I'm on my way out to buy a graphics card instead of a new PC, money is tight at the moment. I've got 2 hours before I get a lift to the store. I need help identifying graphics cards.

I have a SG3-350UK Presario desktop with Expansion Slots: 2 PCI Express x1 slots

http://h20000.www2.hp.com/bizsupport/TechSupport/Document.jsp?objectID=c02820823&lang=en&cc=us&taskId=135&contentType=SupportFAQ&prodSeriesId=5035296&prodTypeId=12454 for details.

I've not buffed up on PCs for years, just bought ready made, but now I need a better PC, but not got the money to spare so I've decided on a graphics card

My main problem is how do I identify the older PCIE 1 What will i need to lookout for to fit the graphics card, it says PCIE 1x above, is that just PCIE with no version indicated? I dont want to ask at the shop as they lead you to the expensive products.

so guys please help, I leave soonm.

I found the PCIe wikki

PCIe 1x and PCIe 2.0 are generaly interchangable, PCIe 2.1 cards can fit with a bios update. but I cant find out if 3.0 and 4.0 will work

Well I bought a PNY GeForce GTX 550 Ti with PCIe1 & PCIe2 support, so I believed I had what I needed £109. BUT then I openened my PC to install it and OMG no slots there just a motherboard with minimum amount of componants. The intergrated radion is all you get, the PCs now are throw away boxes. I got an old PC out vista 32bit 2GB Ram That I upgraded from 1 GBram a while ago 3yrs I think. But the old pc had the right PCIe slot, so I installed the GTX 550 into it, I had no option but to try it, I re-installed vista so it didnt have any service packs installed (dont know if you have noticed XP runs much faster with no service packs), I fired-up starpoint gemini & then dugeons the dark lord and they ran faster much faster than My base unit wow! a gameing PC again. plus I have the old graphics card to install in an older PC.

"PCI-E 1x" slots are the extremely short ones used for smaller expansion cards - NOT video cards.  They replace the old white PCI slots.

"PCI-E 16x" is the kind that you plug a video card into.

Thankyou Nefaro that makes incredible sence to me now after fiddling with the computer. it did have two tiny slots that I asumed were NULL connections. I thought graphics slots were agp then pci and then pcie, didnt realise what was going on in the hour I had before I went to buy the card.

The 1, 2.0, 2.1, etc are mostly related to BIOS software compatibility and voltage requirements. 

Most people don't have to worry about those unless the vid card is one of the latest and their board is a fair bit older.

thanks, Im more able to get it right next time I think.

Originally Posted By Nefaro (27 MAY 2012 12:15pm)

The 1, 2.0, 2.1, etc are mostly related to BIOS software compatibility and voltage requirements. 

 

Most people don't have to worry about those unless the vid card is one of the latest and their board is a fair bit older.

These are generally not only to do with what Nef says but also speed and are generally backwards compat.

Generally a x16 or x8 slot is required for video. Not that the card would fit anywhere else.

I looked up your machine and it appears to only have a 180 watt PSU?  Is that correct?  It so, I doubt any modern card will run on your system

I would say yes. HP and any big brand name machine are notorious for only just meeting the requirements of the machines current components. They are not intended for upgrade and generally just low end work horses.

Yeah, a stock PSU probably isn't gonna put out enough amperage to keep a mid- to high-end video card when it's trying to run at full capability.  That will often end up in a blue screen of death, or Windows restarting itself (if the default 'restart on hardware issue' is still on). 

Not to mention that the 6-pin PCI-E power plug, required on those video cards, that isn't present on those cheap stock power supplies. 

I've been quite happy with Antec PSU's the last few years.  They're not super high priced and have been extremely reliable.  An example is this 520W Antec that is rated for 40 amps on it's 12V rail, and has two PCI-E power outputs.  Sixty bucks.  Good bang for the buck is how I buy parts.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817371030

I was so lucky the PNY GeForce GTX 550 Ti runs on XP,vista,w7 with pcie1 or pci2 support. the old vista machine is running Conflict of Heroes: Awakening the Bear ,witcher, starpoint gemini, the dark lord,and a load of others. This old vista machine I thought was to old to run anything.

The Base unit I tried to update just had no graphics port to upgrade. I think its going to have to be games Machines I buy in the future instead of the boxes there selling. I have a onetwo all in one PC with dedicated graphics card, but Im never ever going to buy a cheap box again

Even many of the budget towers have PCI-E 16x video card slots in them, these days. 

The thing is, they don't always have the full amount of channels running in that slot, so the 16x actually runs as an 8x in some.  Bottleneck.

I don't know how old your machine is that didn't have any video slot for it, but it must've been quite a budget model or an old one.   Was it one of those that had everything integrated on the board?  Including the processor??  Now that I think of it - was it one of those tiny Micro-ATX towers that barely has room for the processor's heat sink & fan, much less expansion cards?  Those are such a pain to upgrade.

I thought the memory slots at a quick glance from the photo were PCI slots,  and it stated in the manual , "If you have a Graphics card installed the intergrated graphics card will be disabled" I didnt realise it meant it generaly

It was a budget desktop £329 a year ago, but It did some very nice things well, like virtual PC and old games did fine, I was into turn based games so graphics was not to important, but after playing Modern warfare on an xbox, playing with a mouse on my mid range PC got me back into Graphics.

while I was testing the new graphics card, Ive just fired up spellforce 1, the RTS combined with RPG works very well its the only Base building type game Ive ever liked since Command&Conquer95 cam out never liked all the copycats.

PS: my graphics card didnt work on my usual HDMI TV but did on another, must be something to do with interlasced or progresive, incase anyone was thinking of upgradeing.

Yes, that is a tiny form factor one.  "Mini-ATX" I believe.  A no frills board that fits into the extremely small desktop cases (not even towers).  In most of those, there's no room in the case to put regular sized expansion cards, although some companie may save a bit more money for a less compact case than that. 

Those are okay for web browsing, and the usual general PC stuff, but they're not gaming rigs and are some of the few that you can't upgrade to one. 

The problem with upgrading is that technology changes so fast that what you need may be more expensive than what is currently used if it is still available at all. I have had that problem with RAM going from SDRAM to DDR to DDR2 to DDR3 and CPUs going to different pins.

Ram is my second favorout thing in a PC, always looked for graphics then ram, some of the budget PCs have 8GB. you can do very cool things with that much ram. I assume DDR types are voltage frequency.

The graphics card I got came with 1GB dedicated ram , so it upgraded the ram in my PC aswell(the graphics ram in the old card may have been so little) thats why Im getting the fantastc boost from it.

I havnt fiddled inside a PC for so many years Ive learned so much from here thanks.

I will only buy a Pre-built games PC from now on, or atleast a dedicated graphics card.

Nefaro I think its now becomeing important to be tech-savy as you to game on a PC

Originally Posted By gameleaper (29 MAY 2012 3:00pm)

 

 

Nefaro I think its now becomeing important to be tech-savy as you to game on a PC

Only if you want to do it all yourself (and save some money).

You can still get prefab computers that are easily upgradeable.  They're just not the cheapies.