upgrading from PCI possible?

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Efini~FC3S

New Member
I own a Dell 4600 that I bought last winter. It has a 2.99ghz Pentium 4, 1gb RAM, 40gb hard drive blah blah blah.

It is equipped with a GeForce FX5200 I believe it is 128Mb.

My problem is I think I only have PCI slots, I have 3 pci slots and a green slot that the FX5200 is installed in. My hardware profile says that the 5200 is installed in PCI slot one.

Is there anyway to upgrade my computer to a PCI-e or AGP slot? Looking at dells website you can get a new computer with a PCI-e graphics card.

I am not too competent with computers but would it be possible to transfer all my worthwhile stuff onto a new mobo with better specs?? I am starting to regret ever buying a dell now. oh well any help would be great.
 
It's most likely your hardware profile is incorrect, and the video card is in an AGP 8x slot. However, if it actually is PCI, you'll have to get a new motherboard with either AGP or PCI-e. You'll have to see what processor socket the new motherboard has to match the socket of your current CPU. If your CPU is too old and they don't make one with PCI-e and your processor's socket, then you'll have to get a new CPU as well.
 
the slot the graphics card is in looks physically smaller than the pci slots below it. It looks like it has less pins, does this mean it is possibly an agp slot?

If it is an agp slot that is great, however my next problem is I don't think Battlefield 2 supports any geforce 6600 or 6600gt agp cards(that's what I was looking at buying), only pci-e cards.

Is there a way to definitively tell if the slot is AGP or not? I read earlier that most agp slots were brown and most pci slots where white. Mine is green, but like I said earlier it looks physically smaller. Maybe I will try to count the number of pins.

Finally my CPU is still pretty new so I think I could find a mobo that would work with it, like i said it is a 3GHz P4.

thanks
 
agp_slot.jpg

The brown one a agp slot

Efini~FC3S said:
If it is an agp slot that is great, however my next problem is I don't think Battlefield 2 supports any geforce 6600 or 6600gt agp cards(that's what I was looking at buying), only pci-e cards.
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Battlefield 2 will work fine with a agp 6600 and 6600gt. there pretty much no difference between the agp and the pci-e 6600 and 6600gt.

I do see anouther problem you might have. Am not certain the PSU on the dell 4600 will be powerful enough for a 6600 class graphic card.
 
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alot of dells also use proprietary parts like power supplies that only fit in their machines, and a regular power supply wont always fit, you might want to check into that as well...and the high-performance power supplies directly from Dell are extremely expensive..

that 3ghz processor is probably either a northwood core or a prescott core and is also more than likely a socket 478..so there should be plenty of motherboard options available to you if you wanted to just build a new machine.
 
the ATI X800XL requiere very little power, so little infact it needs no molex conector, only downside is you are looking at 300$
 
TonyBAMF said:
the ATI X800XL requiere very little power, so little infact it needs no molex conector, only downside is you are looking at 300$
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what does an x800xl have to do with the 6600 or 6600gt he's talking about getting? and its not so much that that card doesnt require alot of power, in fact id say it probably uses more, its just that the PCI-e bus can supply all the power necessary for modern video chipsets, which is something that AGP cannot do, thats why very few the PCI-e video cards have external power connectors...i looked at a 512mb X800xl and it did have a power connector, but it appeared to be a floppy connector instead of the 4pin molex, so it obviously doesnt need a whole lot of power.
 
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so what's the final verdict?

what should I do, in comparing my slot to the one in the pic they look similar however, i cannot definatively say my slot is agp. It sounds like power supply may be an issue too.

Any ideas on a solution would be great, I am a little leary on trying to build a machine from parts I have and easily available parts. Partly because it would be my first time and partly because I still have a warranty on this computer and I still owe money on it. (bu tnot for long, stupid dell financial)

If I were to build a system I shoudn't need too much stuff from what I understand. Mobo, case, power supply, other little stuff. Would I be able to use the Dell hard drive, or is that specific to dell mobos? I also could use my sound card, speakers, monitor, mouse, keyboard etc.

Well I am a complete noob, any help would be appreciated.
 
is the green slot somewhat staggered compared to the rest? all of your PCI slots are normally in a row and are white....and then the AGP is kinda off to one side

do you know what the wattage is on the power supply? why dont you open the case and see if theres a sticker on the power supply, usually even big name manufacturers put that on there, it tells how much power it puts out on the various rails(+12v,+3.3v,+5v) how many extra power connectors do you have?

and there is no way to upgrade to an AGP or PCI-e slot without getting a new motherboard.

using the hard drive from your Dell would work fine, but you would almost definetely have to reformat it and reinstall windows, which if you dont have a copy of Windows XP is going to cost you a pretty penny, the re-installion disk that came with your Dell will not work on any other computer, but they may have sent you a regular version..
 
yea the green slot is staggered, kind of like in the picture of the agp slot

i will check into the other stuff when I get home from work, thanks guys
 
it almost has to be an agp slot, i dont know what else it could be with that kind of computer, but go ahead and check anyway just to be sure.
 
I have attached a couple of pics of the green slot so that maybe someone knowledgable would be able to identify it. I am pretty sure it's not a pci slot but hopefully someone can tell for sure what it is.

I looked at the sticker on the PSU and wrote down all the power output info. It goes like this

Output 250W max
+5v --- / 22.0A
+12v --- / 16.0A
+5vSB ---/ 2.0A
-12v --- / 1.0A
+3.3v --- / 18.0A

Max combined power on +5v and +3.3v output is 170W

That's what the sticker looked like except the three dashed lines also had a solid line right above them. What is the +5VSB and -12V for? I am not sure what SB stands for?

