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Dimension 8400, PCI-Express version? 1.0 or 2.0?
Hi All,
I have Dimension 8400 with an ATI Radeon X300 card (PCI-Express x16). I want to replace the card with a new graphics card with an HDMI output port. So I need to find out what version of PCI-Express is supported by the Dim 8400 Mobo (ie PCI-e 1.0 or 2.0).
Most graphics cards are now PCI-Express 2.0 or higher. I understand a PCI-e 2.0 card will fit into a PCI-e 1.0 slot. But will the 8400 Mobo support the 2.0 card and its features? And are there any other considerations related to Dell proprietary graphics with a PCI-e card?
Thanks for all replies.
~John
Hardware:
Dimension 8400, Win XP SP 3, ATI Radeon X300 card (PCI-E x16)
Davet50
14.4K Posts
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November 24th, 2010 18:00
The board is 1.0 spec. Dell did not release systems with the 2.0 spec until the release of the 730 system. which was in the last 3 yrs.
2.0 cards will fall back to 1.0 specs and you will suffer a slight performance hit. On a 8400 though the processor will even further downgrade the performance of the card.
Telexer
20 Posts
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November 24th, 2010 19:00
Dave,
Thanks for the reply.
I guess I'll just keep the Radeon X300 card since it works ok. And by 'ok' I mean it hangs the whole system when the PC goes into S3 sleep mode forcing me to flip the power strip on/off switch. :-\
According to wikipedia, PCI-e 1.0 data transfer speed is half of PCI-e 2.0 . And with a CPU drag on top of that, it doesn't seem like it will be worth the trouble to install a modern card.
Thanks again.
trin802
9 Posts
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November 25th, 2010 13:00
Go ahead and buy a 2.0 card, they are backward compatible and they will work just find.
The Dell Dimension 8400 is a pretty good computer, I bought mines about six years ago, I gave it to my daughter and she is currently using it.
About a month ago I had to replace the video card. I bought a Galaxy Nvidia GeForce 8400 512mb DDR2 DVI + VGA . This card just worked great. She's not a gamer, she just plays the regular games and listens to music and does Office. She is really happy.
So, don't be discourage, and go for a video card upgrade. For the drag you say it has, you should just disable the sleep mode and the hibernate function.
I've never have use that in any of my computers. I just shut it down, when i'm not using it.
Good luck.
freakmarket
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270 Posts
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November 28th, 2010 09:00
If you were thinking of spending a ton of money for a good graphic card i would tell you to save your money because your computer is too slow to operate a good graphic card without bottlenecking at the P4 CPU. The Nvidia 8400 or ATI 4350 would work fine and give you a little boost in performance ... both are inexpensive on newegg.com ... don't go much crazier than that upgrading such an old system though.