[banjoman]

I am looking for a new LOW PROFILE video card for my Dell C521 without having to make any other upgrades for my power supply, cooling, wiring, etc. My current video card is the ATI Radeon X1300 128MB and my price range is $75-150.

From searching over the internet, I found out that my Dell C521 has a 280W PSU, which some say is not upgradable due to its size and shape.

The best low profile (NVIDIA) video cards I could find include: 8600gt, 9600gt, 9800gt, gts250
From this list I was leaning towards the 9600gt.

I realize that the more powerful the card is, the more power it needs from its power supply. So I was wondering…what’s the best video card I can get away with using only a 280W PSU. If there are any ATI low-profile cards with around the same performance and price as what I listed, I have no problem with buying another ATI card.

I don’t need a video card that runs max settings on all the newest games. I’m hoping at least be able to run games like Half-Life 2, Call of Duty 4, and Fallout 3 on anywhere from medium to high settings at a decent resolution (my native res. is 1280x1024) because I’m tired of settling for 800x600 res. on low to medium-low settings.

P.S. I don’t know much of anything about video cards other than what I researched, so if there are any other compatibility issues or tips I should know please help me out…Thanks!!!


MY CURRENT COMPUTER SPECS

Manufacturer: Dell Dimension C521
Processor: AMD Athlon 64 X2 Dual Core 4000+ ~2.1GHz
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Hard Drive: 250 GB
Video Card: 128MB ATI Radeon X1300
Monitor: 19'' Dell LCD
Sound Card: SigmaTel High Definition Audio CODEC
Operating System: Windows Vista™ Home Premium