Hey, i'm going to get a new harddrive. And then i'll buy a new graphics card.

I have an HP a345c motherboard.
I have 1GB Ram
I have an AMD Athlon XP 2800+
I have 2.08 GHZ

PCI - Three (two open)
DIMM - Two (one available)
AGP 8x - One (available)
It says I have the following on the HP website:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/generic...cname=c00039936

And here is some more information about my motherboard if it helps:
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/generic...6#c00006476_doc

I'd like to know, what is the best graphic card I could get, preferably under $380, i'd love for it to be less than $300 though.

Do they sell the HP computer a345c in different types, like, one without pci, one with agp, etc ? If not, then the information above should be correct. Not sure how to tell what kind of slot I have, sorry.

Thanks

This post has been edited by Swift: Nov 8 2005, 05:13 PM

Best one for AGP 8x is the x850, then the 6800 ultra and then the new 6800GS but i dont know how it stacks up against the x800s(they were as fast as a 6800GT but apparently the GS is faster than the GT). The 6800GS sounds good if it is as fast as they say it is and its cheaper than a GT as well.

Thanks for the reply.

I heard that all the GeForce series are horrible.
Is the Geforce 6800GS on commercial websites ?
Is it purchasable ? Google didn't come up with anything
just articles...

I found this on the x850:

http://www.pricegrabber.com/search_attrib....1/sortby=priceA

What's the difference between Saffire, pro, platinum, are they just names with lower prices ?

Look at www.newegg.com for good deals on video cards and everything if you live in the united states.

I think that the x850 would be too much for your pc to handle. I think it would bottleneck.

This post has been edited by jrm20: Nov 8 2005, 06:16 PM

How would I get a PC that could handle it ?
What does my PC have / does not have that can't handle it ?

So, would my PC handle Geforce 6800GS then ?

Thanks

Also, lowest I could find is 289 for the ATI Radeon:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?...N82E16814102606
This is AGP 4x/8x. The cheap ones are for PCI-E which I don't have.

This post has been edited by Swift: Nov 8 2005, 06:21 PM

It will work and it is compatible but cpu bottleneck might occur. Just a guess. Your harddrive is 5400 rpm also.

Its a good deal, you might want to go for it.

This post has been edited by jrm20: Nov 8 2005, 06:29 PM

How would one avoid the bottleneck ?
By getting...Or discarding....what ?




I actually got a new harddrive, it's not the one on that HP website.
Where would I go and find out what my current hard drive's RPM is?

This post has been edited by Swift: Nov 8 2005, 06:38 PM

With the older amd althlon xp cpu and the older pc 2700 memory with the 5400 rpm harddrive that itself would be the bottleneck. You said you bought a new harddrive, its probably a 7200 rpm then. I still think the x850 pro would bottleneck.



This link will tell you more in detail about bottlenecking the cpu vs the video card.


http://www.viperlair.com/articles/archive/...ttlenecks.shtml


Im telling you I have herd it before with the older model amd athlon xp cpus with the 6800 gt's even.


Id say a 6600 gt 256mb would best match your pc specs but I wouldnt go over a x800 or x800 pro.

I have seen people with pc's like yours buy fast cards like the 6800 gt's and a week later say my pc is choppy in games and I have a 6800 gt. The reason for this is bottleneck.

Im just trying to help you so you wont be dissapointed with a new fast card lol.


Now if you had a amd athlon 64 bit with the same cpu speed as yours now, that would be alot better for running a X850 or X850 pro.


Quote from the autor in viperlair.com "My general rule of thumb is stick with identical video card and CPU generations to get the most out of your purchases."


Thats your answer right there swift. Im really good at hardware picking out and video cards, just trust me.


I should be a trusted tech here at geekstogo.com but Im not on enough which is fine.

This post has been edited by jrm20: Nov 8 2005, 08:05 PM

Thanks JRM20. So, would my game / video run as smooth as it should with the 6600gt compared to x850 ? Or will x850 have more smoothness, more detail, than the 6600gt. I'm fine as long as my game displays the characters properly, not polygonic but instead nice and smooth like for other people with good graphic cards.

Well yes the ati x850 is alot faster video card but in your case I dont think its a good idea to put that much of a card in.


What games will you be planning on playing?

This post has been edited by jrm20: Nov 9 2005, 03:50 PM

Thanks for the fast replys. Sorry for the slow replys
Major lag with this harddrive..Or is it the game im installing.

I'm planning on playing the game Star Wars Battlefront 2
And I am playing the game on this bad graphic card ( Didn't buy new one yet. ) Age of Empires 3

I have some other games, but they are poor quality and can run on Windows 95.

I think you should be a trusted tech too

EDIT:

Also, could I bother you by asking what would the best Hard drive ( C:\ ) be for my computer?
And how would I go and update my GHZ to something higher. Will it make a difference ?
Thanks

This post has been edited by Swift: Nov 9 2005, 05:33 PM

The lag can be from the video card and the harddrive to if you still have a 5400 rpm drive.

Age of Empires 3 will run alot better with a good video card.


It wouldnt be worth upgrading the cpu on that pc really. Your not going to see a huge processor improvement unless you buy a new pc.



This post has been edited by jrm20: Nov 9 2005, 05:46 PM

Good = 6600GT right ?

Also, is there someway to find out the RPM of your hard drive ? Right click properties or something..

Thanks

You can download a program called Everest and run it.

Post the report on here.



http://www.lavalys.com/products/overview.php?pid=1&lang=en

Thanks alot for the program

There is no "report"
But, I found the hard drive information:

Disk Drive HDS722516VLAT80 (160 GB, 7200 RPM, Ultra-ATA/100)