Hey y'all! Seeing as how today was christmas, *santa* got me a new computer, despite my request to build it myself instead.

The computer ain't that good; it doesnt even have a graphics card! Since I had bought this computer with the hopes of playing games, could I get some help selecting a card that could at least manage to play substandard games? something like hitman or half life 2?

Oh, I almost forgot. The computer is an acer aspire m3100. It runs on the ATI chipset.

Would it be possible to insert any 'ol dx9 ATI card, install the drivers, and be done with it?


/thanks in advance

Yes, you can buy whatever PCI express card you want. You will have to make sure the power supply will be able to handle it.

The more important thing is, be happy you got your own computer. Having a high end gaming machine isn't cheap. And on the other hand, when parents go shopping they listen to people who work at stores that don't know anything.

Its still Christmas where I am and I'm saying be more thankful. From what I can see, that computer probably costs more than a 360 or PS3 and will help you through middle school, high school and most college programs.

That said, post what it says on the power supply sticker, and people will help you out

Stupid fat santa!

Well, I agree with the last poster(I had to buy my first pc with my own money). But with what they paid I could have definitely built something better.

Anyways just post your powersupply specs and we can help ya out.

I'm sure your parents would have been happy to buy you a great gaming PC, but maybe they couldn't afford it. Be nice, they still sound like great parents to me

Also, since the PC has such a crappy video card, I assume it's somewhere between $500 and $1000. For that sort of budget it may actually be a better deal than you could build yourself. Let's say you have $500 and you have to spend $150 on Windows alone...

You probably need a better PSU and a video card. I don't know about Acer but if it's anything like HP then the PSU needs to be kind of small (I mean, height/width/depth). The OCZ StealthXStream 600W is tier 3 (i.e. decent quality), small enough to fit in HP boxes, and under $100. For the video card, HD 3850 512 MB kicks the behind of any other video card under $200 and is the least you should consider. If you can afford better, HD 3870 or 8800GT or even 8800GTS G92 512MB.

Edit: I guessed right, that PC is about $600. It's not a bad PC at all, fast CPU, 3 GB of RAM. If you had to buy Vista and the hardware yourself it would have cost more, I think.
http://www.amazon.com/Acer-M3100-U [...] B000Y9Q3IK

Not a bad system for $600 though.

I looked up your system specs,you have a good pc,your parents did well.

I found the perfect video card for your budget PC.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814143085

Should meet your gaming needs.

Not a bad system for FREE. (What the OP paid :>> )

Very true, zen. If the OP doesn't want it, I'll pay to have it shipped to me.

Why do you think it's a bad PC? Our PC's are on 690G boards with X1250 integrated video that's fine for Morrowind but not quite enough for Oblivion. Both of them are getting X3850's when income tax comes around.

In fact, that's what I recommend you get; an X3850 with 512 megs of RAM. Newegg has them. The X3870 is a bit better but costlier. Be happy that you have a nice midrange PC.

All these Acers, Gateways and Dells will be much nicer in the years to come when hybrid Crossfire and hybrid SLI are standard. Right now, if you upgrade the graphics, the only thing you can use the integrated video for is a second monitor.

Later in 2008, integrated graphics should work alongside the low to midrange cards by the same manufacturer to provide 60% performance boost at the low end to 10% at the midrange. Even the first generation hybrid Crossfire 780G boards with integrated DX10 video mated to an upcoming 3450 board gives 30fps in Crysis, according to previews.

Perhaps ACER has a board upgrade option later in 2008? Until then, with just the 3850, you'll do well. It's faster than the 256 meg version of the 8800GT but slower than the 512 meg version of the 8800GT or the 3870, but not by all that much. See these scores from Tom's hardware charts for Oblivion:

http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=294

Ignore the overpriced Nvidia card the guy above linked to. You'd be CPU bound even if the power supply had enough amps on the 12 volt rail for it. No one in their right mind would pay that much for a graphics card just to play games anyways. Here's the list of 3850's and 3870's at Newegg:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 000+series

Yea im on my first computer i bought my first first was a via cyrix 233mhz cpu no gpu 128meg ram a cd-rom12x what sin my sig is wahat i got adn i jsut got a 22in wide samgun syncmaster 220wm couretesy of my big bro(god i love ups and there awseom pay!) plus my big bro is always lookin out for me. so yea im thoughly satisfied my build without mointer was a lil over $650.00uds(desatiling stinks but hey 900 buckaroonies in 3 weeks at the age of 15 mhe ill live with it.) so yea and i agree with the guy up there parents belive waht the sales peeps tell them 99% -o- the time so id say get a budget gamer card and call it gooood!

P.S. santa's elves arent used to all of the new technology.

What an ungrateful welp. Wish my parents bought me $600 Christmas presents when I was younger. It's a great system - and all he has to do for gaming is install his old cards or upgrade the graphics card and have a great system. Sheesh, they even got one with 3GB of memory. There are a multitude of cheaper systems they could have purchased. Maybe they should have got him a $300 special with AMD 3800+ and 500MB of memory. Come to think of it, I don't think my parents bought me even any $300 presents for Christmas. But we had a lot of spirit and and many a fun Christmas.

fetch a hd3850, should be able to run on any measly peice of sith psu and wont cost an arm and a leg also it has gret price: performance among other thigns

dang, sorry about the late reply. this POS computer had trouble booting up for the last 3 days and would have on and off internet service too. After asking *santa* myself, it turns out he only payed 400 dollars...not bad.


Well, on my list of upgrades is a new modem...after some research this old one is 4 years old. LOL, that might be the source of my internet issue.

As for the card, I've searched around on newegg and decided on the MSI 1650GT. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127291

Will I have problems installing it?

OK, if a brand new prebuilt PC has trouble booting then you have every right to call it crap. Maybe it's preloaded with junk and adware and trial versions of all sorts of garbage?.

Lousy Internet service is often because of the provider, not your modem's fault. Try changing ISPs when your current contract ends. I've ended up with AOL. At least they have several phone numbers and when the server dies I get switched to another one and still have access.

The X1650GT is a good card for $80 IMO. Is that all your budget?

This would be a much better card for about the same money - $80AR

MSI 8600GT
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Prod [...] 6814127286

If you look at other manufacturers of this standard card, be aware that this is one with GDDR3 memory, the ones with GDDR2 are slower.

Good find!

#OP: study this chart (and change game and resolution too for more charts).
http://www23.tomshardware.com/grap [...] &chart=297

The 8600GT gets about 9 fps in Oblivion at 1600x1200. The x1650GT is not shown there but, guessing it's between x1650pro and x1650xt, it should be at 6 or 7 fps. If $80 is all you've got, go for the 8600gt.

The HD3850 would get 24fps, making even Oblivion playable. However, including the cost of a new PSU to support it, it's about $300.

Well as some stated ... be darn greatful you got it ! Number 2 .... even if they had paid more the installed video card is usually not what anyone wants anyway . You'd really be bitchin if it had an overpriced factory video setup . Just shop and research the newest 2nd gen cards and I'm not specifying any brand . But don't buy an overpriced so-called high end card now ! The whole world of video cards is going to change very soon .

I agree mostly with YIPSL .... he's shootin straight and has good advice . If nothing else think of it as a FREE bare-bones and go from there . As far as the connection problem ... is'nt the sysytem as far as I've ever seen .... remember they all put in lousey modems no matter who you buy from .... could be a driver issue or your provider .