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Technical Help & Discussion => Self Building, Upgrading & General Hardware Help => Topic started by: Jaminxz on September 14, 2005, 11:48

Title: Dilema:Build or upgrade?
Post by: Jaminxz on September 14, 2005, 11:48

Ok i've got a big problem, i really want to upgrade my graphics card and ram for gaming but it might be more worthwhile to go the extra few hundred quid and completely rebuild, i'm not sure!! i've done some research, i think the following should be compatible with my motherboard but could some check please?

right basically i want a 9800 pro
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=10849713841&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X292ZXJ2aWV3&product_uid=47511

and i need a gig of ram, and  because i only have two slots i need 2 512mb modules, so this x2
http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products/index.html?rb=10849859477&action=c2hvd19wcm9kdWN0X3NwZWNpZmljYXRpb25z&product_uid=78548

 my motherboard-
http://www.firingsquad.com/hw/122/MSI_K7N2GM-L_MS-6777


Ok so i think that bit should be ok, the only downpart is i only have one agp, which has this device in - nForce MCP-T CPU to PCI Bridge, now what is this? i guess it's something to do with my graphics card which i can easily take out and replace with the 9800 pro, butt if its no i'm screwed and think i need a new system!


any help with this would be greatly appreciated!

thanks,

Jaminxz

Title: Dilema:Build or upgrade?
Post by: Sandra on September 14, 2005, 12:12

This looks like your mobo :

http://msicomputer.co.uk/products.aspx?product_id=703421

If it is then the AGP card and ram that you have chose should be ok.
DDR ram doesnt seem as troublesome as SDRAM used to be but sometimes some makes are incompatable with some mobos. The only way to know is to try it or buy from Crucial who guarantee their ram to work with your mobo if you follow their suitability checker.

Quote

the only downpart is i only have one agp, which has this device in - nForce MCP-T CPU to PCI Bridge, now what is this?

I think this refers to the onboard integrated graphics and should be disabled in the bios when you use the optional AGP card.

Do you actually have an AGP card in at the moment or are you just using the onboard gfx ?

Title: Dilema:Build or upgrade?
Post by: Jaminxz on September 15, 2005, 19:44

i have only been using the onboard graphics card and i need to upgrade drastically!

am i right in assuming the nfore pci cpu bridge thing isnt hardware but actually the onboard graphics card? i mean there is nothing in the agp slot, and if there is i can unplug it and replace it?

Title: Dilema:Build or upgrade?
Post by: Sandra on September 16, 2005, 00:09

Its just the onboard one that bridges to the PCI Bus I think.
You would find for gaming that just adding an AGP graphics card would improve the performance, as the onboard one uses the system ram whereas the AGP card has its own on the card itself  :)