[smax013]

I have a Dell Inspiron 5300 that I am "decommissioning" for my father that we will likely give to a relative. I need to get a replacement graphics card for it, however, because the original one died.

If I recall correctly, it originally came with an nVidia 7600 (I wanted to say "GS", but not completely sure) PCI-E card. I need to find something in the same ballpark in terms of power requirements since the Dell has a 300W power supply.

On the nVidia side, I am looking at a 8400GS. Even though it says "minimum 350W", it also says minimum 18A on the +12V rail...which the Dell power supply seems to imply that it has accorded to the label on the power supply. And there are no supplemental PCI-E power cables...all power must come through the PCI-E slot.

Since I am not as familiar with the ATI side of things, can anyone suggest an ATI equivalent card?

And if you have a better nVidia card to suggest, fire away.

Note: I am not really looking to upgrade, just get a decent replacement card.

This post has been edited by smax013: 29 October 2012 - 05:49 PM

[LiveBrianD]

I take it you're looking for a basic, low-end card, right? Something like a Radeon 6450 would work well enough. (those work with the 250W PSUs in the computers at school)

[smax013]

I ended up going with an MSI Radeon HD4350. It specifically states that it will work with a 300W PSU...plus when I look up "suggested" upgrades on the Dell site for that computer, they list 4350's. It should do all that is needed for that computer.

[LiveBrianD]

A lot of those cards don't use all that much (the TDP on the 6450 is about 30W), so I doubt they'd have issues with the PSU.

[waldojim]

smax013, on 29 October 2012 - 05:42 PM, said:

I have a Dell Inspiron 5300 that I am "decommissioning" for my father that we will likely give to a relative. I need to get a replacement graphics card for it, however, because the original one died.

If I recall correctly, it originally came with an nVidia 7600 (I wanted to say "GS", but not completely sure) PCI-E card. I need to find something in the same ballpark in terms of power requirements since the Dell has a 300W power supply.

On the nVidia side, I am looking at a 8400GS. Even though it says "minimum 350W", it also says minimum 18A on the +12V rail...which the Dell power supply seems to imply that it has accorded to the label on the power supply. And there are no supplemental PCI-E power cables...all power must come through the PCI-E slot.

Since I am not as familiar with the ATI side of things, can anyone suggest an ATI equivalent card?

And if you have a better nVidia card to suggest, fire away.

Note: I am not really looking to upgrade, just get a decent replacement card.

First off, due to the way cards get phased out over the years, I would suggest going with a 620 or 630 from the Nvidia camp. If for no other reason to ensure you still have drivers for years to come. But an AMD 6450 has almost no power demand to speak of, and would run quite well on that PSU.

Truth be told, the Nvidia 630 has a wider memory bus (128bit), and even though it is using DDR3 ram, it is clocked fairly high. That card should actually be enough for any movie (including 3d BR), or any game up to medium to high details @ 1650x1050. Probably the best choice if you ask me.

EDIT: I didn't notice that you already ordered one.

This post has been edited by waldojim: 30 October 2012 - 02:32 PM

[smax013]

waldojim, on 30 October 2012 - 02:31 PM, said:

First off, due to the way cards get phased out over the years, I would suggest going with a 620 or 630 from the Nvidia camp. If for no other reason to ensure you still have drivers for years to come. But an AMD 6450 has almost no power demand to speak of, and would run quite well on that PSU.

Truth be told, the Nvidia 630 has a wider memory bus (128bit), and even though it is using DDR3 ram, it is clocked fairly high. That card should actually be enough for any movie (including 3d BR), or any game up to medium to high details @ 1650x1050. Probably the best choice if you ask me.

EDIT: I didn't notice that you already ordered one.

Yeah, it does not need to be very powerful. The relatives we will give it to likely will just use it for taxes, email, Facebook, browsing, storing/printing pictures, etc. I seriously doubt they do any gaming...and if they do, it is not the likes of modern FPS or anything remotely close to that...more like Words With Friends type gaming.

So, the 4350 that I order should do just fine.

I actually currently have my old 8600GTS in there, but if I do anything intensive things go "kablewie" (BSODs & other lockups). So, it was working fine for my dad's purposes except for the occasional lockup...and then he got a new computer earlier this year.

