Vostro 200 Upgrade possibilities

Hi HuseyinNY,

<ADMIN NOTE: Broken link has been removed / replaced from this post by Dell> It would help to refer to that. The bus type is PCI Express 1.0A, but that's a very minor limitation.

I wouldn't go hog wild with any other upgrades until you see how the video card upgrade performs.

Thank you very much Osprey.

This is great, it shows what each slot is.There is both PCI Express x1 and PCI Express x16. As per wikipedia boards and cards 1, 2, and 2.1 is backward compatible with each other. "Overall, graphic cards or motherboards designed for v 2.0 will be able to work with the other being v 1.1 or v 1.0." I looked for anything with reference to 1.0A, however it was futile...

With the card being only $35, it is very affordable, and worth the try. Why do you feel there might be problem with the video card's performance? Do you feel that processor would be bottlenecking the performance of other upgrades? The next in line would be memory upgrade from Kingston. I do have a few rams lying around, but I am not sure what type they are, if they work that would be a nice surprise for me.

No, I don't think the video card would have any problem. But you'd want to see if a new video card gets you what you need in terms of performance before you go to a CPU upgrade, which is a bit more expensive and complicated.

For RAM, you need DDR2 PC2-5300. My suggestion would be to go with Crucial, which is guaranteed to work with your system. A 2-GB kit is $60.

Thank you once again.

According to Kingston (who has overpriced 1GB pack for $50) MODULES MUST BE ORDERED AND INSTALLED IN PAIRS for Dual Channel mode, but it is not a must. Current configuration is 512x2, which I assume takes advantage of dual channel mode. What do you think?

Also, is there a big performance difference between 667 and 800mhz? Crucial's rams are "unbuffered 667mhz".
Thanks again for your input so far.

In addition to my follow up below, here is few more:

I am thinking of (actually just ordering now) this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127436

I will get 2GB RAM from Crucial for $60 and hope that process handle the rest, since the weight will be off processor when I get GPU.
The socket of E2160 is LGA775.
Is there a site I can check compatible processors by socket? Will motherboard be fine with any processor? EDIT: It looks like Newegg can sort processors by socket.

Let me give you an interesting fact. May laptop which has T5550and 3.5GB usable memory runs Vista Windows Media Center incredibly smooth while browsing guide with 2 HD tuners recording at the same time. This processor spec is Core™2 Duo  (2M Cache, 1.66 GHz, 667 MHz FSB). In comparison, above Vostro's processor is Dual Core E2160 (1M Cache, 1.80 GHz, 800 MHz FSB). Basically when you take a balance of the processor, it is almost the same thing (Faster FSB/Clock vs. Lower Cache). So this leads me to think that it all comes down to RAM.

Unless there is a HUGE difference between C2Duo vs Dual Core. What do you think?

I just want to follow this order: Graphics Card --> Memory --> Processor if needed.

I agree with your strategy. 

The processor will depend on your chipset (Intel G33), not just socket. See this page for more information.

Hello Osprey,

I received the card, (Changed my mind and got this GIGABYTE GV-R455D3-512I Radeon HD 4550 512MB instead) it worked straight out of the box without any installation requirement, it just needed to be restarted once. However, I notice a huge difference between VGA and HDMI connections.

My TV, Sony KDL-52W4100 (120hz), has both VGA and HDMI connections, at first I went with VGA, and was amazed at the quality. Sharp text, very readable even at default size, vibrant yet realistic (no over saturation) colors, and nice refresh rate. I just have to use stereo connection to TV.
So later I hooked up HDMI cable, at first it looked just as good, however when I played around a bit I noticed that the text is blurry and there is noticeable tearing when WMC is running at window mode, at full screen there is no tearing, and colors are nowhere near "correct" it looks bright and too vivid in some cases. But I can use motion enhancer to make the video smoother (VGA disables it). However sound is much better, deeper bass, obviously surround sound enabled, it is nothing like stereo connection with VGA.

So, what do you think? Should I go ahead and install whatever is on the CD or is it normal for HDMI connection to be slightly worse than VGA?

Updating the driver and catalyst, and adjusting scaling fixed this problem, and I have WMC up and running now.