Video Card Update

External Since: Jul 02, 2008 Posts: 1

I want to update my video card for better gaming. I was told the PCI Express
X16 was the best way to go. I was also told that I needed to up my power
supply to 470 Watts. Is it safe to go up to 500W? I will also upgrade my
RAM to either 2 or 3 GB...I'm not sure yet. Here's my specs:

Compaq Presario SR1650NX w/ Windows XP Home Edition SP2
Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz
2000 MT/s (Mega Transfers/second)
Socket 939
Chipset : ATI Radeon XPress 200
Memory Installed 1 GB
Speed supported PC3200 MB/sec
Type 184 pin, DDR SDRAM
250 GB SATA
7200 rpm
16x DVD(+/-)R/RW DL LightScribe drive

Thanks for any help.

External Since: Jan 03, 2008 Posts: 174

It's fine to go to 500w or higher... and to 2gb or 3gb, provided your
motherboard supports that much. Check with Compaq. Oh and yes, PCI-E is
the way to go... again, check you have a spare PCI-E slot with Compaq. Look
at the ATI HDxxxx cards, the higher the number the better.
--
Cari (MS-MVP) Printing & Imaging
www.coribright.com/windows

"NY Kappa Sig" <unlead54.TakeThisOut@aol.com.(donotspam)> wrote in message
news:4CA24616-C85E-42ED-B403-D3B1AAFCCBF5@microsoft.com...
>I want to update my video card for better gaming. I was told the PCI
>Express
> X16 was the best way to go. I was also told that I needed to up my power
> supply to 470 Watts. Is it safe to go up to 500W? I will also upgrade my
> RAM to either 2 or 3 GB...I'm not sure yet. Here's my specs:
>
> Compaq Presario SR1650NX w/ Windows XP Home Edition SP2
> Athlon 64 3500+ 2.2 GHz
> 2000 MT/s (Mega Transfers/second)
> Socket 939
> Chipset : ATI Radeon XPress 200
> Memory Installed 1 GB
> Speed supported PC3200 MB/sec
> Type 184 pin, DDR SDRAM
> 250 GB SATA
> 7200 rpm
> 16x DVD(+/-)R/RW DL LightScribe drive
>
>
> Thanks for any help.