Best Option

[Bogowan]

This is my first post, hopefully you guys can help me.

Son in law has a Gateway E2000 computer. He wants to upgrade the video performance on the system. The M\B has built in video & audio. I asked him for the system specs, they are the following:

M/B-Intel D845GRG
Intel 845G Chipset
1.8 Celeron
256 MB DDR 266 Ram
40 GB HD
Intel Extreme Graphics
SoundMAX Cadenza sound
DVD
CDRW

According to Intel there's supposed to be an AGP slot, but when I opened the case I found there was none (way to go Gateway). Buying a different M\B is out. My question is which would improve the video performance best, adding more ram to 1 GB so onboard video could use 64MB or adding a PCI video card with 128MB.

Thanks in advance for your help.:t

[Aznmask]

Welcome to Sysopt.. :D

I don't think adding RAM will help improve the video performance..

[jmichna]

Bogowan...
I really don't mean to sound insulting - I have no idea of your PC experience - but do you know what an AGP slot looks like, and where it would be located? It seems unlikely Gateway would make that significant of a change in a basic board design. The AGP slot it the odd brown one between the three PCI slots and the heat sink. If it's not there, possibly the board isn't ID'ed accurately?

http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/rg/D845GRG.jpg

PS: welcome to SysOpt :t

[Bogowan]

Thanks for your response. Yes jmichna I know the difference between pci & agp slots. On the m\b you can see the outline of where the slot should be but isn't. There is only 3 white pci slots. I used Aida32 to obtain m\b info and have included it below.

Motherboard Properties
Motherboard ID 63-0100-000001-00101111-081702-iBRKDL_G$RG84510A
Motherboard Name Intel Rexburg D845GRG

Front Side Bus Properties
Bus Type Intel NetBurst
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 100 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 400 MHz
Bandwidth 3200 MB/s

Memory Bus Properties
Bus Type DDR SDRAM
Bus Width 64-bit
Real Clock 133 MHz (DDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 2133 MB/s

Chipset Bus Properties
Bus Type Intel Hub Interface
Bus Width 8-bit
Real Clock 67 MHz (QDR)
Effective Clock 267 MHz
Bandwidth 267 MB/s

Motherboard Physical Info
CPU Sockets/Slots 1
Expansion Slots 3 PCI
RAM Slots 2 DIMM
Integrated Devices Audio, Video
Form Factor Micro ATX
Motherboard Size 210 mm x 240 mm
Motherboard Chipset i845G

Problems & Suggestions
Problem Less than 3 memory slots detected. Expanding system memory may become difficult.

So back to my original question, which would help the video, more ram & using the onboard video or installing a pci video card & disabling the onboard video.

Thanks again :)

[BipolarBill]

It's a proprietary stripper board. Gateway doesn't want you to upgrade. They want your money.

I would replace the board with that very model, but it's possible that the power connector has unique wiring. You would need a power supply in that case too.

[xenomorph69]

Watch out as well if you DO Upgrade the Motherboard . there maybe a tattoo on the board so your recovery or quick restore disk will not work if the mobo is changed. watch it there bro!

Regards Xenomorph

[Bogowan]

Installing a new m\b is out, son in law doesn't want to void warranty on system. I suggested to him increasing ram to 512 and installing a 64 or 128 mb pci video card. He says he'll do one or the other. :confused: Any suggestions. Thanks:)

[deadkenny]

Yes, unfortunately the boards made by Intel for Gateway, Dell etc. are not necessarily the same as the ones Intel sells themselves (i.e. not as part of a system, but just the board). You're simply not going to get top performance out of that system. In terms of purely the video performance, clearly a video card would provide a bigger improvement than more RAM. Unfortunately PCI video cards tend to be more expensive, harder to find and offer worse performance than their AGP counter parts. You're also not going to find the top end cards available in PCI format (you'd probably be looking at a GF2 or Radeon 7000 series level card). In terms of an overall system upgrade, and assuming that you don't want to change the mobo, I would suggest another 256MB of RAM (for a total of 512MB) and getting a Northwood P4 to replace that Celeron. That should increase your overall system performance regardless of the video. Try the video with that combo and see if it's acceptable. If not then look into the video card (or as others have suggested a new mobo). Another alternative might be to leave the existing system intact and look at getting another system 'on a budget' (AMD for starters).