Motherboard and Gfx card advise.

Hello Everyone,
First and Foremost I would like to thank you for taking the time to read and hopefully help me with my on going headache.
I'm usually rather good with all things technical but alas there is a bane for us all and the de-construction/construction of pc's is mine.

I'm basically looking to update my system, in particular the gfx device in my computer, I've done some research and I am hoping to double check this with you all and hopefully get some advise.

My System is as follows,
CPU: Intel Pentium D Dual Core 3 GHz
Ram: 1G (I have another Gig in mail on way)
Gfx: Intel 82945G Express Chipset
Motherboard: I believe to be a ECS 945G-M3

If you require any more information please ask, I just thought this would be all you would need.
My research has led me to believe that I would be needing a PCI-E X16 Gfx card.
As Previously mentioned I'm just hoping some of you could clarify this and maybe even suggest some Gfx Cards I could look into (I'm looking for a relatively inexpensive card).
The Pc as you may gather is getting a little old now and though it is working completely fine I just would like to be able to play some of the more recent (+2 years old) games on the market.

Thank you again for your time ^-^.

 

This article from Tom's Hardware Guide might help. I hope I'm not committing a faux pas by sending you somewhere else.

 

Greetings vagrantchaos...

The article Empyre posted looks good - you'd probably be satisfied with several of those cards...

The review of your board at PCStats shows a fairly good low-end mobo - with a new graphics card and a few system/Windows tweaks, you should be good to go...

Keep us posted, and good luck!

 

Thank you ^^
This way exactly what I was looking for, I shall keep you all posted and if I have any more questions I shall ask.
A huge help, appreciated.

 

Make sure your power supply is up to the task,most half cards that will play games in the last two years will require additional power.

If your comp is pre built with only onboard video your power supply may not be sufficient.

http://benchmarkreviews.com/index.p...k=view&id=289&Itemid=72&limit=1&limitstart=13

 

Thank you Rikky, I had come across this whilst looking at some cards today.
I've chosen a few potential cards I may buy and apparently my current power supply will run them ^-^, have now started looking into updating the Psu as well as it seems rather cheap to do so.

Cheers for the information, any more will be most welcome.

 

If you post the model and the wattage of your current psu and the amperage on the 12v rail,also the model of video card your gonna buy we can usually advise you on whether you need to upgrade or not.

You may have looked through some of the cheaper PSU's with high wattage and thought they were cheap and they are,but they can also be nasty,its a lottery and the safety and stability of your whole system depends upon it so usually I don't advise you purchase one of these.

But if your just aiming for best bang for buck to breath a last sigh out of your old rig a generic PSU may suit just fine.

 

I must say I'm learning a lot here quickly, I had no idea that psu's could cause so much trouble depending on the make and quality etc.
The video card I have newly decided upon after some research is a Radeon 4650 (1gb) and it would seem I need a Psu wattage of 400 min.

My current has a wattage of 300 so I shall need to update my Psu for certain, though you must forgive me as I am unsure what you mean by the 'amperage on the 12v rail' (as stated previously I'm not to great with computer components).
However the Psu I was looking at before reading you post was a R-Senda Atx 550 watt Model Number: DR-350T.
I would appreciate your feedback on this and maybe some suggestions, though as you said I'm mostly looking to just add a bit of breathe back to my older system.

Thank you.

 

Agree 100% about the PSU upgrade...

I've never used R-Senda components - you might want to browse some reviews on their stuff, just to make sure...

IMO, stick with a dedicated, proven PSU manufacturer, such as Antec, Thermaltake, etc...

 

I've never heard of them either,like I said its a gamble,I would slightly disagree with Caliban and say go with a cheapo 'in this case',in fact your your CPU and ram will be the bottleneck of your system you not gonna get the most out of the video card you plan to purchase so don't get your hopes too high as to how good games will run and don't expect to run games that demand high spec hardware even those over two years old.

I'd even go one step further and say get a used video card,I wouldn't pump too much money into your system at all its probably over 5 years old.

http://r-senda.fuzing.com/

It should be fine its a risk reward situation,if your system blows up you could pick up a new full system with your spec for about 100 bucks,you could pick up new parts similar to yours for 50 bucks but if your system runs fine which it most likely will you haven't wasted too much money.