Can anyone tell from this info if I would be able to support a 6600 or 6600gt AGP graphics card? or any decent graphics card for that matter?

Thanks so much for all the help so far, and thanks in advance for anymore.
 

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LittleHoov said:
is the green slot somewhat staggered compared to the rest? all of your PCI slots are normally in a row and are white....and then the AGP is kinda off to one side

do you know what the wattage is on the power supply? why dont you open the case and see if theres a sticker on the power supply, usually even big name manufacturers put that on there, it tells how much power it puts out on the various rails(+12v,+3.3v,+5v) how many extra power connectors do you have?

and there is no way to upgrade to an AGP or PCI-e slot without getting a new motherboard.

using the hard drive from your Dell would work fine, but you would almost definetely have to reformat it and reinstall windows, which if you dont have a copy of Windows XP is going to cost you a pretty penny, the re-installion disk that came with your Dell will not work on any other computer, but they may have sent you a regular version..
Click to expand...


Relating to what u just said. My Sony computer i've had for 4 years, might be hitting its last run....i want to upgrade to PCI-X and a new chip. But everything else i would keep the same (i have some upgraded parts already) Just buy a case and mother board. Now my question is, i can't just plug in my hard drive in this new setup? I have a lot of programs that i don't feel like reinstalling. And some of the sony programs like DV gate are great for my video camera and don't want to lose those either. But say if i had to reinstall a fresh copy of XP...if i did that on a new harddrive, and then setup my current hard drive as a slave......would i be able to use the programs still?
 
Efini~FC3S said:
I have attached a couple of pics of the green slot so that maybe someone knowledgable would be able to identify it. I am pretty sure it's not a pci slot but hopefully someone can tell for sure what it is.

I looked at the sticker on the PSU and wrote down all the power output info. It goes like this

Output 250W max
+5v --- / 22.0A
+12v --- / 16.0A
+5vSB ---/ 2.0A
-12v --- / 1.0A
+3.3v --- / 18.0A

Max combined power on +5v and +3.3v output is 170W

That's what the sticker looked like except the three dashed lines also had a solid line right above them. What is the +5VSB and -12V for? I am not sure what SB stands for?

Can anyone tell from this info if I would be able to support a 6600 or 6600gt AGP graphics card? or any decent graphics card for that matter?

Thanks so much for all the help so far, and thanks in advance for anymore.
Click to expand...

That looks exactly like an AGP slot. Unfortunately, your power supply is weak and won't be sufficient for most of the more powerful cards out there. My 6600GT requires at least a 350W PSU.
 
Thug541 said:
Relating to what u just said. My Sony computer i've had for 4 years, might be hitting its last run....i want to upgrade to PCI-X and a new chip. But everything else i would keep the same (i have some upgraded parts already) Just buy a case and mother board. Now my question is, i can't just plug in my hard drive in this new setup? I have a lot of programs that i don't feel like reinstalling. And some of the sony programs like DV gate are great for my video camera and don't want to lose those either. But say if i had to reinstall a fresh copy of XP...if i did that on a new harddrive, and then setup my current hard drive as a slave......would i be able to use the programs still?
Click to expand...

Obviously you're going to have to get a PCI-e video card with your new motherboard. You should be able to just use the same hard drive you have now and boot up fine with it. Windows will recognize you have new hardware and will install the drivers respectively. Just use the CDs that come with your new hardware for the drivers, and everything should work fine.

If you wanted to put a fresh copy of XP on a different hard drive, you will probably run into problems. Even though your programs are still on your old drive, some neccessary registry entries won't be on your new XP. You will probably have to end up reinstalling most of your programs anyway.
 
ReverseFluxx said:
Obviously you're going to have to get a PCI-e video card with your new motherboard. You should be able to just use the same hard drive you have now and boot up fine with it. Windows will recognize you have new hardware and will install the drivers respectively. Just use the CDs that come with your new hardware for the drivers, and everything should work fine.

If you wanted to put a fresh copy of XP on a different hard drive, you will probably run into problems. Even though your programs are still on your old drive, some neccessary registry entries won't be on your new XP. You will probably have to end up reinstalling most of your programs anyway.
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Ahh thanks man. FIgured as much. Yea, so now i do the fun tasks of spending more money on a video card. Not to fully thread jack, but could some of u experts recommand a case, mother board and chip (we'll leave teh graphic card argument out of this one lol) that can be found for a descent price but good performance?
 
Thug541 said:
Not to fully thread jack,
Click to expand...

Then dont

but could some of u experts recommand a case, mother board and chip (we'll leave teh graphic card argument out of this one lol) that can be found for a descent price but good performance?
Click to expand...

Make a new thread and we be happy to help you with those things.
 
I have a Dell 4400 that has a green AGP slot like you are talking about. Furthermore, I have the same STUPID 250W power supply that you have in your computer. The power supply should be fine, I have 2 hard drives, 2 optical drives plus the 6600 that you are talking about getting in the computer without any power issues. As for the hard drive, that is not proprietary, they are usually made by either Western Digital or some other 3rd party manufacturer. So, you shouldn't have any problem with taking it out to put into a computer that you are building (I'm going to :))

Finally, you can check out newegg.com for your grapics card. I got a 6600/128mb card for $150, and I'm playing HL2, Doom 3 and Guild Wars without a hitch! Awesome!!!
 
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