pci video card (low profile)

[Bill Horn]

I have a Dell Desktop PC and it has onboard graphics. I want to put a Video card in it, but it has to be low profile and not a big power hog.
Will a small card, like a 64mb, do me any good? Anything higher seems to require a 240watt power supply, and according to specs on my machine, the power outage is 120 watts! What can I do besides buying a new system, or building one?

[GX1_Man]

What model is this? Let's check that power supply, but I think 64 meg. is definitely as high as I would go with a 200 watt or less.

[knarlybill]

It is a Dimension 4500S.According to the Owners Manual, the wattage is 180W. But, will I see a difference in game play with a 32MB or 64MB video card vs the onboard INTEL 845G?

[GX1_Man]

Probably so. The difference is between AGP and PCI bus (AGP is faster) vs. shared memory or a discrete card with it's own memory. The 32 could be close, but 64 on a card will beat it. The shared memory of the onboard graphics has a max. amount of RAM available to it, depending on system RAM.

[knarlybill]

Thanx for the info...do you know a good site to buy a card? I've been through Tigerdirect, Newegg, Geek Shop, etc.. and the one I want I can't find out what the power requirements are.
I'm trying to soup-up this ole machine untill I can build my own.

[GX1_Man]

eBay is a agood place to look. I just sold a 64 meg. card such as this on there a few weeks ago.

[GX1_Man]

eBay is a a good place to look. I just sold a 64 meg. card such as this on there a few weeks ago.

[knarlybill]

I haven't found one on ebay, however, I have found  a GeForce4 MX440SE @64mb, but I can't find out the power requirements. I'd hate to buy it and it not work. From the picture it looks like a low profile too, but I don't know for sure. I went to a web site on this card but it was in Czech Whatda-ya-think???

[GX1_Man]

The Geforce MX440 would be fine. (As a matter of fact that's what I had!) The SE is usually a crippled version that certainly won't have all of the performance, but if it is a VERY reasonable price, I wouldn't be scared of it. It should work well in that machine. Don't be in a hurry. Just wait for a GeForce 32 or 64 meg (without the LE or SE suffix) and you will be more pleased, but they are a little harder to find.

[knarlybill]

Thank you for the heads-up

[GX1_Man]

Low profile bracket is to fit low profile slots (the cards are shorter than the normal one's) On most Dells, if you insert a PCI card in the slot and connect a monitor to it, it will use that. Nothing to disable in BIOS. You will still see the onboard in Control Panel/System, but there's nothing special you need to do about that.