Graphics v CPU

[molsen]

ooooooooh

 

[Nitestick]

i get the impression that post was about boot legging windows lol. you could always use linux but i'm thinking that would complicate things way too much for you.

GOD people, you act like the 6800 vanilla isn't there....

i'm with FghtinIrshNvrDi on that comment.

 

[daytonoh]

To go along with that, how hard would it be to add a better card to a prebuilt system.
I know I can get a system with onboard video, but has a PCI-E 16x card slot. Is it just plug and play or is there more too it than that?

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

it's almost that easy. The only things you may have to do is disable the onboard video in the bios. Plug it in, install the drivers, reboot, and hopefully everything went smoothly. Good to go.

Ryan

 

[daytonoh]

Ahhh the scary words, disable the bios.
I have no idea how to do that or if it can be done. Say for example I was to an HP or emachine, that has a PCI-E slot avaiable. Can I still enter the Bios?

 

[FghtinIrshNvrDi]

yes, all computers have SOME kind of bios access. I recently installed an FX550 into a Dell. The options in the Dell were this.

Onboard Video: Off
Automatic

So, what I did was put it on automatic, which is what is was anyway... The machine detected the card in the PCI slot and away it went. So in your bios, you're going to want to put it on a setting that suggests you installed your own card. Any questions, post back here.

Ryan

 

[IGeMex]

Entering the BIOS or even thinking about it can actually be daunting for many people the first time. Just tap the ol' delete button when you start your pc and your there, just take a look around. Very unlikely to break anything . It's all layed out simply, i bet i could train my imaginary pet chimpanzee to disable things in the basic input output system.

 

[NosBoost300]

ya, i have a prebuild at the moment, and changing the video card was as easy as pie... all i had to do was put the video card in, go to bios and change the graphics setting from on board to pci-e.. its that simple, and then just find your old drivers and delete them.. well i didnt have to, but it kept bring up the message "cannot find ati blah blah", so i just uninstalled everything that was onboard graphics..

but do keep in mind your going to have a really bad psu.. i barely managed and got lucky with a 350watt psu.... and thats probably only becuase i forked up 735 dollars for my crappy compaq