Hi all,

I'm looking at putting a upgraded GPU in my PC, but as it's a slimline desktop form factor, it needs to be a low profile card.

I currently have an ATI HD2400XT in there, but want something with a bit more clout.

With PCIe 2.0 cards available now as well, I'm a little uncertain as to what that will mean if I use one, as although I know they're backwards compatible, I don't know if I'll lose the benefits of the card.

Finally, It's a Dell box, (Vostro200), so I've no doubt that the PSU won't bloody give me the juice I need anyway!

Any advice is gratefully received.

Cheers, 3F.

Well depending on your PSU an 8800GT seems like a no brainer to me. These are half the width of the GTS and GTX and it sounds like you need a single slot card. Some of the factory OC'd versions even outperform a stock GTS.

For PCI-E 2 I thought a whole new mobo was needed to reap the benefits, I might be wrong but this is pretty new tech anyhow- I'd let it settle.

Looking at about £140 now for a GT I guess.

Cheers Khola.

I checked the 8800's out and couldn't find a reference to the GT being low profile or not. I'll check again. I can definitely upgrade my PSU, theres a 460W available for sure.

I've had a read about PCIe 2.0 on Tom's Hardware, it seems that the circumstances under which the extra bandwidth of the bus shows a benefit aren't that easy to tie down, but certainly it seems to be in the very high end of graphics capabilities. Running a PCIe 2 card on a PCIe 1.1 Mobo certainly seems to be what most people will be doing in the short to medium term though, as there will still be big benefits from the card on PCIe 1.1 mainboards. At least that's my interpretation.

What about the next generation of the 2400?
Pretty sure they have recently released 3XXX series. Or it is very close to release.

I could be wrong

Everyone recomends the GT but it stil lis a long card, and with you case it might not fit and they also kick of alot of heat which could be bad in a small case, im guessing your 2400 is the same size as my 2600 so add on about 3 to 4 inches extra on for size + the power cable is 1 inch long and goes on the back aswell maknig the card even longer, you can probaly find a review with the dimesnsions on, but difinatly measure up 1st, also psu shouldnt be a problem aslnog as you have 500 watts ish and 1 free molex as you can get a adapter for molex to 6pin pcie power cable.

Dont worry bout pcie 2.0 as far as ive read it shouldnt make a difference aslong as you have a pcie x16 1.1 or higher on your board, the porblems coem when you have a pcie 1.0 as sometiems they have a few problems but thats it

And aye 3*** series are out now, the lower ones, dont know what sort of performance increase you get over the 2*** but i can imagine it will be a good bit if you take the 2900xt and 3870 cards wit hthe 3870 being quite a bit better and much mroe efficent

Have you seen a low profile 3xxx series? I'm still at a loss to find one. I've seen benchmarks for the 2900xt and that looks an awesome card, but again I think it's too big for my case.

It's a good point about the cooling, but I think those 3xxx series cards are designed to run on less power I think I'm right in saying, so they should also run fairly cool.

The case has got decent airflow but I am starting to regret buying this Dell machine, but at £220 for a 2.2Ghz, 2GB RAM, Hd2400XT Radeon and 500GB HDD, it would have been rude not to!

Is buying a new case and doing a transplant an option?

Do you know what form factor your motherboard is?

Aye, it's a BTX form factor, which means that it mounts on the opposite side of the case. Some case manufacturers claim to support BTX but apparently they still mount on the opposite side so this board won't fit. I do have an older Dell PC and I've looked at switching it to that, but the case is missing the extra USB and 5.1 audio output sockets .grrr!

It looks like I'm in for a long quest on this, but I will prevail though!

Perhaps you're right about the length of the 8800GT, although it is still a single slot in width if you find the space to play with. Not like me with two GTX's jammed in my case and taking up epic amounts of room and power.

A new case sounds like a great idea but depends if you are happy to secure your mobo etc in a new home. Then I still think a GT or high end Raddy are your best bet.

Think cards like the X3750,3800,3850 are all a similar length to the 8800s. Not sure about the lower end. Alot of these are double width too.

Not sure about the higher end of the 2xxx range- different companies seem to have different ways of packaging the GPUs so have a look round. Some seem more brave than others with regards to size so take a look at 2900s or 2950s from different companies. I know they really managed to scale down the 1950XTX in the end.

Good luck bud, keep us posted.