I've totally lost touch with computer hardware
Posted: May 14, 2008, 2:15 pm
I bought my current system from Dell in September of 2005. That's the longest I've ever gone without any major upgrades. I did buy a laptop sometime in there, but that doesn't help with my gaming rig.
That said, I hardly game on PC anymore, and I can't even remember what the specs are for that computer. Given the following hardware on it, do you think I could get by with just upgrading the video card? (I only have the Dell part #s from their website right now, looking up what they refer to)
Dell W8400 3.0GHz Prescott P4, 630, 800FSB, 2MB, Socket-T
4x Dell F6761 DIMM, 512MB, DDR2, 533M, 64X64, 8, 240, 1RX8,
Dell K9341 nVidia, GeForce 6800 PCI-E x16, 256MB, With DVI-VGA-TV Outs
Basically I'm debating trying out Age of Conan, and I'd like to make it run (if possible) on this machine, with the least amount of upgrades possible. That video card embarrasses me to some degree, so I definitely want to upgrade, probably to an 8800GT (unless there's a better value card out now). Should an 8800GT work in that system? Does it matter if my old card was probably PCI-E 1.x and I'm guessing an 8800 might be PCI-E 2.0? Is there a version of the 8800GT that is better or worse than others?
Thanks!
That said, I hardly game on PC anymore, and I can't even remember what the specs are for that computer. Given the following hardware on it, do you think I could get by with just upgrading the video card? (I only have the Dell part #s from their website right now, looking up what they refer to)
Dell W8400 3.0GHz Prescott P4, 630, 800FSB, 2MB, Socket-T
4x Dell F6761 DIMM, 512MB, DDR2, 533M, 64X64, 8, 240, 1RX8,
Dell K9341 nVidia, GeForce 6800 PCI-E x16, 256MB, With DVI-VGA-TV Outs
Basically I'm debating trying out Age of Conan, and I'd like to make it run (if possible) on this machine, with the least amount of upgrades possible. That video card embarrasses me to some degree, so I definitely want to upgrade, probably to an 8800GT (unless there's a better value card out now). Should an 8800GT work in that system? Does it matter if my old card was probably PCI-E 1.x and I'm guessing an 8800 might be PCI-E 2.0? Is there a version of the 8800GT that is better or worse than others?
Thanks!