Video Card vs. Integrated part2

i don't know if you guys didn't check the replies, are
waiting for me to make a new post, or forgot but here are
my PC specs you requested.
it is a configuration hp named the "HP Pavillion 533W-B"
if this can help
1. 2.0 Ghz Celeron
2. 256MB RAM (integrated graphics, don't forget)
3. 64MB integrated Intel Extreme graphics
4. not much else that i know of that i could tell you to
help. if you make a list, on the other hand... i can try
to fill in some blanks.

i thought about doing that but its an integrated
system :-( i don't know where i would connect the video
card to the rest of the system. i have 3 open slots in
the back for a lot of space for the hot air to cool down
(i can probably hack in another fan), but i do not know
to connect a video card to an integrated system to the
current motherboard. its kind of confusing with
everything all compacted together.
i have about 150 to spend on a video card, but if i have
to mix that with a new MB... any suggestions there?

if it takes a couple days for me to respond don't be
surprised, i'm not using my computer at the moment.

i know how to put in new video cards(Hard drives, fans,
other drives, etc.) in a normal system but this just
confuses me.

as for the extra RAM... i could probably do that, but i'm
not sure about the PC2100, PC???? labels. i'm not sure
whats in it now, so should i stay with the same type or
does it not matter? it has an extra RAM slot(don't know
the technical name) so i could probably just pop in an
extra 256(or more/less) right? or should i sell the
current 256 and get a 512 for just one slot?

there aren't any more questions right now that i can
think of.

On an intergrated system it should work just like any other MB it just
happens to have a video card built in. Did you check to see in you have an
AGP slot or not? It's the slot (probably black) right above the PCI slots
(they are probably white). If you have one of those all you have to do is
plug in the new video card (AGP of course) into that and just hook your
monitor up to it. After you boot up, you should be able to install the
driver and then look on the internet for an updated one too. If by some
chance you don't have an AGP (your computer sounds new enough that I can't
image, even with intergrated video, that they didn't include an AGP slot)
slot then you can't be as picky with the video card you buy but you still
can get PCI video cards so you can just get one of those. The same
installation process is used weather it's AGP or PCI. If you really want to
get right down and dirty, after you install the new video card, you could go
into bios and disable the old one but really there is no reason to do that.

I would just recommend that you spend all your cash on a video card since
we're only talking about $150 and a ram stick will cost right around $100.
But for future reference, if you're satified with 512 of ram then just pick
up another 256 stick and plug it in. You can find out what the speed of the
ram is by taking out the old stick and looking for a white sticker on it
that says something about PCxxxx. I use a gig of ram in all 3 of my systems
so I really like going that route and if in the future you decide to go to a
gig then just buy 2 512 sticks. The rule of thumb is figure out how much ram
you want, then divide that number by the number of ram slots you have and
then buy the smallest sticks you can to get to that number. The reason is by
putting bigger sticks of ram in, you'll lose, I think it's 20% of speed buy
going from like 2 256 sticks to just 1 512 stick. So basically just keep the
sticks as small as possible to achieve what you want. You could pick up a
512 stick and just throw that in and then you'd have 768MB and then if in
the future you want a gig you would just have to replace 1 stick instead of
2 (yeah, I'd just do that, it's not that much more for a 512 then a 256
stick). Another thing to look for is if it's 184 pin or 168. If I had to
guess I would say it's 184 but you can tell by if at the bottom of the stick
(part you plug into the motherboard) has 1 notch in it or 2. If it has 2
then it's 168 pin, 1 then it's 184. The speed is important if you're dealing
with an old POS (piece of ****) system cause the newer stuff doesn't work so
well with it. If you happen to buy a faster stick then you already have,
don't worry cause the ram will correct itself and run at the speed of the
slowest stick of ram you have installed.

Well I hope that this has helped you out and if you have any more questions
then just drop me another line and I'll be happy to help. If you still can't
see or understand the video card issue then it would be awesome if you could
take a picture of the motherboard and post it and then I could circle and
point out exactly what I'm talking about. If this isn't possible then I
could just submit a radom motherboard picture to show you the AGP slot and
where it should be and such. Just don't worry about it being intergrated,
the only reason they do that is so that people that don't need to game with
their system don't have to go out and get a video card for themselves just
to run like Office or something. Intergrated or not, almost all motherboards
run the same.
"Bob S." <anonymous@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:0ddb01c4b538$00fcf3b0$a501280a@phx.gbl...
>i thought about doing that but its an integrated
> system :-( i don't know where i would connect the video
> card to the rest of the system. i have 3 open slots in
> the back for a lot of space for the hot air to cool down
> (i can probably hack in another fan), but i do not know
> to connect a video card to an integrated system to the
> current motherboard. its kind of confusing with
> everything all compacted together.
> i have about 150 to spend on a video card, but if i have
> to mix that with a new MB... any suggestions there?
>
> if it takes a couple days for me to respond don't be
> surprised, i'm not using my computer at the moment.
>
> i know how to put in new video cards(Hard drives, fans,
> other drives, etc.) in a normal system but this just
> confuses me.
>
> as for the extra RAM... i could probably do that, but i'm
> not sure about the PC2100, PC???? labels. i'm not sure
> whats in it now, so should i stay with the same type or
> does it not matter? it has an extra RAM slot(don't know
> the technical name) so i could probably just pop in an
> extra 256(or more/less) right? or should i sell the
> current 256 and get a 512 for just one slot?
>
> there aren't any more questions right now that i can
> think of.