the board have 2 or 4 ram slots? any ddr2 ram will work for your cause. in general, any new graphics card will work for the pentium 4

 

[TheFiverMan 10+ year member]

how much r u trying to spend?

 

[silvercookie 5,000+ posts]

integrated dont mean shit.

i believe all dells have pci-e ports.

look for a nvidia 8600ds i think they are around 200 now

as for ram just look on ebay. could prolly get 2 gig for around 80-90$

 

[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

u can get 2 gig for $40 brand new

 

[Imperial GOD 10+ year member]

You wanna make your Computer better? I work on this stuff for a living. Here is what you do first, GET RID OF VISTA. get yourself XP Media Center edition or XP Professional.

Next go to Crucial.com or Kingston.com and order yourself some RAM. you can get 2GB for $50.

Next upgrade your video card. Do you know what kind of Video card adapter you have?? would you need AGP, PCI-E etc??

 

[Imperial GOD 10+ year member]

After looking it up it has a PCI-Express port. What exactly do you do on this computer?

Tigerdirect.com has a HELL of alot of video cards for yah at GREAT prices. I shop there all the time!

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

sorry to disagree with you guys but I enjoy my vista and am sticking with it, just a personal preference. I use my computer for mostly internet, word processor, itunes, photoshop, and some small video editing. I guess my biggest issue right now is when I have something like itunes or photoshop going everything goes slow as shit. Let me know what ya guys think, im not dropping $200+ on a video card btw, I just need something simple that will do the job. Thanks

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

can you guys get me any links to what youd recomend as the best? thanks

 

[jer_stud56 10+ year member]

If you do just that kind of stuff I'd just upgrade your RAM. 512MB RAM is way too low for vista and what you're trying to do. I have 2 gig on vista ultimate and all is fine. Google Crucial memory and do a search for your RAM options. Then go to Newegg and use that info to search for again your best option. Or bring the info you find out here and help will come.

All is well otherwise...shouldn't need a new video card unless you play games or do massive amounts of photoshopping/video editing.

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

well will any 240pin ddr2 ram work? sorry im kinda new to this i planned on learning it more towards summer while building my first computer but i need some ram so this part cant wait

 

[Anniku989 10+ year member]

Didn't read what anyone said, don't really care either... lol

DDR or DDR2?

PCI, AGP, or PCI-E slots?

 

[bumpin buick 5,000+ posts]

DDR2 and its a PCI-E slot but it sounds like i just need ram upgrad for what I want

 

[dman4486 5,000+ posts]

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductList.aspx?submit=ENE&Configurator=MemoryConfigurator&CFG=CFG003Dimension%208400%20Series&DEPA=0

 

[Anniku989 10+ year member]

Ram up to 2gigs (can get 2x1gig kit on eggy for

GPU- Depends what you want to do

Gaming> 8800 series

Internet/photoshop (anything not dx10), you'll be fine with like a 7300/7600 (We got brand new mac's in lab at school, dual quad cores and 8gigs in each... I was checking them out the other day, and they're only running 7300's in 'em lol)

Edit:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145590

$29 after rebates for a decent 2x1gig kit