Windows 7: PCI Video Card

wilfj · 17 Oct 2009

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on a PCI VideoCard. With this info I contacted a local supplier and will go with a EVGA Geforce 6200, the only one he has in stock.
I'll save the shipping costs, gee in some cases almost the price of the card.I'm up here in the North Pole Canada. Our Canadian dollar is almost par now with the U.S and that helps. That's another subject, so is the price of Oil. Cheers

torrentg · 17 Oct 2009

Good choice if you don't plan on watching HD video or playing newer games. It can't handle those. Otherwise, it will handle DVD video very nicely and play old games alright. I have a 6200 AGP in my other pc and it does well there.

Don't forget to disable the onboard video in your motherboard bios when you install.

wilfj · 17 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by torrentg

Good choice if you don't plan on watching HD video or playing newer games. It can't handle those. Otherwise, it will handle DVD video very nicely and play old games alright. I have a 6200 AGP in my other pc and it does well there.

Don't forget to disable the on board video in your motherboard bios when you install.

yes, I well turn off the on board but what sequence? foolish Question but I have to ask. I plan on turning unit on and then go into the bios turn off the O/B. Do a complete turn off and install the new card, connect video cord and re start up.
Could I risk that windows will find the new card or should I load the drivers for the card before turning off?

torrentg · 17 Oct 2009

How you described is how I'd do it, yeah.

As long as the card is installed well and plays nice with the motherboard, which it probably will, then Windows will boot well. It will not have a driver so the card will show up as standard vga in device manager. Aero will be disabled.

Then you have to install the driver. I have no idea about PCI card drivers from NVidia, so you should install from the CD that comes with it. Use Vista driver. Install manually if need be using the device manager.

If the driver installs well, you might have to choose an Aero theme in personalization to get Aero back.

Let us know how it goes and good luck.

DocBrown · 17 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by wilfj

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on a PCI VideoCard. With this info I contacted a local supplier and will go with a EVGA Geforce 6200, the only one he has in stock.
I'll save the shipping costs, gee in some cases almost the price of the card.I'm up here in the North Pole Canada. Our Canadian dollar is almost par now with the U.S and that helps. That's another subject, so is the price of Oil. Cheers

Glad you found a card quickly

Since you are at the North Pole, Let all the other members see it in your User Profile

wilfj · 17 Oct 2009

sounds good i won't be in town till Tuesday to pick up the card so it's into the week before I get going.....

wilfj · 17 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by DocBrown

Quote: Originally Posted by wilfj

Thanks to everyone who offered suggestions on a PCI VideoCard. With this info I contacted a local supplier and will go with a EVGA Geforce 6200, the only one he has in stock.
I'll save the shipping costs, gee in some cases almost the price of the card.I'm up here in the North Pole Canada. Our Canadian dollar is almost par now with the U.S and that helps. That's another subject, so is the price of Oil. Cheers

Glad you found a card quickly

Since you are at the North Pole, Let all the other members see it in your User Profile

Well, I'm not quite at the North Pole but it sounds good. When you have winter almost 9 months a year ( seems like that this year) it's close enough to the Pole for me! We have a surplus of oil and Hydro power to heat and light our homes so we count our blessings and carry on to slay the dragon.

wilfj · 22 Oct 2009

Quote: Originally Posted by torrentg

How you described is how I'd do it, yeah.

As long as the card is installed well and plays nice with the motherboard, which it probably will, then Windows will boot well. It will not have a driver so the card will show up as standard vga in device manager. Aero will be disabled.

Then you have to install the driver. I have no idea about PCI card drivers from NVidia, so you should install from the CD that comes with it. Use Vista driver. Install manually if need be using the device manager.

If the driver installs well, you might have to choose an Aero theme in personalization to get Aero back.

Let us know how it goes and good luck.

Easy when someone tells you how. I just installed the card and it went right to" PCI video set" and works well. I loaded the driver that come on the CD.
Needless to say i did look at some of the "new Clearance items" on Desktops . He had a Dell XPS, big as a house I thought someone may be living in side. It was a special order and not picked up so they were clearing it out less the deposit taken. Bottom line $ 499 plus taxes. The specs were not great... it would run Windows 7 but just meet the min. requirements. A great gaming case with room for another computer. I shouldn't be looking but like women....... we do. Thanks again for your help.

torrentg · 22 Oct 2009

Glad to hear it. It's great when you can buy something and it works with minimal effort.

If you're looking for another system, I always recommend barebones type of deals. Ya know, no OS installed or maybe not even hard drive included. Build one yourself. If you've done similar before, then you know it's rather easy. If not, a little reading here and there goes a long way. Plus there's always this site with all the intelligent people willing to help with anything.

How I see it, as long as you purchase components that are compatible, the most difficult and time consuming part of building a rig is finding the highest stable overclock. Actually putting it all together is easy.

wilfj · 22 Oct 2009

To built a unit the Dell xps would be a good starting point, there's room for 3 HD , power to burn and I could use the fans for AC in the summer..... any bets as to when the first service pack will be issued for 7 ?

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