Jaraknarn Posted March 15, 2012 Hey guys, Just spent the last 2 days drooling over Crusader Kings 2 and how much it will take over my life and its giving me the needed drive to finally get round to upgrading my pc's gaming chops. I have a HP DC7700 sff, its pretty small inside, but I'm looking to upgrade the graphics card to something from the Radeon HD series and shove in 2x 2gb ram sticks. As far as I can tell its DDR2 so that might limit me, as will my budget, which is k as low as I can possibly manage! I also really want to make sure CK2 will run as its literally all I'm doing this for, the game box recommends a Radeon x1900 series or GeForce 8800 GS and that's it. As PC upgrading really isn't my jam I have no idea how these cards compare in power and compatibility to any of the ones I'm looking at. So just a straight comparrison list or site link would be super helpful. Thanks in advance! Ben Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted March 15, 2012 You're going to need a low profile GPU. Scan.co.uk are probably the best online retailer in the country look for anything Above the 8800 on this chart: http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/gaming-graphics-card-review,3107-7.html Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaraknarn Posted March 15, 2012 Thanks a lot man, that's a great help! Wish me luck! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaraknarn Posted March 16, 2012 I'm thinking this one :http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-hd-6570-1800mhz-gddr3-gpu-650mhz-480-cores-d-sub-hdmi-dvi-d-low-profile Quite powerful, relatively cheap, low profile and quite high up that comparrison chart you gave me. Is DDR3 going to cause me a problem? Is my board going to reject it? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted March 16, 2012 I'm thinking this one :http://www.scan.co.uk/products/1gb-msi-hd-6570-1800mhz-gddr3-gpu-650mhz-480-cores-d-sub-hdmi-dvi-d-low-profileQuite powerful, relatively cheap, low profile and quite high up that comparrison chart you gave me. Is DDR3 going to cause me a problem? Is my board going to reject it? Nope it shouldn't do. Besides if there are problems then you can return it under DSR in the first 7 working days after buying it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted March 17, 2012 Nope it shouldn't do. Besides if there are problems then you can return it under DSR in the first 7 working days after buying it. I don't believe the DSR covers products that have been opened/used. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted March 17, 2012 I don't believe the DSR covers products that have been opened/used. It does, depending on the product. There are people who make a mockery of the law. I'm currently working in a returns department, so I'm pretty clear on it. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaraknarn Posted March 17, 2012 Sweet, ill save up and make the purchase, looking forward to this, I've always toyed with the idea of PC bbuilding and tweaking, never actually done it tho, I'm excited :-D Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaraknarn Posted March 17, 2012 Ok, follow up question. RAM??? That is all. Ok, so more specific, do I really have to listen to what it says? Like, what's the difference betwenn PC ram and Laptop ram? Surely its not gonna blow up my tower? I know for a fact the dc7700 can take a maximum of 2GB per slot but, is there anything else I need to take iinto consideration? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Raff Posted March 17, 2012 You need the correct type of RAM or it simply won't fit in the slot (especially not laptop ram!). There are also different speeds to choose from, but I'm way out of date on all this stuff having not upgraded in an awfully long time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted March 17, 2012 It does, depending on the product. There are people who make a mockery of the law. I'm currently working in a returns department, so I'm pretty clear on it. Yikes. That's pretty nuts! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Patters Posted March 18, 2012 Ok, follow up question.RAM??? That is all. Ok, so more specific, do I really have to listen to what it says? Like, what's the difference betwenn PC ram and Laptop ram? Surely its not gonna blow up my tower? I know for a fact the dc7700 can take a maximum of 2GB per slot but, is there anything else I need to take iinto consideration? It looks like that machine is DDR2, all the information I'm working from is here: http://h18000.www1.hp.com/products/quickspecs/12543_div/12543_div.HTML it looks like there are 3 models of this machine Also TP, with regards to DSR, it's fair use and can be rejected for a few reasons, as long as the card is in a resellable condition, though packaging doesn't have to be mint, it just needs to be all there. Also if a card game with a free game code you could reject it if it were used. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Jaraknarn Posted March 18, 2012 Yer, I'm pretty sure its DDR2, and all the specs tell me the slot limit is 2GB which is also the limit of DDR2 cards, so it makes sense. I've managed to find a full manual for the machine that includes diagrams on how to install the cards, so hopefully that will help. My only concern is that my chassis appears to be missing the space for the cards to sit, I may have some very delicate physical adjustments to make. Ill throw up some pictures later tonight, I can very clearly see where the card slot is and it matches up to the diagram, but the space for it to stick out the back doesn't seem to be there. Oh, to clarify, its an intergrated chipset, which is why its not just a case of pulling out the old one and putting the new one in, lol. But, there's very clearly space to attach an additional card to overide the intergrated chip set. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
