Need help with graphics card, older computer, and Ubuntu.

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Ok, so I've almost finished upgrading an old Dell T450 comp I got for free but I need some help and advice to complete it's transition into my main retro machine.

As of right now it's specs are:

1.10ghz P3 in Slot 1 "slocket" socket 370 adapter (maxed out)
384MB PC133 RAM (maxes out at 768MB, soon to be upgraded)
One empty AGP 1x slot
10GB Stock WD HDD (Soon to be upgraded)
Ubuntu 10.0.4
Win 98SE/2000
Voodoo 3 PCI graphics card with 16MB RAM
Dual PCI LAN cards for X-Link Kai
200w Stock Dell PSU

So, what's the best AGP 1x graphics card that is officially supported by WinXP/Ubuntu/linux I should stick in this thing given the CPU speed and maximum amount of RAM I can put in? Anyone have one they're willing to donate?

The stock ATA controller is only an IDE ATA-66 so would a PCI dual SATA/IDE-133 controller be a good idea, or would it just bog down the system?

Should I start looking for a new PSU? I'm concerned because this one is only 200 watts and it's an old Dell.

[CRTGAMER]

Power supply first on the list. You can double the watts for under forty bucks, a good preventative measure.

For keeping the investment costs down maybe stick with slower and inexpensive IDE drive?

Multiple systems and cheap media player for the big screen.
Another option is an internal removable boot drive bay. That is if you want to dive into a dedicated boot C drive each for DOS, WIN98, Linux and WINXP systems. An internal D drive can be the shared media and docs drive. Limitation of drive sizes for the older operating systems. The swappable drive route comes in handy for me, I also have a USB external bay, takes the same drive enclosure trays. External can be plugged in for another way to swap files between the systems. As a bonus, external hard drive bay can be plugged in a USB port of the DVD player.
Acts as a 200gb memory stick to view JPGs and MPGs on the HDTV.

Just added this info for reference in my CRT VS LCD signature OP link.

[Hobie-wan]

Power supply first on the list. You can double the watts for under forty bucks, a good preventative measure.

Never buy a power supply for less than $50 unless you are comfortable with the machine going up in smoke. Spending less that $75-100 isn't even really a good idea anymore. The Dell one is probably honestly and conservatively rated at 200w, as opposed to a 1000W bullshit $30 POS that might manage 500w with a tailwind and is missing most of its filtering components. As long as a bunch of drives aren't added and every PCI and ISA slot isn't filled, it will probably be fine. These are 10 year old components after all, way before video cards needed 100W+ all for themselves.

[CRTGAMER]

Power supply first on the list. You can double the watts for under forty bucks, a good preventative measure.

Never buy a power supply for less than $50 unless you are comfortable with the machine going up in smoke. Spending less that $75-100 isn't even really a good idea anymore. The Dell one is probably honestly and conservatively rated at 200w, as opposed to a 1000W bullshit $30 POS that might manage 500w with a tailwind and is missing most of its filtering components. As long as a bunch of drives aren't added and every PCI and ISA slot isn't filled, it will probably be fine. These are 10 year old components after all, way before video cards needed 100W+ all for themselves.

A lot of price disparity, trade off of older PC investment.
http://www.frys.com/search?search_type= ... .y=0&cat=0
I was thinking of the 550 watt Antec for $37.97 Frys SKU: 5873333
or the Zumax 500 watt, got a 400 watt version and still holding out fine. $39.99 Frys SKU: 5719012

[GSZX1337]

So, what's the best AGP 1x graphics card that is officially supported by WinXP/Ubuntu/linux I should stick in this thing given the CPU speed and maximum amount of RAM I can put in

Ti4200? (I'm pretty sure those work well with the Ubuntu nVidia driver.)

[Mod_Man_Extreme]

Power supply first on the list. You can double the watts for under forty bucks, a good preventative measure.

Never buy a power supply for less than $50 unless you are comfortable with the machine going up in smoke. Spending less that $75-100 isn't even really a good idea anymore. The Dell one is probably honestly and conservatively rated at 200w, as opposed to a 1000W bullshit $30 POS that might manage 500w with a tailwind and is missing most of its filtering components. As long as a bunch of drives aren't added and every PCI and ISA slot isn't filled, it will probably be fine. These are 10 year old components after all, way before video cards needed 100W+ all for themselves.

A lot of price disparity, trade off of older PC investment.
http://www.frys.com/search?search_type= ... .y=0&cat=0
I was thinking of the 550 watt Antec for $37.97 Frys SKU: 5873333
or the Zumax 500 watt, got a 400 watt version and still holding out fine. $39.99 Frys SKU: 5719012

Dell also means a proprietary PSU so it's not just some simple drop in replacement.

(Until about '03-'04 Dell used proprietarily wired PSU's in all it's computers.)

Also, my budget for this is peanuts. I'm not going over $120 at my absolute and full maximum for the whole shebang. I got the comp itself for free, updated the bios to allow for CPU's up to 1.14ghz and spent $30 on the P3 CPU and Slocket combo. So I have $90 left in the budget at the moment.

The PSU worries me as I actually plan on adding more stuff to it as I can. Everything i have plugged into it right now is:

Lite-On CD burner
Sony CD Burner
Zip Drive
Floppy
3Com LAN card
Intel LAN card
Voodoo 3
Pentium 3 Slocket adapted CPU (CPU + Cooler + Slocket adapter eat up 55 Watts alone!)

I'm wanting to add a USB 2.0 card, switching to AGP instead of PCI for faster/smoother graphics and putting in two extra case fans to further dissipate heat.

[CRTGAMER]

Dell also means a proprietary PSU so it's not just some simple drop in replacement.

Crap, thought older Dells were like a regular compatible. If plug voltages are the same to the motherboard, maybe a solder hack to harness and dremel hack to fit in the case?

[PharmaceuticalCowboy]

Dell also means a proprietary PSU so it's not just some simple drop in replacement.

Crap, thought older Dells were like a regular compatible. If plug voltages are the same to the motherboard, maybe a solder hack to harness and dremel hack to fit in the case?

What's not compatible? I had a buddy who took all the guts out of his base model $500 dell and stuffed in in a cheap ass ATX case so he could upgrade everything that wouldn't fit in the small format. Is this what you're talking about?

My machine that started with a Ti4200 is sitting behind me right now and works fantastic... I upgraded it to a ATi x1550 for $40 because my mobo supports AGP 8x. Shouldn't be too difficult to find parts on ebay if I did it for my circa 1994 HP.

[Hatta]

I just looked at this chart. You have to go all the way back to the RIVA 128 before you find an AGP 1X card from nVidia. You're probably better off with a PCI card. I had a PCI GeForce 4 MX in my P3 for a long time. You'll have to use the legacy drivers for Linux.

BTW, I'd consider using Xubuntu on that setup. XFCE is much better suited to low memory systems than GNOME.

[Hobie-wan]

What's not compatible? I had a buddy who took all the guts out of his base model $500 dell and stuffed in in a cheap ass ATX case so he could upgrade everything that wouldn't fit in the small format. Is this what you're talking about?

I forgot about that. Dell rewired the plug that goes from the PS to the mobo. Plugging a non Dell into a dell mobo or vice versa meant fireworks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ATX#Issues ... r_supplies