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Dimension E-510 video card assistance
Hello everyone. I am hoping someone with more experience than what I have could help me with a question about upgrading my video card in my trustworthy Dimension E-510. Out of all my older Dell desktops, this one has been my favorite for around 6 years now. The present video card is the stock one that came on it; it is the ATI Radeon X300 SE 128MB HyperMemory and has performed surprisingly well for my light photo editing. But I'd like to upgrade it a bit since I had to recently work on it to replace the front IO Board (that works great now too). I also chose to remove the original 1GB memory and installed 4 Gb of DDR 2 PC2-5300 memory from crucial.com. And since I did that I also decided to replace the stock power supply (it was still working fine) so I installed an Antec EarthWatts 500 watt power supply. So now I come to the video card department which I know little about.
I have searched the forum for advice but from what I have read about upgrading, most of the posts are from 2005, 2006ish era as the E-510 is an older pc. The Dell system scan upgrade tool recommended I upgrade to a VisionTek Radeon HD4350 PCI.E 2 video card. But I'm not a gamer so I don't think I need card of that level. The most I play is Bejeweled 2; I'm getting old.. old fashioned .. I know.. :emotion-8: Bejeweled will sometimes give me a brief hiccup maybe once every 15 minutes so I'm not too worried, but I figured that if I did the other updates than I might as well do the video card too.
From what I have read I can only expect video performance as what my processor allows. I have the original P-4 3.2 GHz one installed here. So I'm not certain why the Dell scan tool recommends that high end card, so that's why I'm asking someone here for advice whether that card is a good choice or not. The old posts that I read seem to like the ATI 4670 card but there are different models of it 9ddr2 or 3?) and I'm confused as to which one will work out best for me. If it makes any difference, my BIOS was updated to AO-7 a couple years ago.... and I also have a Creative Audigy 2-ZS audio card installed too. And also I have no need for dual DVI outs; one DVI will be just fine for my 2007FP UltraSharp monitor.
Could someone who knows video cards let me know if the 4670 is what I should get? I'm just looking a moderate jump in performance; not a powerhouse. The 3.2 GHz processor that I have limits that anyways. If someone could help me choose I would be most grateful.
Thanks so much for any assistance....
rdunnill
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January 25th, 2012 11:00
The typical 5450 is limited to two displays, and one must be analog (which has a poorer quality image).
SDirickson
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January 25th, 2012 14:00
I can't claim to have broad-enough experience with the dozens of 5450 cards out there to say what is or isn't "typical", but there seem to be a number of options that disagree with the "only 2 displays, and only 1 digital display" assertion:
www.amazon.com/.../B004GL72K0
www.amazon.com/.../B0036TFXWC
www.amazon.com/.../B004IF6I2C (this one has VGA, two HDMI, and DP, so it can run not 1, not 2, but 3 digital displays)
www.amazon.com/.../B005F5MB4I (this one has DP plus DMS-59 with the dual-DVI adapter, so this one can also run 3 displays none of which need to be analog)
....
tommyo1954
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February 5th, 2012 10:00
Hello guys; I am so sorry for the long delay in returning back to the forum here but my computer was off line for about the last 9 days or so. I ended up purchasing the Sapphire HD 6450 video card. I ordered it on a Tuesday night with overnight deleivery. Talk about coincidental timing here... I turned on my computer Wednesday morning to check the Fed-Ex tracking of the package and was greeted with a black screen saying "ntldr nissing". I've never experienced that problem before and was baffled. I spent two days trying to boot up with my Windows XP reinstall disk to do a recovery-console repair. But I couldn't because it kept asking for a administrator password and I never even entered a password. I tried numerous times and it was a no - go... SoI then wanted to do a format to to both my drives (I dual boot with two Western Digital Caviar Blue 320 Gb drives; XP on both). All my documents are backed up; I am meticulous about that. So I tried reinstalls, and that was a no - go too. Reinstall would go only so far and I would get an error messgae about "asms is needed". I tried over and over and it just wouldn't go beyong that message. So I got frustrated at that point and figured I would have to bring it in to a repair shop as it was well beyong my knowledge on how to fix it. So I had to wait until I had the $$$ to have it repaired.
Flash forward to today... Had some time to kill before the Superbowl game starts so I tried reinstalling XP again for the heck of it. Well for some reason it reinstalled completelt without that "asms is needed" error coming up. Let me tell you I am still smiling here this morning as I type this; all I need now is for my beloved New England Patriots to win tonight (I live in Massachusetts) and I buy some champagne and get loaded tonight, hehehe....
I reinstalled XP onto my 2nd hard drive and that went well too. Had to remember how I configured the boot menu thing to present the boot option at startup, but that went well too. Now I have a choice at startup to boot to my C drive or "photos and games" drive D. Took a LOT of time to install all the Microsoft updates to both drives but that is all done successfully now. This afternoon I'll install all my music and docs...
Either tonight or tomorrow I'll install that new video card (after running Driver Cleaner); I hope that goes good too. So again I did not abandon the thread here; it's just that it has been most eventful here over the last week or so. Thank you again gentlemen for sharing your knowledge and helping me; I am so appreciative to you! I'll post again to let you know how the video card install goes.
rdunnill
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February 5th, 2012 10:00
XP has a "repair install" that could have saved you all that work.
