f"ed up BAD!!

[slink3y]

ok here is the prolbem

I bought a desktop computer a couple months ago, and I wanted to upgrade my memory and video card so I can play some higher end games like BF2. Basically I rushed into buying my upgraded video card (geforce 6800GT 256) and in the process failed to reconize there is a difference between pci and pci express x16 . What a dumbass! Anyway my computer only has regular pci slots so I have 2 choices that im aware of...

1. get a new motherboard that had 1 of these pci express slots.
the prolbem i see with this is that the computer (hp by the way) didnt come with a windows xp disk. instead it has a recovery hard drive or something like that. dont i have to reinstall windows when i change the mother board?

2. get a regular pci video card
are there powerful pci cards out there that can compare with some of the pci express and apg cards out there, or atleast to run high end games well?

Im stuck and need some help, ideas, suggestions anything at all.

system specs:
pentium 3.0ghz
200gb harddrive
512 mb ram (soon adding 1gb)
3 pci slots
no apg slots

ordered upgrades from newegg and they wont arrive until monday, so I can return the video card if I must.

thanks!

 

[macdude425]

1. MAKE SURE THAT AN ATX BOARD WILL WORK WITH YOUR CASE, AND THAT YOU HAVE A STANDARD ATX PSU. Otherwise, the end result is not good...

2. The most powerful PCI card is the FX5200 I believe, and that will not run the newest games at "good" settings.

 

[waynejkruse10]

2. get a regular pci video card

There are not any GPU's that will play BF2 decently that run on PCI. PCI has very limited bandwidth compared to PCI-E and AGP.

Is your system a prebuilt system from Dell or a whitebox PC from a corner pc store?

Download CPU-Z and find out if your CPU is LGA 775 or PGA 478. If you have LGA 775 this is very good and all you will need is a new motherboard to use your Graphics Card. If its PGA 478 you will run into troubles.