According to the above link, the video card that came with the system (ATI Mobility RADEON HD 3200) is a PCI-E and there is only one PCI-E video card slot thus if you replaced the old card with the new one you should be fine. If the new video card requires a 6pin power connection make sure the power supply has one.
Regarding whether you have enough PCI slots, you would have to be the judge of that. If there are no add-on cards, you are fine. If there are add-on cards already, you will need to see if there are any free slots.
Your existing video is integrated, meaning you don't even have a video card in your existing computer. You have one available PCI-E X16 for a new video card, and an extra PCI-E X1 & PCI slot. You will need the PCI-E X1 slot for your USB 3.0 expansion card.
The 300W power supply on the machine concerns me. Mass production builders like Gateway are notorious for putting really crappy PSUs into their machines. There's no way to know if you have the required power connectors for the new video card, like psa mentioned, unless you check. My recommendation would be to get the new power supply before you even try to put a new card into that machine. A good PSU is not cheap, but it's the absolute one thing you should not compromise on in a system. The nice thing about a good PSU is that it will last a good long time and you can always pull it out and use it in a new machine if you upgrade. Here's a link to one that you can't go wrong on.
The DX4300 offers room to add more components inside. It has excellent upgrading features. It has a single PCI Express graphics card slot, a free standard PCI slot and hard-drive bay. All the RAM slots have been occupied, which is common in 8GB or 6GB memory configuration. Power Supply (300V) avoids you from adding too much in the way of high end 3D graphics hardware.
So, you are probably going to need that new power supply and it also looks like you are going to have to kill your TV tuner card to reclaim your PCI-E slot.
We'll wait to see your pics. Take a pic of the back of the computer too so we can verify what cards are in there.
I think we should also discuss the specific problem you have run into because a 780g chipset with a quad core phenom II shouldn't have a problem with HD playback. Also, I wonder if you are regularly moving so much data to and from your external hard drive that the difference in performance between usb 2 and 3 is going to be much of an issue.
I have to keep the TV tuner card. I want to beef up my video card so my system has its own dedicated gpu and to "future" proof. asasf is right, the CPU as of right nows seems to handle HD decently. 1080p sometimes it does stutter, but not all the time.
My intention is to transfer my OTA HD recordings to the external.
I really wish WMC would allow us to choose a backup HDD to record our TV recordings but alas we can't have everything.
The HDD I want to wait till May b/c of the Thailand flooding. Maybe the prices will drop further by then. I plan to do lots of recording for the Euro Cup 2012 and Olympics.
the PSU I can order now, I just want to get a decent one, midrange, something that has lots of connections but won't break the bank. I am not a gamer.
You will need to put this card on the buttom, the empty white slot is the PCI.
Also make sure you have that 4 pin power from the psu.
Any clue how many watts does your psu have? If it is 300watts.... then you need a new one.. 450-550watts. Since, you also want a new video card. Oh, whats your price range for a video card.? Under $200?
I would probably go with something like this for a replacement PSU. 500 watts will be more than you need and it's at a very good price right now. »www.newegg.com/Product/P ··· 17148027
Next buy a can of air, take your system outside. Take the fan off the heatsink and blow all the dust off the heatsink and fan blades. »www.staples.com/Dust-Des ··· t_326196
If the occasional stutter is a problem we can perhaps try to help with that. I don't see a benefit to your adding a graphics card under the circumstances. I don't care for that apevia that was mentioned at all. I think you are taking an unnecessary risk by replacing your present psu, especially by a low quality supply, so that you can add a low end graphics card that I can't see providing much benefit to you.
The pci-e x1 slot seems to be used so, as was stated, you will have to get a pci card and not pci-e card usb card. You should be able to add a usb card without having to deal with a power supply upgrade.
Basically you feel the onboard video can handle HD for the near future. Not to go over your head, Ill probably end up odering the card for peace of mind, hell i get free Sonic game too!
Peggy, the card you have linked will work just fine and you should see a pretty significant performance increase. Read through the reviews and there are people who upgraded from 4200 and 4500 integrated video to that card and they are seeing good gains. Hell, there are people saying they are running SWTOR on medium with that card. It doesn't require additional power plugs either so it will work with your existing PSU if you really want to try it.
Here's another power supply that's about half the cost of the other one I suggested, but at least it's a good one. Allow me to stress just one more time how much I would recommend you upgrading your PSU.
And, yes, you can add a USB 3.0 card but it has to be PCI like Fizz said. Just make sure you get one that is PCI and not PCI-E. I never even thought to look and see if they made PCI-->USB3.0 cards, I just assumed they did not. Silly me.
The earthwatts mentioned just above is fine. So is the corsair 430cx. I would choose between them based on price, rebates etc. at the time you decide to buy.
Thank you all. I ordered the PSU COrsair and the Saphirre video card. Both should arrive next week..
THe USB 3.0 card is out of stock at Newegg. SO Ill wait on that.
Now, when I get the new video card, before I install it, I have to disable the onbard video and uninstall the video drivers right? or can I just install the new video card, and the software will do the rest for me? Thanks/
"Now, when I get the new video card, before I install it, I have to disable the onbard video and uninstall the video drivers right? or can I just install the new video card, and the software will do the rest for me? Thanks/"
You may not have to disable the onboard video as the system may automatically recognize the card. It certainly doesn't hurt to do so though if you know where to go in your bios.
I generally suggest that people change the driver to a standard vanilla vga type driver and then uninstall the old video drivers before shutting down to install the card. There will be people who say this isn't necessary and that could very well be true in most cases. I just like to be thorough and keep things as clean as possible. I think it reduces the chances for problems.
Besides Koutech, any other pci 3.0 cards that can work w/my motherboard. Most ones I have searched seem to be PCI-E, I cannot find regular pci? Thanks.
