Video Cards, AGP or PCI

My mother purchased a new Acer Aspire T325 computer, and everything is great except one thing, it don't have an AGP slot. The store is argueing with me about it but they told me you can buy very good quality cards that are for the pci. Her video right now is OnBoard Intell Extream Graphics 2, but it aint very extream at all, I would like to buy her something that would give her much beter preformance, is it true that you can buy good video cards that are PCI cause I am only finding AGP

Also before I purchased my wireless card and installed it I had asked the store if it voids the extended warenty they had provided. They said that I can put any card or any drive in without voiding any warenty, but today they are claiming it would void the warenty.

Can anyone tell if I remove the card, and put the metal plate back, that there was ever a card in there?

barring seals and tool marks, they can't tell unless you use a different 'spacer plate' in the hole you're filling where the card was.... so if there wasn't a paper seal on the outer case you broke, and you didn't scratch anything with your screwdriver, no.

If you're ever planning on - playing a game, watching a mpg or dvd on your machine, or anything else video-oriented, by all means take the damn thing back and get one with an agp slot. AGP graphics outperform plain PCI by a vast margin. Tell the salesman to wad the box up until it's all sharp corners, then stick it squarely up his arse - he basically screwed you on the purchase to begin with. Get your cash back and buy a different machine at a different store.

Forget the store.. they probably are not the service agents for acer anyway.. ring Acer direct.. they do have a tech support line.. These companies are usually ok with installing different cards..but when you need to do a System recovery (rebuild windows from their CD.. you will need to remove/disconnect any non original cards and perpherials.

Yes there are PCI video cards, from both ATI and nVidia .. BUT.. the PCI Bus is slower than the un accellerated AGP bus so forget getting anything like full performance out of the chipset on the card.

So with the Graphics upgrade.. is this really for your mother.?.
what programs is she using that will need the extra performance of a Gf FX 5800 etc? or are we talking your programs..
Did your mother Buy the PC on Price or on features and the recommendation of the salesman..
If Price was the consideration.. she got what she paid for.. If you want the extra performance.. certainly take it back get a refund.. and expect to pay extra for what she needs..

Quote:

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Also before I purchased my wireless card and installed it I had asked the store if it voids the extended warenty they had provided. They said that I can put any card or any drive in without voiding any warenty, but today they are claiming it would void the warenty.

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Not sure what you mean there? If you use an expansion slot and either add or replace a component, you do not void the warranty on the computer. What you added is under warranty from its manufacturer/supplier.

Screw up and you do not (technically) void the warranty, but they could avoid liability due to your negligence.

What do you mean by "PCI" There are IIRC

ISA.........................c12.5 MHz (?)
PCI.........................c33 MHz
AGP........................c 66MHz
PCI2.......................c133Mhz

I guess those are the comparisons.

Now, I guess this box just has the standard expansion slots for PCI (the white ones all in a row
:) )

That would indicate a standard 33MHz PCI slot.

You can still get the cards and stand a chance of picking one up quite cheap. For example I have an nVidia GeForce 4 64Mb in this machine.

You need to look at balace though? Your Mom's kit sounds like a budget rig, so maybe the monitor is not up to it?

Cheers

EDIT: and I don't think it forbodes well that neither the Acer sites in North America or EMEA admit to ever having made such a box :eek:

She brought it with my recomendation :| I forgot to ask if it had an AGP. Actualy she does not use any programs or games that need the extra preformace, I was actualy thinking in terms of the future, and heh, well there might be a game or two I wanted to play for my enjoyment on her machine, or perhaps yafray rendering with Blender 3D. My mom is actualy quite happy with the machine and doesnt realy care about it not haveing AGP.

Yea I phoned Acer and they told me it does not void any warenty with them, but then again thats what Radioshack told me before I put the wireless card in, and now today claim that it would void the warenty. The system is great overall except for the graphics which is actualy quite fine for what she does.

I recomended she buy it because it was 2.8GHz, 256MB RAM and 160GB HDD so I guess we were buying it with preformance in mind, since this was to replace her old 300MHz I found in the garbage.

I much apreciate the responces, and will be duscussing it more with her tonight.

I finaly found a card that is PCI :) and it is the Geforce FX 5500 says it works with PCI 2.0

http://www.compusa.com/products/prod...178&pfp=BROWSE

So I guess this is the standard white pci slot that the board has, or might this be the enhanced pci and what does that look like?

STOP!

A PCI2 card will not work on that machine!

You have standard PCI slots.

;)

EDIT: OK, as you were, I have just checked out the card and it is OK. it is "PCI v2.0" (probably 2.1, in fact) This distinction has been obsolete since around Win 95 :D Which is why you see (over here at least) the new extended PCI referred to as PCI2.

So that one should do the job.

Sorry for the confusion :)

Please tell me how do you can tell that I have standard pci slots?

Hi, I have checked that card and it is OK, it is standard PCI (although they say 2.0) that is a distinction no-one has made for years. ( If you really want to know PCI v2.0 slots are busmaster slots)

There will be a row of slots, between 2 and 6, they are white and about 4" long, and line up with the metal blanking plates at the back of the machine. Those are what you have, trust me!............my worry was that you get an extended PCI (we call them PCI2) card........but you would not for $150

:D

Thanks, so PCI2 and PCI v 2.0 are differnt? I just emailed acer to ask them, since you cannot find Acer Aspire T325 on the web site, or can you? One tech guy I phoned last week said "Are you sure its the T325 and not the T320"

I should problably be leaveing her computer alone anyway since I have my own. I guess can always use my computer for games, since my own computer has an AGP, Which I have a Ati Radeon 9200 for my self which works quite well. She is actualy extreamly happy with her computer and well I guess I am on hers more then I am my own. Since she was only looking for preformance and something that will last her many years, it is expanable to 2GB memory, didnt realize memory can go that high.

Sorry for the double post, but I want the link to work.

http://www.crucial.com/uk/library/pcie_agp.asp

That has pictures of MoBos to clarify. :)

It seems our press are using conflicting terminology :rolleyes:

PCI = White slot, could be PCI v2.0 or v2.1
PCI-X = "Extended" PCI or v3.0.............a short connector....pink in the example link
PCI-E = "PCI Express" This has a longer slot than the white (normal) PCI slot. It is the future standard that will replace other PCIs and VGA.

Those are what I understand the "official definitions" to be.

Sorry for any confusion...................maybe I would be better of reading magazines from "the top shelf" than the computer section
:D

Thanks, very usefull information.

And my thanks to you.

As I mainly deal with business or low specification stuff I was aware of these developments, but only by casually reading about them ( no "hands on" :( )

You have helped me by clarifying what the current situation actually is, and to read articles very carefully, to understand what the guy actually means by his use of the terminology.

You see, we all learn a bit from eachother............you taught me to ask some better questions.

Thank you :)

Your Welcome, A small update since I have been away from the site for a while. I have disscused this information with my mother and as she was not looking for a system to play high end games, rather the was looking for a system with preformance for applications such as office, imageing programs (jpeg, gif) and something she can use for her secreatairal work and the cocasional game such as collapse or bejewled. She has decided she is very happy with the system and will be keeping it as is. If the onboard video ever blows we will look into a standard pci 2.0 card.