[compnovo]

smax013, on 30 October 2012 - 09:55 AM, said:

I ended up going with an MSI Radeon HD4350. It specifically states that it will work with a 300W PSU...plus when I look up "suggested" upgrades on the Dell site for that computer, they list 4350's. It should do all that is needed for that computer.

I used that card for quite a while in my media center PC and it played blu-rays on my TV with aplomb. It should handle the intended task with no problems. I only swapped it out because I was having scaling issues with the picture, but I suspect it was operator error.

[smax013]

It arrived Friday and is in the machine now.

I had to first do one last clone of the internal drive as one last archive of the data files currently on the machine in case we missed something when transferring files to my dad's new computer.

Then had to deactivate a few programs (i.e. Photoshop) so they could be installed on other computers and "de-authorize" the computer with iTunes.

Then it spend all last night have the drive securely wiped.

Re-installed Windows Vista (that is what came with it) last night. Now, doing all the updates and SPs. Have not fully installed the graphics card drivers yet.

[smax013]

Ok, I must be colossally [imagine a colorful additional word of your choice here that I am not allowed to use*] stupid or something.

I cannot get the driver to install for the MSI Radeon 4350.

As I mentioned before, the hard drive has been completely wiped and Vista has been re-installed. It has been updated to SP2 and appears to be all up-to-date in terms of Windows updates.

Thus, there are no remnant nVidia drivers from the previous video card. There is also NOTHING else installed on it except the drivers for the Mobo chipset, Mobo audio, card reader, and Mobo ethernet drivers from Dell. I have not even installed anti-virus software yet (it is installing right now).

I first tried the disc that came with the card. No joy. I have since tried the drivers from MSI's website and the "generic" ATI drivers from ATI's website. In all cases, I remove what every actually DOES get installed (useless "Catalyst" crap, but no driver).

Any suggestions?

I do have a "request" into MSI support. Who knows how long they will take to get back to me (and of course, no phone support that I could find...not that I particularly want to sit on hold anyway...and probably good as I would not be a pleasant mood for some poor tech support cannon fodder).

So much for what should be any easy process.




* Yes, I am pissed off/frustrated.

[LiveBrianD]

So this doesn't work? http://support.amd.c...iw-vista32.aspx (I'm assuming you have the 32-bit version of Vista.)

[smax013]

LiveBrianD, on 03 November 2012 - 07:28 PM, said:

So this doesn't work? http://support.amd.c...iw-vista32.aspx (I'm assuming you have the 32-bit version of Vista.)

I could have sworn that those were the drivers that I tried from the ATI/AMD site, but I tried them again and they worked this time. I guess the moon had to be a little higher in the sky.

[LiveBrianD]

Who knows?

[waldojim]

smax013, on 03 November 2012 - 06:22 PM, said:

Ok, I must be colossally [imagine a colorful additional word of your choice here that I am not allowed to use*] stupid or something.

I cannot get the driver to install for the MSI Radeon 4350.

As I mentioned before, the hard drive has been completely wiped and Vista has been re-installed. It has been updated to SP2 and appears to be all up-to-date in terms of Windows updates.

Thus, there are no remnant nVidia drivers from the previous video card. There is also NOTHING else installed on it except the drivers for the Mobo chipset, Mobo audio, card reader, and Mobo ethernet drivers from Dell. I have not even installed anti-virus software yet (it is installing right now).

I first tried the disc that came with the card. No joy. I have since tried the drivers from MSI's website and the "generic" ATI drivers from ATI's website. In all cases, I remove what every actually DOES get installed (useless "Catalyst" crap, but no driver).

Any suggestions?

I do have a "request" into MSI support. Who knows how long they will take to get back to me (and of course, no phone support that I could find...not that I particularly want to sit on hold anyway...and probably good as I would not be a pleasant mood for some poor tech support cannon fodder).

So much for what should be any easy process.




* Yes, I am pissed off/frustrated.

I have never had a problem.... catalyst is useless, but the drivers usually install quite easily.

If nothing else, once the AMD drivers are unpacked, they should be in c:\AMD Head there and install the drivers manually - or tell Windows to update manually, and point it there.

EDIT: DANG I am good at being late....

This post has been edited by waldojim: 04 November 2012 - 02:08 PM