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: Installing a video card help?


murd0c
03-06-2011, 01:50 PM
Ok I have never done this before so I'm sure I will be asking some dumbass questions.

My current video card is a NVIDIA GeForce 8500 GT and my buddy just gave ma a ATI Radeon X1600PRO. My buddy told me I have a build in vid card so this one is way better of course. I open my tower with a ASUS board which I don't have a clue what it does. It looks like thats where the new vid card goes but there's a wire that hooks up to this board that I can't see a connection to the ATI one?

Can anyone let me know what I should do LOL

I also found out I have a WINTV board what the hell is that? lol

http://img854.imageshack.us/img854/44/inside.jpg (http://img854.imageshack.us/i/inside.jpg/)

http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/8670/atih.jpg (http://img222.imageshack.us/i/atih.jpg/)

TekDragon
03-06-2011, 02:05 PM
That wire connection that you are talking about is most likely for your wintv. You want to upgrade your video card, you lose your wintv.

murd0c
03-06-2011, 02:11 PM
what is wintv? I have never even used it before.

InvisibleSoul
03-06-2011, 03:00 PM
what is wintv? I have never even used it before.
TV tuner card... so you can watch TV on your computer if you want to.

murd0c
03-06-2011, 03:22 PM
Hmmmm, I should research that. I never even knew I had that before now. I guess thats part of my windows media center? I've always wondered what that stuff was for.

Culverin
03-06-2011, 03:51 PM
What is your blue card? Is that the wintv?
What is your green card?

I'm willing to bet that tekdragon is right.

Most older small boards like yours would have 1 pci-e (for graphics and stuff), with a bunch of pci slots (old standard).

murd0c
03-06-2011, 04:00 PM
The blue board is the ASUS board which has a built in fan and the Green board is the wintv one. I'm not sure what the green one is. I'm thinking that it is the video card since it had the hdmi port to the back of my comp but I of course don't have a clue.

That black and white wire that connects to the blue board but it doesn't connect to the wintv it connects to some other main board I have.

I just doesn't have a clue about this shit at all dammit :(

FerrariEnzo
03-06-2011, 11:40 PM
do you have a PCIe slot?

the slot where the blue card is, Will your ATi card fit in there? Where does your monitor plug into? take a pic of the back of the comp so we can see what plugs into what.
arent most (if not all) tv tuner cards use PCI slots and not PCIe?

The blue board is the ASUS board which has a built in fan and the Green board is the wintv one. I'm not sure what the green one is. I'm thinking that it is the video card since it had the hdmi port to the back of my comp but I of course don't have a clue.

That black and white wire that connects to the blue board but it doesn't connect to the wintv it connects to some other main board I have.

I just doesn't have a clue about this shit at all dammit :(
are you sure you have a built in video card your using.. that blue card looks like a video card with that notch on the end for hooking 2 cards together...

whats the the top say on the green card, should say what it is or a brand or something... if you want, turn off your comp and pull it out and take pics of it...

underscore
03-08-2011, 10:10 PM
WinTV is a TV tuner, for watching TV shows. That blue card looks like a PCI-E graphics card. Take a picture of the back of the comp, and go into Device Manager and take a screenshot. Is your monitor plugged into that blue card, or the motherboard?

murd0c
03-09-2011, 02:39 PM
My monitor is plugged into that card I know. I don't know enough so I'm just going to have my buddy help me. I tried to remove it to take a pic but it was in there failry tight and I didn't want to break something.

I'm just hoping the vid card he gave me is better then my current one.

FerrariEnzo
03-09-2011, 11:44 PM
My buddy told me I have a build in vid card ]

you dont have a built in video card, that blue one is your video card...

there should be a sliding clip holding the video card in place, slide it and then unscrew the screw, should come out easy... to repalce the video card, just do the opposite...

are your speakers plugged into the green card? coz it looks like a sound card..

Toms Hardware Video Card Ranking (http://www.tomshardware.com/charts/gaming-graphics-charts-2008-q3/Sum-of-FPS-Benchmarks-Totals,795.html) << check out the specs, lists a wack load of cards with stats

underscore
03-10-2011, 06:17 AM
^ don't forget about the drivers.

a video card isn't that hard to replace, but it sounds like your buddy knows less than you do.

ImportPsycho
03-12-2011, 11:10 PM
you have HDMI out on your video card, the wire going from motherboard to video card is for sound out through HDMI.
Your ATI card doesn't have that connection for that wire since it probably has no HDMI out, so dont worry about that wire.