[Noyb]

Being a HP .. All we need is the model number .. is this it ??
http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/p...roduct=3817780

And maybe any changes you've made to it.
It is certain that the HP OEM Power supply will be insufficient to run a good Graphics card.

[metallicsob]

yeah that is it, i havent done anytthing to it at all yet. except i had to reformat and reinstall vista ultimate X32 due to a trojan, so i don't have any of the stock programs like the norton trial(junk) and such

[Noyb]

I'll bet you really hated to see all that Junk go By-By
Didn't you make your HP recovery DVDs ??

Sometimes .. It can be difficult to change the supply in a HP .. because of the supply size.
How many Inches do you have from the back panel .. to the back of the optical drives ??

[metallicsob]

i didn't really have time to, i got it and the day i decide to make the dvds i find out my brother had installed limewire and downloaded 4 movies and at least one had trojans, worms and cookie trackers all over it, my anti-virus didn't catch it cause any time you boot up the PC or even log in under a new name not logged in yet, you have to unblock the realmon, its incredibly aggravating

[Noyb]

You could have had the HP recover itself from the recovery partition .. But that's behind you now.

Being an HP .. Dual booting is easy.
A little off the subject - but maybe you'd also want to think about dual drives with dual systems ..
So you'd have an internal backup for another brother attack.

[metallicsob]

Originally Posted by Noyb

You could have had the HP recover itself from the recovery partition .. But that's behind you now.

Being an HP .. Dual booting is easy.
A little off the subject - but maybe you'd also want to think about dual drives with dual systems ..
So you'd have an internal backup for another brother attack.

not really sure what any of that is, yes i know i am a noob
are you talking about two hard drives with seperate boots or something like that?

[Noyb]

YES .. But I was just looking at your Motherboard ... It looks like all your SATA ports are used.
One for the SATA Optical drive and the other for the SATA Hard Drive.

Are both these connectors used .. and do you only have two of them ??

[Noyb]

Your original question was to upgrade for a gaming application ... on a small budget.
Probably the first thing you need to change is the Video Card and Power Supply.

What is you Vista Performance score as currently configured ??

[metallicsob]

Originally Posted by Noyb

Your original question was to upgrade for a gaming application ... on a small budget.
Probably the first thing you need to change is the Video Card and Power Supply.

What is you Vista Performance score as currently configured ??

nope, i only have a 3.0 because of the 3D such and such,

ok my performance is as follows:

calculations per second---- 4.8

Memory Ops. per second--- 5.9

Desktop..window Aero------3.2

3D Business and gaming
Graphics performance-------3.0

Disc Data Transfer Rate-----5.8

[metallicsob]

and yes they are both used, i saw that when i popped it open last night.

[ahaywoode]

Check this link to Tom's comprehensive gaming card guide.

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/...hics,2086.html

I use his highly recommended Gforce 9800 GT, and play halflife2 and farcry at 1024x768 look good. Unreal tourny 2004 at 1600 x 1200 no problem. BioSHock 1024 x 768 looks great. All effects turned on. I'm thinking to add a second 9800 GT for about another $100 to scale up my resolution on the newer games one notch.

I'm running Athlon Brisbane 6000+ processor with 2 gig ram and win XP. I'm happy with the card and looking forward to SLI.

[Noyb]

Looks like the recommendations from BG-0 (post #10) are what you need.
Is the slot underneath the video card available ??

You can see that these video cards requires the space of two slots.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161252
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814150314 ... ahaywoode's suggestion

[BG-0]

To ahay, 4670 performs about the same as 9800 GT, is cheaper, runs cooler, consumes less power. No offense. Yet, 9800 GT supports PhysX, but with this low-end cards, it will get a bit heavy for a single card to handle, so it's not a real con for the 4670.

[metallicsob]

wow cool thanks guys i will be looking those up for future reference, but for now, i am going out of town again tomorrow night so any suggestions or questions should probably be asked soon if it entails my hardware or any other querries that require an open case,
i am leaning fairly heavily towards BG-0's suggestion of psu and i will def. keep that 4670 in mind for a possible purchase

[BG-0]

It's BG-0 (BeeGee-Zero(of course you can also pronounce it O, but it's typed 0.) About one person on the internet has ever typed my nick correctly on the first go. I really don't know what's so hard in it? Not that I really mind, I'm just an useless instance they gaze on for a second.
Let us know of any further questions.