What video card should I upgrade my notebook with???

Question

I have a Xps notebook with 128MB 9700 ATI TV OUT graphics card. 512ddr ram 3.4ghz pentium 4 proccessor 80gb hard drive   I want to upgrade two things, my ddr ram and my graphics card. my first question is, going on strictly performance what is my best bet for upgrading my ddr ram (ex:brands?,is mine ddr or ddr2?,dell bought or not?), also once my ram has been upgraded what is my best bet for a graphics card? what can my computer handle? I was looking at the nvidia go 6 series for notebooks. can my computer handle the 6800?? is there a better one out there?? basically im asking what is the best graphics card out there that my computer can handle?   thanks for your replies!

ejn63 · Answer

The RAM is DDR; you need PC-3200 CL-3 RAM; www.crucial.com is your best bet.

You have only one upgrade in video cards for that system. That's the ATI 9800 Pro, 256M card. The system uses a proprietary video card that you can obtain only from Dell, and that's the only card they released as an upgrade for your system.

Cost: about $350; Dell Spare Parts 1-800-449-3355 ext 7269937

Brenn · Answer

Thanks for your help! I have one more question. I went to crucial.com and it says my notebook can hold 2048ddr ram. so my next question is how many slots do i have and is there a specific sequence that i must follow. if i only have two slots its easy then i need two 1gb cards. but if i have four slots do all the cards have to be filled with 512mb or can i just purchase one 512mb and one 1gb and and achieve 2048gb that way since i have 512mb already in there???   Thanks again! your help is most appreciated

ejn63 · Answer

There are two sockets. The system uses a dual-channel memory controller, so you should use a matched pair of DIMMs - to go to 2G, you need two 1G modules.

SliceN · Answer

You can also get it directly from the real source ATI thats were I got mine from for my XPS.   Good Luck!

ejn63 · Answer

Please post the part number!

Brenn · Answer

the only radeon 9800pro 256 agp i could find at ati.com was a mac special edition. if you could direct me to where i can find the version for windows that would be great and also I was wondering if there was a price difference of some sort, since it would mean leaving out the middle man (dell). Thanks for your help!!

jeffcmfrt · Answer

The radion 9800 video card is propriatory and you can only get it from Dell spare parts.And their is a huge difference between the 9700 and the 9800 you will be glad you made the upgrade.

Dell spare parts 1-800-449-3355 ext 7269937

Best Wishes

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2 GIG's Ram
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