Well, PCI-E nVidia card started to not work. I was about to buy a new one - maybe upgrade from 6800 to a 7 or 8 series, since the Dell is 3 years old and could probably use a little mphhh. But then I decided to put the card in my other PC just to check if it was really the card. The card works fine. So it's my PCI-E slot that is shot. I don't know how or why. I do know that my PC has been acting funny ever since my kid spilled coffee in it last year.

Anyway, it only has 1 PCI-E slot, and no AGP, so my only option is a PCI card. Any good suggestios as to what I should get? They are still up to $80. Or any suggestions on what I could try to get my existing slot operable again?

Thanks in advance!

__________________

I have a suggestion although it is not the best one. But a new motherboard may be in order. PCI cards are just soooo outdated and will really not be great at all. Even AGP cards have become a bit outdated.

And i must say when i read this line i about fell out of my chair laughing:
"my PC has been acting funny ever since my kid spilled coffee in it last year"

__________________

Getting a good PCI card can cost about $100+. Depending on what type of PC it is. Like a Celeron or Pent . I agree with Steimy, to buy a new mobo. In the long run its worth it, besides low end to mid end video card only cost $60 for PCI-E. If you just need a video for basic usuage, a geforce 5 series should do fine.

Newegg.com - CHAINTECH GSP5200T2 GeForce FX 5200 128MB 64-bit DDR PCI Video Card - Retail

__________________
Xbox 360 - 2 Games - 2 Controllers - 120GB Elite - Dead
PS3 - 23 BD Games - 13 PSN Games - 9 Controllers - 320GB - Alive
Wii - 6 Games - 4 Wiimotes - Alive
PC - Overkill - 3DMark06 [13896]- God like :]

Gaming Generations | XnogarD Production - Soon!!!

Just so you know this as well. If the Windows that you are running came with the PC, it will not play well with anything but the proprietary Dell stuff. So if you get a new Mobo you will most likely need to "aquire" a copy of Windows.

I tried using my Dell copy of Windows when i built my new PC and it was all kinds of wacky. It worked but not well at all. All sorts of conflicts.

__________________

Yeah, it's been over a year:

http://www.xtreme-source.com/members...ommission.html

Well, if I buy a mobo, I want it to be a complete new build, and I've been saving for a core 2 duo PC, possibly a quad core by next year. I was hoping to have one last game night with this PC. It's 3 years old, and since I have my wifes old one, I have no urgent need for it, and the plan was to make it a Linux machine. A Linux machine would still need a video card, obviously, but since you can't really game on a Linux machine, I was thinking that a PCI card would be just fine. I just don't know if a PCI card would support AOE III, World in Conflict and C&C Tiberium (nothing too intense).

The problem with a the Dell is that they don't give you all the details of your purchase. All I know about the processor is that it is a "PROCESSOR, 80547, PENTIUM 4 PRESCOTT DT, 660, SKT-T, P"

A google search on an XPS Gen 4 yields some more details:
Product Details

Product MPN MPN DXPS4L1
Processor Intel Pentium 4 3.4 GHz
Chipset Intel 925X Express
Processor Upgradability Upgradable
Max Processors Qty. 1 Motherboard Bus Speed 800 MHz
Video Output Interface PCI Express Memory RAM Technology DDR2 SDRAM
Installed Cache Memory 2 MB Technical Features Integrated Input/Output Ports USB 2.0 x 8 • Serial Port x 2 • FireWire (IEEE1394a) x 2 • RJ45 Lan Port x 1 • PS/2 Mouse x 1 • PS/2 Keyboard x 1 • Parallel Port (ECP/EPP/SPP) x 1


Other Features Hyper Thread Technology Ready • Dual Channel Memory Architecture

Audio / Video Graphic Processor NVIDIA GeForce 6800

I don't know where to find a mobo for my chip if I were to re-use it. Newegg didn't seem to have one for that chipset. And I find it hard to spend money on a single core mobo when I'm saving for something better in the near future.

So a 5 series PCI card would do well Kam? I'm not trying to do intense gaming. Just some RTS's. Are series 6's much better, or at that point, since it's PCI, does it really not make a difference?

Any thoughts on PCI-E 1X?

Newegg.com - HIS Hightech H130HMF128E1N Radeon X1300 512MB HyperMemory with 128MB Onboard 64-bit GDDR2 PCI Express x1 Low Profile Video Card - Retail

__________________

http://support.dell.com/support/topics/global.aspx/support/product_support/en/product_support_central?c=us&l=en&s=gen

is that what you have now? The manual has the technical specs of the computer. I looked it up but it will not directly link me to the page. So if you choose by model then desktops then XPS then gen 4 it will take you to a page with drivers and manuals for that PC.

__________________

Yeah, I've looked through there. Not much help for if I wanted to get a new motherboard. Anyway, it just so happened that it's working now. It took 2 days of troubleshooting for nothing. It just works when it decides it wants to. I really think it's last years cofffee incident.

Anyway, sorry to waste everyone's time. Thanks for all the feedback.

__________________

yeah if you're just playing RTS games,you don't need to high of a card to run it....mainly on those if you wanna run at the absolute highest setting you'd want a really good card...but you really don't need it.

With the quad cores popping....the duels will be going down in price so fast....and as the DX10 vid cards are making more ground even the ati2XXX series and the nvidia 7X series cards will be dropping soon too by a long bit...so watch for that even.


Soon will be a great time to build a decent machine for a good price.

__________________
[SIGPIC]http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/6458/signaturexr5.png[/SIGPIC]