Hi all,

So I gave up the idea of buying a slim PC (also searching for a "low-profile" video card) and ordered a normal one online from Dell which will come in a week. The machine is not high spec but good for the money that I paid.

I am thinking about upgrading the video card when I get it as it comes with a 8300 GS 128MB. There is not much information online about this card but I did find out that it is PCI-E 16x. I want to get the 9600 GT 512MB and it says that it is PCI-E 2.0 16x.

Is PCI-E 2.0 16x and PCI-E 16x the same?

Will my motherboard be able to support the 9600 GT?

Also, will my 300watt PSU (I was told that it is 300watt) be able to keep up?

Full spec of my soon to come PC:

Inspiron 530 running Windows Vista Home Premium SP1 32-bit
Intel Core 2 Duo E8300 (6MB L2, 2.83GHz, 1333MHz FSB)
2GB(1GB x2) DDR2-SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce 8300 GS 128MB DDR2
500GB SATA 3.0Gb/s NCQ HDD
Dell E248WFP 24inch TFT LCD

Any idea or advice would be great!

RJ

hi...can you tell us which mobo there is in that rig...

The mobo will most probably be PCI E 1.1, like most of the mobos available in the market... yes the 9600GT has support for PCI E 2.0, but don't worry because PCI-E 2.0 is backward compatible with 1.1 ........... so your 9600GT will run very well on your mobo.

300W should be enough to run the 9600.

I would like to know which PSU you get and also what the rig costed you.

I wish I could tell you. It has not arrived yet so I have no idea which motherboard it has as the Dell website does not tell you what motherboard is included when you buy online. Same thing for the PSU.

If I run the 9600GT on a PCI-E 1.1 16x motherboard, will the performance of the 9600GT be downgraded? (Sorry, stupid question but I want to know)

The whole thing cost me about $1100USD.

If it is 300 watts, it won't keep up if you plan to upgrade video card.

Maybe by a lil yeah, like one or 2 FPS decrease.
For that card, there's just nothing to worry about having PCI 1 or 2

I thought the 9600 GT only draws 95watt.

If the 9600GT will be bottlenecked on the PCI-E 1.1 motherboard, can you suggest me a good card for my system? I don't want to buy a perfectly good card and have its potentials go to waste.

Also, I was told that having 4GB does not really improve much in terms of gaming. I have 2GB for it right now.

Hey no question is stupid.... feel free to ask anything.... anyways if you run 9600GT on 1.1 there is not that much of a difference when compared to 2.0.... 1.1 is mainstream right now and there are hardly a handful of people who use pciE 2.0 mobos so don't worry at all.

Hmmmmnnn $1100 for that rig looks extremely expensive mate... i'm not saying that Dell ripped you off, but that you could get a much faster rig with the same amount of money. I think that 24" monitor itself costs about $400 ... but still you could get a much better setup wit the remaining $700.

Not misleading you but see if you can build a rig on your own by ordering parts seperately from Newegg and chuck Dell.

Yep the dude tells em all.

I personally don't think that it was a bad deal. I agree with you that I could have gotten a much better rig if I built my own.

The thing is that I have moved to Japan now and it seems like stuff you get at local computer stores are a bit more expensive compared to the US. If I buy online and ship from the US, the shipping cost will start to add up.

I walked around Akihabara (electronic town in Toyko) and looked at various makers' website (NEC, Toshiba, Gateway, etc...) but it seems like Dell is still the cheapest in Japan. So given my limited resource and selections, this is what I ended up deciding to get.

^...ah then it's a'ight... i was under the impression that you're in Bushland .... its a bummer to get parts in Asia...at least 1.5 times the price in US... though Japan is in a better state than the rest of the continent. Dell is high quality.. go for it.

Just to add, I don't think there is much demand for high end video cards here as Japanese gamers mostly play like RPG or girly games (no offense here)...

I am all about FPS

Ah Mihirkula... about the Asia part, you're damn right.
Hard to find good deals here.

Maybe you should consider 8800GT xshingox.
The 512 one of course, not 256 version

I wish I was back in "Bushland"... I miss it a lot!

I had a choice to get E8500 3.16GHz CPU + Dell 20inch LCD or E8300 2.83GHz + Dell 24inch LCD for about the same money. Everything else stays unchanged.

I figured that 10% drop in CPU speed is a good trade for a LCD that is 4inch bigger... lolz

I am kind of surprised that the 8800GT is bit more expensive than the 9600GT and it seems like it outperforms the 9600GT as well.

Not sure if this website is good or accurate: http://www.gpureview.com/show_card [...] &card2=544

FLOPS and Texture Fill Rate are all better as well as the Shader Processor.
I was under the impression that the G94 GPUs are better compared to the G92s Plus, the 9600GT is clocked higher.

And yet its still a bit better than UK...so you can imagine the prices THERE.

E8300 is quite good, you wont be disappointed at all. A 24" LCD is something to drool over. It was a good choice since i don't find the E8500 worth that price...anywhere.

Well if you do want to play FPS at high res (on that 24" ) you'd definitely need a faster card than the one you're getting from Dell. 8800GT scales higher than 9600GT at higher res... but at less than 1440, you won't find any difference. Also you'd need a bigger PSU (450W) if you get the 8800GT.

Oh ok...
Rechecked prielists.
Found out that there are many unknown brands that have great offers.
e.g. Colorful, Manli, etc...
Though I wouldn't try them, dare not take the risk of some unknown, rather buy XFX, Asus, MSI or those other branded even if its more expensive.

Yes 8800GT, or the GTS, better than buying the 9600GT since the prices have dropped so low

Thanks guys! Appreciate it!

The 9600GT 512 is a good solid card. It is outperformed by the 8800GT 512 by a slight margin which in turn is edged out by the 8800GTS 512 The recommended system requirements for the EVGA 9600GT 512 are "512MB of System Memory

CD or DVD-ROM Drive
100MB of available hard disk drive space for basic driver installation

Microsoft Windows Vista. or XP Operating System

PCI Express -compliant motherboard with one vacant

PCI Express x16 slot
400W PCI Express-compliant system power supply with a combined 12V current rating of 26A or more

One 6-pin PCI Express supplementary power connector -or- Two 4-pin MolexR supplementary power connector "
I would recommend that you upgrade your power supply at the same time you upgrade your graphic card. I'm not sure what you have available where you are, but any brand name power supply of 450-550watts should be plenty. Seasonic, PC power and cooling, Corsair, OCZ. It would also be enough if you went with the 8800GT or 8800GTS