PCI-Express Question

[NosBoost300]

alright i have myself in a bit of a problem.... i wanna get the nvidia 7800 GTX OC but i don't know if i have the right pci-e slot... it says the nvidia is a pci-e x16 ... and i don't know what kind of pci express slot i have... if it helps any i could give you a link of what kinda computer i have.

http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage...CategoryId=pcmcat60700050017&id=1124431830866

hope that helps some...

*updated*

My computer info!


Mobo
Board: ASUSTek Computer INC. Amberine M 1.03
Bus Clock: 200 megahertz
BIOS: Phoenix Technologies, LTD 3.07 07/29/2005

Processor
2.20 gigahertz AMD Athlon 64 3500+
128 kilobyte primary memory cache
512 kilobyte secondary memory cache

Graphics Card
ATI RADEON XPRESS 200 Series 256mb ram (shared) -_-

 

[Nubius]

theres only one kind of PCI-E slot for graphics cards and that's PCI-E 16x

It says your computer has 1 available PCI-E slot cause your card is PCI-E....all graphics cards PCI-E is the same so in short, yes you could buy the 7800

 

[NosBoost300]

well anywho.. thats just what i wanted to start off with for now, i wanna get a new motherboard thats supports sli but i still wanna keep my processor and ram, any ideas on a good mobo???? going for a 150-300 dollar range

 

[Nubius]

DFI boards are basically the best in their league....this is primarily because they have a ridiculous amount of options in the BIOS for overclocking.

Some other people can probably suggest some other boards that won't be as extensive as far as BIOS options go....but the way I see it, more times than not people say they don't want to overclock and a few months down the road all of a sudden they want to try it and low and behold their motherboard isn't adequate enough.

DFI nf4 SLI would be a SLI board (obviously )

it's approx $190-200 last time I checked, but this was a while ago so I don't have any clue as to what the prices actually are.

 

[NosBoost300]

if i bought this dfi nf4 sli, would i need to buy anything else with it, or could i just shove everything from my old motherboard onto that

 

[Nubius]

everything else would be fine, RAM and CPU of course....I mean AMD uses all the same kind of RAM right now and you've got an AMD Machine, your CPU is socket 939 and so is SLI.

You might need a new powersupply though as the ones that come with prebuilt computers aren't very powerful nor are they the greatest quality.

Do a search for PSUs here as theres been a ton of threads with people asking about what PSU to buy

 

[NosBoost300]

hrmmm how would i find out what kinda of psu would actually fit in my current tower?? and is all this replacing motherboard and psu something that i could do myself?? or something i might wanna take to a professional?

hrmm maybe i should just get a new tower completely, what more would i have to buy with that??? could i just rip everything out of my old computer and shove it in that??? hrmm that would be something i'd have to get done professionally, cuz i don't want to mess up my computer building it like my friend did...

 

[Nitestick]

just need an ATX tower with ATX psu. psu's are basically a standard size so your psu should fit as is anyway.

 

[Mandingo]

Replacing the PSU is not hard. And the mobo is just a little harder than that. If you buy a new mobo it will have a chart for all your hook ups (especially if you go with DFI, great chart). Just be sure to ground yourself by holding onto you computer chasis when working with your stuff and make sure you put your brass standoffs in the correct spots. 1 misplaced standoff can cause you some problems. This is a nice PSU for the money BTW..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817103931
But you can always go with something like..
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817711002
If you have the money. Dont get me wrong there are other to look at also.