New Graphics fo ECS P4M800Pro 1.0

[Brando]

I know this ECS MB is dated, but a friend wants to upgrade the video in his system, wants to install a 1GB card( 512 now) and is confused as to the best direction to go.
This board, an ECS P4M800Pro 1.0 has PCI and AGP and he was told that he could run a 1GB PCI card but it would only run at 512...

Basically he needs to know what would be the best type ( PCI or AGP) of card to run and perhaps get a couple recommendations on specific cards.

Right now he is running a Radeon X1600/1650
His monitor is a Samsung syncmaster with VGA and DVI-D ( obviously wants to use DVI-D)

Thanks very much !

[scaryjim]

Honestly? He needs to upgrade his PC. There is (IMNSHO at least) no AGP card worth buying, particularly for a socket 478 motherboard - his subsystem would be massively bottlenecking a faster card.

I mean, if he wants to throw his money away, then the best card he can get is an AGP HD4650/4670, but they're *very* expensive for what you get and he won't get anywhere near full benefit. He'd be far better off replacing his system with something based on an AMD Llano APU - he could get an A4-3400, FM1 motherboard and 4GB RAM for just over £100 and have a system that was much better at *everything* than his current one, whilst using much less power. I'm afraid trying to upgrade his old system is just flogging a dead horse...

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

What are the current specifications of his system and what does he use the PC for??

[Brando]

Right now he has the ECS ECS P4M800Pro 1.0 @ 200 MHZ board a Pentium D 3.0 w 16kb cache and 2048 Megabytes of Ram.

Maybe i can convince him to upgrade, but this is a cost issue for sure things are very tight.
He uses the machine mostly ofr internet and then Gaming, there is a new game coming out he wants to play, i THINK it Diablo III, ill check later today.

Any other suggestions on board/ram combinations that might work with his current 512 radeonx1600/x1650 board that would be a better value so to speak?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Here are the system requirements for D3:

http://us.battle.net/support/en/arti...m-requirements

http://us.battle.net/d3/en/forum/topic/4362517019

The best bet would be to pick up a secondhand AGP off Ebay if money is tight.

It seems the minimum cards list were among the fastest AGP cards and they were specially modified versions of the standard PCI-E cards and hence are expensive.

This card is one of the minimum cards suggested:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Sapphire-R...item564982312a

However,you do need a reasonable PSU to run it.

There is also the HD3650 AGP:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/sch/i.html?_nk....c0.m270.l1313

The X1950 PRO will be quicker but the HD3650 does support DX10.1 although I am not sure if the game supports it.

TBH,I am not sure if it is worth spending more money on the computer.

The thing is the computer probably was very low cost build when new as it uses a low end VIA chipset which does not support Core2 CPUs or PCI-E at all. The specification seems around six to seven years old although the graphics card is around five to six years old.

Does the computer use a SATA hard drive??

What size is the case??

Is Windows XP being used and do you have the install disks??

What model number is the PSU??

Outside of that the rest of the parts are probably not really of much use for a newer build IMHO.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

This is what I would probably get:

1.)AMD A6-3650 ~ £69

http://www.amazon.co.uk/AMD-A6-3650-...5471143&sr=1-1

2.)MSI A75MA-P35 ~ £41

http://www.ebuyer.com/320147-msi-a75...l-hd-a75ma-p35

It has USB3.0 and SATA3.0 support too. The motherboard does have only two RAM slots which will limit future upgrades. For around £50 to £60 it will be possible to get a motherboard with four RAM slots if required.

3.)4GB 1600MHZ DDR3 ~ £22

http://www.ebuyer.com/264748-g-skill...2800cl9d-4gbxl

8GB can be had for around £10 more.

The total comes to around £132.


Another alternative is to get the following:

1.)Celeron G530 ~ £31

http://www.novatech.co.uk/products/c...paign=products


2.)ASRock H61M-VS ~ £36

http://www.ebuyer.com/279549-asrock-...rboard-h61m-vs

Only has two RAM slots and you can get a motherboard with 4 RAM slots for around £10 more IIRC.

3.)4GB 1333MHZ DDR3 ~ £19

http://www.ebuyer.com/166995-crucial...kit25664ba1339

4.)HD6570 GDDR5 ~ £40

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/XFX-ATI-Ra...item4165254b18

The second setup probably will run D3 better IMHO.

The total comes to aroud £126.



Other bits:

1.)New PSU

If the current one is too old I would budget around £30 to £40 for a new PSU of decent quality.

2.)New Windows license

If you cannot re-use your old Windows license,then a new Windows 7 64 bit license is around £70. However,if you are a student or work for the NHS you might get cheaper copies IIRC.

3.)New hard drive

If you have an IDE hard drive,then I would consider getting a new SATA drive. Look upwards of £50 for a new SATA drive

4.)Optical drive

If you are using an IDE optical drive,expect to pay between £10 to £15 for a new SATA DVD rewriter

5.)New peripherals

Newer motherboards support USB keyboards and mice. OTH,a PS2 to USB converter can be utilised for older keyboards and mice.

[Brando]

Thanks for the replies, clearly this a UK based forum( i had i bookmarked as an ECS forum form years ago and it resolved to Hexus) I/HE is in the US, im sure we can find the equivalent on the US facing eBay.

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Thanks for the replies, clearly this a UK based forum( i had i bookmarked as an ECS forum form years ago and it resolved to Hexus) I/HE is in the US, im sure we can find the equivalent on the US facing eBay.

An HD3650 or X1950 PRO AGP should be able to run D3 in lowish settings from what I read on their forums. However,whether this means the full game will be playable is another question. Perhaps it is also worth asking on the forums(the battlenet links in post 5).

TBH,it might be time to get a newer PSU IMHO and put any money towards that. I can have a look on Newegg to see what is available.

[Brando]

he is running a 430watt PS that he added no to far back

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Is it one of these PSUs:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...n=430W&x=0&y=0

Are his hard drive and optical drive using SATA connectors??

What does his case look like?? Is it a tower??

Edit!!

The following parts are off Newegg.



The parts should be able to run D3 at reasonable settings IMHO.

If you can get hold of this faster HD5670 GDDR5 it would be even better and it would save a few more dollars:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814121603

The GT440 GDDR5 is around 15% slower.

A Celeron G530 and a GT440 GDDR5 or HD5670 GDDR5 should be able to run some newer games fine too.

[Brando]

I beleive the case is ATX Ill find out what i can tonight about the optical and HDD.
and I'm going to try to get him to join and post, thank you so much for the attention you all are giving this, it is appreciated.

[Brando]

Its a mini atx case i think, not full size but micro, he has sata..
anyway i think i convinced him to just put the money towards another machine, what do you think he could do for about 350 U.S?

[CAT-THE-FIFTH]

Its a mini atx case i think, not full size but micro, he has sata..
anyway i think i convinced him to just put the money towards another machine, what do you think he could do for about 350 U.S?

Is it a generic case or does it have a model number?? I just want to get an impression of the internal layout.

Is the optical drive SATA and how big is the hard drive??

Also,what model is the PSU?? I really need to know this especially.

If he opens up the side of the computer he can note down any details.

This way we can see what parts he can re-use.

[Brando]

appreciate the response i will post as soon as i know