Aukar

Hey all - I was considering upgrading to an actual video card rather than my onboard video chipset - which has served me just fine until now.

Here is a link to the available cards at tigerdirect
http://www.tigerdirect.com/applicati....asp?CatId=697

I do not know much about video cards other than I want to be able to run Everquest and some more recent games without any video lag at all.
Here is my current computer setup off the Dell site. My computer currently has Win XP Home and 768 RAM. My big question is - other than which vid card would be best suited for me, will I have to replace any other parts in order to be able to upgrade my vid card? Thanks in advance for your help

Technical Specifications
Dell™ Dimension™ 2300
Microprocessor Video
System Information Audio
Expansion Bus Controls and Lights
Memory Power
Drives Physical
Ports and Connectors Environmental


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Microprocessor

Microprocessor type
Intel® Pentium® 4 that runs at 1.80 GHz internally and 400 MHz externally or Intel Celeron® that runs at 1.70 GHz internally and 400 MHz externally
NOTE: Microprocessor offerings vary by country.

L1 cache
8 KB first-level (Pentium 4); 32 KB (16-KB data cache; 16-KB instruction cache) (Celeron).

L2 cache
256- or 512-KB (displayed in the system setup program) pipelined-burst, eight-way set associative, write-back SRAM (Pentium 4);
128-KB SRAM that resides in the processor’s core. The L2 cache runs at the processor’s internal clock speed (Celeron).


System Information

System chip set
Intel 845GL

DMA channels
seven

Interrupt levels
24 APIC mode

System BIOS chip
2 Mb (256 KB)

System clock
400-MHz data rate


Expansion Bus

Bus types
PCI

Bus speed
PCI: 33 MHz

PCI connectors
four

PCI connector size
120 pins

PCI connector data width
(maximum)
32 bits


Memory

Architecture
SDRAM

Memory connectors
two

Memory capacities
128-, 256-, or 512-MB

Minimum memory
128 MB

Maximum memory
1 GB

Memory type
PC133 SDRAM (non-ECC)


Drives

Externally accessible
two 5.25-inch bays
one 3.5-inch bay

Internally accessible
one bay for 1-inch–high IDE hard drive


Ports and Connectors

Externally accessible:

Serial
9-pin connector; 16550C-compatible

Parallel
25-hole connector (bidirectional)

Video
15-hole connector

Keyboard
6-pin mini-DIN connector

Mouse
6-pin mini-DIN connector

USB
two front-panel and four back-panel USB 2.0–compliant connectors

Audio
three back miniature connectors for line-in, line-out, and microphone; one front miniature connector for line-out

Internally accessible:

Primary IDE channel
40-pin connector on PCI local bus

Secondary IDE channel
40-pin connector on PCI local bus

Floppy drive
34-pin connector


Video

Video controller
Intel integrated AGP graphics*

*Integrated AGP graphics uses a maximum of 32 MB of main memory.


Audio

Audio controller
Integrated AC97


Controls and Lights

Power control
push button

Front-panel power light
solid green for power-on state; blinking green for standby state

Hard-drive access light
green


Power

DC power supply:

Wattage
200 W

Heat dissipation
682 BTU (fully-loaded computer without monitor)

Voltage (see the safety instructions in your Owner's Manual for important voltage setting information)
100 to 120 V at 60 Hz; 200 to 240 V at 50 Hz

Backup battery
3-V CR2032 coin cell


Physical

Height x Width x Depth
36.8 x 18.4 x 42.6 cm
(14.5 x 7.25 x 16.75 inches)

Weight
10.4 kg (23 lb)


Environmental

Temperature:

Operating
0º to 35ºC (32º to 95ºF)

Storage
–20º to 70ºC (–4º to 158ºF)

Relative humidity
20% to 80% (noncondensing)

Maximum vibration:

Operating
0.25 G at 10 to 500 Hz at 1/2 octave/min

Storage
1.48 G at 10 to 500 Hz, vibration with the computer

Maximum shock:

Nonoperating (half-sine pulse)
105 G, 2 ms

Nonoperating (faired-square
wave)
32 G with a velocity change of 596.9 cm/sec (235 inches/sec)