As for the administrator password in the Recovery Console, did you try just pressing ENTER? If there is a password, it's possible to crack it by booting up with a Linux live media optical disc, copying the password files to removable media, and then using a password recovery program like Ophcrack. I used that technique to recover the lost password of a twelve-year-old's netbook.
Microsoft has an article on repairing damaged Windows 2000/XP boots, if you're interested: support.microsoft.com/.../318728
tommyo1954
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February 7th, 2012 08:00
Good morning .... No, I didn't try to enter the word "enter"; I actually didn't know about trying that. the wnders of Xp; always something new to learn. But anyways I'm back up and running; I have the new video card in; and all my documents are all reinstalled. luckily I make very frequent backups onto a Patriot Xporter 16GB flashdrive so I didn't loose any files or documents. (very fast flashdrive; very pleased with it)
The new video card is working well and the install went fine. When I orderd it, I was aware that it is only a DDR3, but even that is such a huge upgrade from the one that I had when the pc was delivered from Dell around 6 years or so ago. My graphics are clear & bright, and it appears that my photos open up faster too. I haven't installed the two (very cpu lean) Dell games yet but I'll bet those are going to play fine now and without the occasional video hiccup that I used to get before. That new card had many, many favorable user comments too. I figure this new card will serve me well in this box and then someday when I have the $$$ I will upgrade to a new XPS desktop somewhere down the road.
As for the New England Patriots and that bottle of champagne I mentioned.... Well, no champagne here this year. But I am still smiling anyways as the computer is running like a champ. This ole E-510 is about my 4th Dell desktop and I've never had a bad box yet. Hopefully that new XPS might be in the future.
Thanks so much to both of you for assisting me with the new card. Can't tell you how much I've learned from readingposts on the forum and inquiring about things that are a bit beyong my knowledge level. Its nice folks like you who share their knowledge with folks like me that makes this forum so great. Thank you!
tommyo1954
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February 26th, 2012 11:00
The card is running fine; I should have installed it a long time ago. I don't quite understand yet all the optional enhancement settings in the catalyst so I'm leaving well enough alone and leaving it in its' default settings as all is well. I might order another one for my other desktop or I might even order a DR5 upgrade and put that one in this desktop.
Thanks so much gentlemen for helping me with this. I'm not too bright with video related stuff but I'm learning as I go.
rdunnill
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February 26th, 2012 14:00
Glad we could help!
tommyo1954
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March 6th, 2012 17:00
Hi gents; here's a brief update. The card is working great and I should have made the upgrade earlier. I never knew what I've been missing.
I was talking to my neighbor and (long story short) he said he would have sold me his unused Gigabyte HD6850 had he known I was looking for a new card. When I got home I looked up that card on Amazon and to me it looks like it takes up too much room; possibly needing two slots??? That is where I'm quite naive... The HD6450 fit like a glove taking up one slot. But he swears the HD6850 would have fit too.
Now the only reason I'm inquiring is because I was thinking of ordering another one of the HD6450 for my other Dell. But now that my neighbor has the Gigabyte HD 6850 I am wondering if I should maybe consider it. Of course it would be overkill but if the price is good (didn't talk price yet) I was thinking of planning ahead if the price is good.
Do you happen to know if anyone has installed a Gigabyte HD6850 into a Dell E-510? To me it looks like the slot is narrower than the card..... hope that makes sense as I'm not versed in modern terminology and everything I read mentions PCI 2.0.
Thanks for any insight you can throw my way.....
SDirickson
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March 6th, 2012 20:00
"2 slot video card" doesn't mean it uses 2 motherboard slots; it means it uses 2 expansion-slot spaces on the back (or top in some cases) of the case. These wide cards still plug into a single PCI-E slot, but they also block the adjacent slot. So, if there's an empty slot next to the slot where the video card goes (i.e. on the side away from the PC board of the video card), it will fit as far as the width is concerned. Though you'll also need to verify that the length works.
Kelbear1
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March 7th, 2012 07:00
The HD 6850 is probably to much card for an old Pentium 4 so this would not be a good match up and I would not recommend it unless he would just sell it to you for dirt cheap. I did not read through this entire thread, but there would be no reason to have a card like the HD 6850 unless it was specifically for gaming since the HD 6450 is not for that purpose.
tommyo1954
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March 7th, 2012 12:00
OK men, thanks so much. I was confusing the terms "single slot & double slot" to mean something else and that's what was throwing me off. I will stick with HD-6450 in this E-510 and I might even order another one for my older 4700 that still functions fine despite its age. This HD-6450 is performing fine and I'm very pleased with it. I use this E-510 until it either goes to pc heaven or until I can scrape up enough $$ for an XPS. This ole' E-510 is working like the day I had it delivered, and it is on at around 7:00 am until 11:00 pm every single day. I am disabled so the pc gets a lot of everyday use so I can keep busy.
And I agree that the HD-6850 would have been way, way too much for this pc. The card my neighbor has was purchased by mistake and if I could have gotten it for a darn good price I would have picked it up for future use in a newer pc somewhere down the road.
I've had a pc now for about 8 years and I still have lots to learn; particularly regarding video cards! While I've replaced my front I/O panel; installed two Western Digital Caviar Blue320GB drives; removed & replaced the heatsink and shroud (to have access to the I/O panel); video cards a completely new to me. But I learn as i go...
Thank you again all for sharing your time and knowledge in helping me! MUCH appreciated.