In need of help

[conlazy2600]

My old nvidia card finally crapped out after 6 years of service, and when i asked nvidia what card i could replace it with they said a geforce 9400 pci ddr2. The only problem is that my old card basically looks like

http://images.tigerdirect.com/skuimages/large/Diablotek-Radeon-9000-D15-9.jpg

but the slots look like they wont work... i dont know if they will or if i dont know what im talking about. so will a pci ddr2 card work?

I'm also looking into upgrading my hard drive and it has ide 3.5" cache, and i'm looking into buying like a 320gb hard drive. but does a ide ultra work in an ide? my guess is that it does....just looking for answers

any advice/answers will be grateful.

[Paul Komski]

The link sure looks like a Radeon PCI card. What model is your old card?

Unless you are running a complete dinosaur you will need one of the following three types:

Conventional PCI (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conventional_PCI)

PCI Express (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express)

AGP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accelerated_Graphics_Port)

[conlazy2600]

yeah i'm currently using a 2003 dinosaur computer from hp. but i have that conventional card slot. I'm looking for a 256mb replacement like the one i had....but i can't find any thats 256mb i can only find 128mb. i dont know what to type in and search for.

[Paul Komski]

Google is usually your friend at times like this. Be aware that PCIe can get included in searches for straightforward PCI.

http://www.google.ie/#hl=en&source=hp&q=video+card+pci+256&btnG=Google+Search&meta=&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai=&fp=ea6f6d0aa5aef338

Depending on where you live sites like NewEgg and Amazon and Komplett can all be good ones to look at.

[conlazy2600]

so during my search i found something i don't really know what it means. would a pci low-profile work in my conventional slot? or no...

and a product i found that im also wondering if it'll work looks something like this http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103167

I'm wondering if something that looks like that would work....granted i don't really care for ati, because i've had such a bad history with their graphics cards. But if that kind of card would work in my slot then maybe i could then look for a new card finally.

And would it be best to go with diamond, pny, or bfg tech for the manufacturer. which is most trusted and best for the money? because from my view on newegg the diamond is 65, the pny is 40, and the bfg is 20.

[Paul Komski]

The contacts are the same but the size of the cards themselves is smaller so that they will fit into cases with greater space constraints.

http://www.pcisig.com/news_room/faqs#low_profile_pci

I have no views on the actual manufacturers though others may well have some.

[hackerballs]

Sry to interupt....but don't you have an AGP slot? So why would anyone buy a PCI graphics card for?
The ATI 3850 AGP card is the most powerful of all the AGP's or PCI's....no question at all about it........

and if you MB has a PCI-e then this whole conversation is pointless...lol