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1st time upgrade - Inspiron 546MT
Hi,
I'm looking to upgrade a PC for the very first time (scary!). I have an Inspiron 546MT and want to upgrade the graphics card to play games such as football manager 2012 and the witcher 2. Now, from what I understand, I'm going to have to upgrade the current power supply (300WT) to something around the 650WT mark, before I can look at any decent graphics cards. However, I don't know how to check which graphics cards are compatible with my PC. Can anyone help?
The motherboard is a Dell inc 0F896N A02 motherboard. Current graphics card is ATI Radeon HD 3200.
Thanks for any help :)
David.
osprey4
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September 10th, 2011 04:00
Hi David,
Your system takes most generic standard ATX power supply units, with either a 24-pin or 20+4-pin main motherboard power connector, but be sure to get one with four SATA power connectors. Any local or online vendor carries them.
You have a PCI Express x16 slot so there are plenty of video card options.
osprey4
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September 10th, 2011 16:00
Let the specs of those games be your guide. The only things to check are the interface (PCI Express x16), the power requirements, and the operating system.
Hawken88
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September 10th, 2011 16:00
Hi Osprey4
That's great, thanks. In terms of the video card, how will I know what my PC can handle? I'm really not sure how to choose what I want and what all of the specifications on the card mean
Thanks for your help
Hawken88
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September 16th, 2011 12:00
Hi,
Ok, getting round to doing this now. However, there are some very small circular screws that are holding three sides of the case together - how can I unscrew these? None of my screwdriver heads work on them and I need to take the bottom off to get to the integrated graphics card.
Netwerkz101
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October 13th, 2011 04:00
In case you have not already done this, there is no need to tamper with the integrated graphics on the motherboard at all.
Remove all power and connected cables from the CPU case.
Remove 2 screws from the single removable side panel to access the internals ont he PC.
Plug your new card into the x16 slot, connect power cable to the video card if required
Close the case.