Dell Dimension 4600C- Need a compatible half-height video cards

I put an NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 in my wife's SFF Dell. It's a half height card with a full height bracket. I took the HH bracket off the card in the Dell and put it on the NVIDIA. It's a good card, not a great card, but unless you're into extreme gaming, I think you'd like it.

Mike, The IT Guy



Life is too short to drink warm beer....

SFF Dell? Sorry I'm not a hardware guy.

Furthermore, the 4600C requires a half-height card with a low-profile bracket. The GEForce FX5500 offers these features with 128 mb RAM, but I'm not sure if it has enough juice to run.

Should I try the 5200?
Whats the harm if the card is too powerful for the PCI slot? Can I fry my board?

Thanks.

[blue]Go to work to learn. Don't go to work to earn.[/blue]

Slippenos;

No problem! We all started out from the beginning!

SFF is Dell shorthand for Small Form Factor. It's the lowest profile desktop case they make. Very small, but hard to upgrade. For example, there is no room for a second hard drive or second CD/DVD drive.

I checked the specs on your unit. If you want to see, check out the following link:


Your PC has an AGP 8x slot for video cards, so I wouldn't be thinking of going with PCI. AGP has much better throughput and performance.

The JATON GeForce FX5200 is a good card with 128MB memory and the NVIDIA chipset. It's not a good choice if you're into extreme gaming, but it's a nice all-around video card and it does fit the spec for Sim 2. The card is low profile and comes with both the standard 5 inch bracket and the low profile 3 inch bracket which is what you need. Check this link for details.


This is also the lowest price I've seen for it.
There are more out there, but not knowing what you want to spend, it's hard to nail it down. If you want, try googling "low profile video card" instead of "half height video card". I believe you'll get more hits.

Let me know what you decide!

Mike, The IT Guy.




Life is too short to drink warm beer....

The link you showed me is for a Dell 4600.
I have a 4600C, which is much smaller than the 4600.

[URL unfurl="true"]http://reviews.cnet.com/Dell_Dimension_4600C/4505-3118_7-21204144.html[/url]

I guess my problem is I don't know whether to go with PCI or AGP.

I'm inclined to believe PCI, I don't think I have room for an AGP.

Thanks.

[blue]Go to work to learn. Don't go to work to earn.[/blue]