my black friday desktop

HP a6642p It's got:


-pentium dual-core E5200 processor 2.5Ghz.
-6gb or ram
-64 bit vista
-media accelerator graphics 3100?
-250 watt power supply

I don't know a lot about this stuff but i'd like to get a graphics card because GW keeps shutting down on me saying graphics error. It has happned a couple times while mapping to tarnished haven. Anyone who can recomend a cheapish graphics card that can run GW on max settings or am i missing something and there is a different solution? About all I need is watching movies and playin GW so i'd like to spend as little as possible. Also from what I'm reading I might have to upgrade power supply? hopefully not. Any help is appreciated thanks!

k sounds pretty good so far



yes you need a better graphics card, and a better power supply definitely wouldn't hurt either. What graphics card you can get depends on the slots your PC has, PCI-express or PCI-express 2.0, so check that first.

Here are some graphics cards to look at:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814130085
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150247
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150316

and you may want to upgrade to a ~400w PSU

Unfortunately, that computer may not even have a graphics card slot - check to make sure. Beyond that, you will need to go pretty low end to get a card that will work with a 250watt power supply.

Look here for some info on cards: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...rd,2064-2.html

You may be able to get away with some card based upon an ATI 4350 or nVidia 9400GT, but even they recommend 300watts.
http://www.motherboards.org/reviews/...e/1824_13.html

Vista - bad.
6GB RAM - overkill.
Huh? If it's intergrated, you wasted some cash.

Also, power supply sucks. You're going to have some problem with it...

Thanks for the responses and the links. I'm a little confused on how I can find the graphics card slot or which my computer has. I looked around but can't figure it out.

http://www.officedepot.com/a/product...ktop-Computer/
Thats my computer.

Also I found a 20 dollar power supply. Is there anything I should be looking for to see that it will work with my computer? I posted a link to what I think I would buy.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16817256032

I got the thing for 600 bucks including moniter if I really wasted some money I could return it do you guys think I can find a better setup for around this price range? Thanks for the help =)

see here:

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...538 8&lang=en

you are in luck, because it DOES have a pci-e x16 slot, which is needed for graphic cards.

www.newegg.com has an OCZ 500 watt power supply and and an 8600GTS video card that will run you just $55 after rebates. That power supply will give you some wiggle room and the video card will service all your needs at a very cheap price too.

In the product specs it says "PCIex16 Slots - One (None available)". It could be a misprint, but the best way to be sure would be to open up the computer and take a look.

Check out this link for an idea of what a PCIe slot looks like.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PCI_Express

It's possible that the motherboard has the spaces to put a PCIe slot, but it doesn't have the actual connector installed. The PCIe slot should be a long-ish one at the "top" of the set of card slots (closest to the cpu).