Hey guys, i have an emachines t1842 that im gonna give to my sister. I wanna upgrade the graphics card and a few other things before i give it to her. She doesnt need anything crazy but, can anybody give me a recomendation? Emachines are not very upgradable anyways. Any input would be helpful. Thanks

Do you know if it is AGP or PCIe? Probably AGP, what are uses and price range?

eMachines are just as upgradeable as any boxed system, it all depends on the model. And from what I can see, that model lacks an AGP port and only has 3 PCI slots, thus limiting you to a mediocre PCI video card. Just about any $100-$150 PCI card will give you the maximum performance you can get for that system, perhaps others will pop in with specific models / deals. My advice is to check www.newegg.com

Should I use an nvidia card or ati?

I have always been a fan of nvidia but others beg to defer on this...But being its PCI.............

Doggone eMachines anyway!

It may say AGP on that big sticker on the front of the case but if you open it up you'll see there isn't one. Apparently they use an AGP bus but have no AGP slot to add a card.

So PCI it is ...

I know from hard-won experience on this one

-MF

i would assume she dosent game, look for a pci X700/ X800??

I believe that it has onboard video, correct? If so, remember that adding a video card is going to pull more wattage out of the computer's psu. While adding one video card may not place too much strain on the psu, I'd advise adding anything else. This is how I came to PCApex in the first place is because my VAIO suffered from one too many brownouts because I had added a video card, sound card, and another hard drive.

Rob

eMachines have gotten a bad rap due to poor quality and materials 5+ years ago, but as far as I'm concerned, they're redeemed in my eyes. They even include slightly over-powered PSUs so that you can upgrade. Compaq has now been placed at the bottom of my list of pre-builts (well, Compaq is a spot above anything from Tiger Direct of course.)

Sony, however, has gotten worse with their VAIOs, they even had a fairly large recall becuase they would put in a PSU that would barely cut it, to top it off, the PSU was so cheap it would overheat and cause fires. I remember when I really wanted a VAIO, but once I opened one up, I changed my mind.

Also, if eMachines says AGP, that means they have an AGP slot, if it says IGP, it has integrated graphics (at least now, and in the past few years).

and since I'm done being impartial: FX5500 $78

Well,

The front of my T2040 says '3D Intel Extreme Graphics AGP' and I can assure you there is no AGP slot in it.

However my wife's new [think it's STILL the Best Buy special again this week] T3418 says 'Nvidia GeForce 6100 GPU with available PCI-Express slot".

Seems to me the reason they're making the big deal about an 'available' slot is 'cause so many people whined about labeling like my T2040 has.

-MF

i hope eMachines didn't eMachinify their parts like Dell Dellify'd their parts(they made their RAM different, so you had to buy theirs to upgrade their ram)..

Quote: Originally Posted by Master Yunk i hope eMachines didn't eMachinify their parts like Dell Dellify'd their parts(they made their RAM different, so you had to buy theirs to upgrade their ram)..

Quoted For Truth

Quote: Originally Posted by mousek801 i would assume she dosent game, look for a pci X700/ X800??

Huh yeah.....the GF 5500 is the best PCI card available, and they are a rip off for the power they have. I looked into this a few months ago.

Quote: Originally Posted by Dead_Man If she isn't going to game and you are limited to a PCI gfx card, I would skip this upgrade. Integrated gfx are fine for 85% of people. Spend the money on new ram or hell, new ram, cpu and mobo. lol

Yeah, true.

Shes not really into gaming, but she has a sweet Sharp Aqusos LCD tv that she wants to serve as her monitor also. So i would definately need to add something with tv out on it. And the case has the little intel 3d graphics sticker 2

This should suit her fine:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814161010

HIS Radeon 9250 128MB PCI. Has DVI, Analog, and S-Video out. It also has a decent amount of power for some low-end games.

It's only $49 as well.

You should be able to hook the video card straight to the LCD tv. Using either a vga or dvi either of which would look 100x better than tv out anyway. SERIOSULY I really doubt you need a new video card, atleasty try it without first if you don't believe.