Hardware·18,997 discussions

UPGRADING VIDEO CARD OF MY EMACHINE T3642

Locked

I would like to upgrade the video card of my emachine, can someone recommend me which card should I get??

The specs of my eMachine T3642 are:
CPU : AMD Athlon? 64 4000+ processor
64-bit processor with AMD64 technology
(2.6GHz, 512KB L2 cache, 2000MHz system bus)
Operating System : Genuine Windows Vista? Home Premium
Chipset : NVIDIA? GeForce? 6100
Memory : 1024MB 667MHz DDR2 dual-channel memory (2 ? 512MB)
Expandable to 2GB
2 DDR2 slots total, 0 DDR2 slots available
Video : NVIDIA? GeForce? 6100 integrated graphics
Up to 128MB shared video memory
PCI-Express? (PCI-E x8) slot available for upgrade

Topic

Clarifications

In reply to UPGRADING VIDEO CARD OF MY EMACHINE T3642

Clarifications

I need to know your powersupply make and wattage first…

In reply to UPGRADING VIDEO CARD OF MY EMACHINE T3642

before I can recommend anything.

Well a couple of things first

In reply to UPGRADING VIDEO CARD OF MY EMACHINE T3642

This was never designed to run Vista at best it is Vista Ready but it should support far more RAM than it does.

Secondly if this is how the Factory supplied the system it has a [i]One PCI-E ?16[/i] not a 8 By and will accept any PCI Express Video Card that you like though I personally would recommend one of the NVidia Ones to have less likelihood of running into Hardware Conflicts.

But the most important thing here is that this ships with a 300W Power supply which is way too low for this unit so you’ll need to replace it as well as the Video Card unless you want to run the risk of toasting the entire system.

You could use something like this one

[i]8400GS 512MB DDR2 64-bit, Galaxy, PCI-E 16x, VGA, HDTV, DVI, Fan, Includes 2x Low Profile brackets.[/i]

which has a AU $ value of $50.00 right up to something like this

[i]Gigabyte GF GTX 295 PCI-E 2.0 1792MB DDR3 896-bit, 576/2000MHz, Dual Dual-Link DVI, HDCP, HDMI, Fan.[/i]

Which retails for $899.00 AU

Personally unless you have some specific Game that needs more than 512 MEG of RAM I would go with the cheaper one. 😉

I would also recommend a Antec 450 or greater PS and if you wan to use a No Name Brand like Flower go to at least 600W. The difference is that the Antec’s are rated to a constant power load that they can supply where as the No Name Ones are rated to a Peek Load that they can hold for a few moments and then have to cut back to stop burning out.

Col

I see no reason why his current system couldn’t run vista

In reply to Well a couple of things first

RAM could use a boost, but it’s enough. His processor is a bit weak, but within limits. I wouldn’t expect his current system to be out gaming, but a 6100 chipset was a pretty good chipset, far better than the intel crap that caused the vista capable fiasco. At least the 6100 supports DX10 (With driver updates frm nVidia). It does not support PhysX so for future stuuff, not good to leave it. If your gonn astick with nVidia, move to the 9000 series, these support all the latest features. And you can get yourself a 9200, which is a card designed for office workers and get some new features and keep your system good well into the future. Or spend a bit extra and get a 9600, but then you will need a better power supply, and the 9600 is a PCI16 card, so you won’t be able to use it’s full power.

This all being said, I suggestion you just buy yourself a new motherboard, CPU and power supply, and swap everything out in your current system. you can keep your CD drives and HDD’s. Monitor, etc. you could, with savy shopping, get all this from a retailer for less than 150 bucks + power supply (A good Antec 550 Watt goes for 150 bucks retail usually)

[Author]

Replies