ok, here's my deal. i have a system that was built for me by my late father. this system is probably pretty old in computing standards and i havent done any upgrading since my dad died because i am petrified to even attempt them without help.as such, I have run into my very first hardware snag and I need some major help here cuz I have no idea what I'm doing.

I just bought and installed the new EA game Spore. after installing everything it told me my video card wasnt supported. I currently have an ATI Radeon 8500Dv, which they dont make any more so I cant get any updated drivers. I have the most current ones from 2006. Here's my issue- my computer is also my TV. Therefore I need a new videocard that can play Spore but must have an RF cable input. Trying to search thru specs of this and that has completely fried my brain and left me so upset that i dont know what to do. This is the list of Supported video cards from the Spore website...

NVIDIA GeForce series
FX 5900, FX 5950
6200, 6500, 6600, 6800, 7200, 7300, 7600, 7800, 7900, 7950, 8400, 8500, 8600, 8800
9600, 9800, GTX 260, GTX 280

Intel® Extreme Graphics
GMA 950, GMA X3000, GMA X3100


ATI Radeon™ series
9500, 9600, 9800
X300, X600, X700, X800, X850, X1300, X1600, X1800, X1900, X1950
2400, 2600, 2900
3450, 3650, 3850, 3870,
4850

can one of you geek guru's please tell me if any of these have an rf cable input? if there is no rf coaxial input is there a converter to turn coaxial rf into s video? i noticed a lot of cards have s video ports for line in but the converter would need to be rf in, s video out....do those exist? if i need to post other computer specs to see if i have to upgrade other things in order for my system to run with one of those new video cards, i will. I would prefer the cheapest option (if one even exists) The videocard is the only part of my computer that does not meet Spore requirements.

I'm running Win Xp Pro SP3, Pentium 4, 2.4GHz, 1GB RAM

Any and all help is appreciated!!

This post has been edited by Aarin: Sep 30 2008, 01:04 AM

Hi Aarin, welcome.

Basically it looks like you'll need to replace your current card with two cards - one graphics processing card, and one tv input card. Would this be an option for you?

Troy

uhm well here's the issue with that... one i dont have any extra pci slots open to allow for 2 seperate cards and two all those newer gaming cards connect thru whats called pci express which, if i understand correctly, is not compatable with a plain ol pci. in the grand scheme of things, i think the computers had a good run. lasted me thru 4.5 years of college in 2 states, been my primary tv and radio for that long too. i've decided to educate myself so i can build my own new pc. in the new one i do plan to get two video cards, one graphics orriented and one for tv. i just think that its time to move on. i mean, this system was built for me in 2002. its survived well. can you recommend any good books or websites to help me learn to build pc's? that would be helpful. and i'm sure i'll be here a lot if i run into building issues

That is a funny question, due to the fact that you are asking this question in a forum called "System Building and Upgrading". You can scan the posts for builds that others are using, or we can help you come up with one that fits your specific budget. The only problem, is we can't suggest a specific build, until you are prepared to buy it (price and technology changes too often).

I am more of a software guy, then hardware. However, I managed to build my desktop without TOO much of a hassle. I used instructions from the computer parts (mainly the motherboard). However, they have some guides on here that you can follow, and you always have us to help you when you need some troubleshooting.

Hi again,

You can read our very own guide here.

What's your budget for this new system, and what will be included? Do you want a new monitor, keyboard, mouse? Do you have any thoughts as to what parts you would like in the new system?

Would you consider using Vista or XP, or a flavour of linux?

So far, we've got that you want a dedicated TV Tuner card.

It's a start, let's work from that!

Troy

budget=ebay. that's the 'dad way' in our family. doesnt need to be the latest ang greatest, in fact dad always bought the 2nd newest thing...wait for the newest to come out then wait for a price drop on #2. i need the cheapest but most effective options because i have health issues right now that prevent me from working. prts wise we have literally boxes full of parts so i know i'll have some parts already, its just right now looking in those boxes i have little to no idea what the parts are. LOL

i have a kvm switch so i can use the same mouse, keyboard and monitor.i'll need to download drivers for the keyboard though as an incident occured involving the original driver cd basically what i need is a new cpu. i know i'll need the basic parts and cards and such, a cd drive, doesnt necesarily need to be cd-rw...i'd prefer 2 hard drives, one for important programs, the os, etc. os wise i love xp pro and have had very few problems with it. i'm kinda unsure on switching to vista...it scares me.i'll look thru all the stuff on here and if i have more questions i'll start another thread. you both have been very helpful and concise. i dont know all the geek lingo i need to yet

I wouldn't suggest Ebay for buying computer parts. You have the usual risks involved, plus more risks like if they do anything about DOA (Dead on Arrival) products. Plus, I don't know if you can even find good deals on Ebay for certain computer parts. Depending on the product on ebay, you can either save very little, or even pay extra for it. For the longest time (possibly still the same way), you couldn't buy a $250 Wii for less then $300 on Ebay.

Newegg is a decently cheap place to buy from, with good, reliable service to go along with it. If you still want to try to buy parts on Ebay, that is your choice. Just don't buy anything that is used (well maybe a used case, but a case probably won't die on you...).

Also, do you have a specific price maximum you can give us? Also I'm assuming that this will be a budget Gaming/Media PC.

i want it as cheap as possible simply because its not really my money. we dont have hundreds of dollars to be spending on each part...now that i think about it, there is an unused machine downstairs...it may be possible to just wipe that one and put 2 new video cards in it...only thing is the case is kinda big n clunky but assuming all the parts are there and operational i might just be able to shove it in a new smaller case making sure theres still room for the 2 video cards. i might however run into the pci versus pci express problem again since i dont really know whats in the canary (each of my dad's computers got codenames- this ones case is bright yellow ) nor when he built it...but thatd still be cheaper than a 100% brand new system