This is my first time building a computer, and I was given a brand new HP a1710n. Its got a AMD Athlon64 x2 4200+, runs Vista, and came equipped with a GeForce 6150 LE. I practically know nothing about building computers, and I figured I'd ask here. I'm planning on upgrading my ram and graphics card, but how do I know what card will work with my pc? If it came with a GeForce, is it basically wise to stick with GeForces (like, will any ol' GeForce work with it?). I'm under the impression that if it came with a GeForce, a Radeon is probably not compatible with it..but, basically I'm a noob who needs a few questions answered. Any suggestions on what card to get?
newbie, help!
- Thread starter naton
- Start date
- Status
darksideleader
Inquiry - The Dark Cheese
- Messages
- 1,037
Well first you wanna no if what can your computer's mothboard support. The HP a1710n should be able to expand up to 4 gigs of DDR2 Memory, it comes with 1 gig so most you can buy is another 3 gigs. For the video card, it came wit intergrated GeForce graphics. Your computer has 1 PCI-E slot so you can get a PCI-E Video card. They come from $100-$1000 depending on the chipset and how good is the video card. You can get any brand ATI or nvidia and it wouldn't matter. Hope that helps
t3ch_threads
Baseband Member
- Messages
- 48
You can put any graphics card in it as long as it has the right connector (probably pci express in your case). You'll probably have to install the drivers for it though.Remember to turn the machine off and unplug the power cord and ground yourself when you go in the case and all that jazz. There are some good turtorials on working inside your comp on the internets that you should go over first.
1) The 6150LE is integrated graphics (ie. it's part of the motherboard's chipset)
2) that uses shared memory. (ie. it uses a reserved segment of the same memory as the rest of your computer, thus it is slower and probably has to take turns with the CPU accessing it...)
2) that uses shared memory. (ie. it uses a reserved segment of the same memory as the rest of your computer, thus it is slower and probably has to take turns with the CPU accessing it...)
sunlollyking
Beta member
- Messages
- 4
darksideleader said:
At the moment though you should only need about 2 gigs at max.
darksideleader
Inquiry - The Dark Cheese
- Messages
- 1,037
naton said:
well if you want to keep you want to be able to use 2 moniters, keep your 6150LE and just put another video card.
If you want to turn it off, go to your system bios and disable it. Someone else could help you with that. After just get another PCI-E video card for your PCI-E slot and it should work good.
- Status
