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Thanks again! =D

If you get a Low profile half height card, the cards top edge won't even get near the heatsink, only full height cards upper corners will come near that heatsink.

so for example if you find a low profile Radeon 5570, or 6570, then it should be fine for clearance.

it is a VERY close thing! Maybe 1-2mm clearance, so I will have to be very careful of the size of the fan/heatsink on the card that I choose! It's so hard to tell by pictures online.
But hopefully it should fit
Thank you again!

yeah, a single slot should fit, I would just make sure when its installed, any fans on the card are not contacting that heatsink.

I wouldn't mess with a dual slot card in there though.

that larger heatsink is the Northbridge Chipset, the lower profile one is the Southbridge Chipset.


I uploaded your picture updated... if the top of that larger heatsink is level with the line I drew with the arrows pointing at it, or below that area then a single slot video card should fit fine.

as long as there is a few millimeters or half a centimeter of space below where the video card fits in back (Circled area) then it should fit fine. You may have to tuck down some cables and such before inserting the card to fit everything, and make sure no cables are rubbing against the cards fan blades, but it should fit.

That is the Chip Set, cooler, the chip set is what runs the motherboard, and determines what CPU the mother board will run, and what options it has.
Aren't we talking Low profile.
I think they are all single slot, but it looks to me like even a double stot would fit.

Thanks stroyal!
My only problem now is finding one slim enough not to touch other things inside the case should be easy enough...
except i have a sneaking suspicion that whatever-the-heck that silver thing is in the bottom-centre of this picture http://desmond.imageshack.us/Himg689...jpg&res=medium may be in danger of touching any card i put in there. (please pardon my ignorance, what is it? will my computer explode or something?)

Originally Posted by chromeoxide

Thank you so much for your help! Now I have a list of suitable GPUs I can go shopping =D Just got to make sure they are slim enough to fit the case!

edit: I assume I'm not going to have any problems with these due to running Windows XP??
edit again: checked the manufacturers website of the card I'm after, like a non-lazy person, yes it's fine =D

It really isn't a compatibility issue.
It really comes down to drivers, and I doubt there is any card out there, that there aren't XP drivers for.
I've used 15 to 20 year old PCI cards, and XP had drivers, even for those, and any thing even close to new, will have drivers from the card manufacturer.

Edit
The older cards are probably using Win98 drivers, but XP can do that.

Thank you so much for your help! Now I have a list of suitable GPUs I can go shopping =D Just got to make sure they are slim enough to fit the case!

edit: I assume I'm not going to have any problems with these due to running Windows XP??
edit again: checked the manufacturers website of the card I'm after, like a non-lazy person, yes it's fine =D

Originally Posted by ShyguyXPC

First of all, we need to clarify that those are NOT CPU's. CPU's, Central Processing Unit, is the Processor, in that case the AMD Phenom II X3 it listed.

GPU, Graphics Processing Unit, is what you are referencing. There's a BIG difference between the two.

I was actually talking about the CPU, The Phenom and the A series being different CPUs and so it can't possibly have both.
No idea what GPU is in that thing either XD

Originally Posted by chromeoxide

...are either of these compatible/any good? I'm sorry i still really have no idea what I'm looking at:
Gigabyte N210D3-1GI - $36.30 - Centre Com
Gigabyte N520D3-1GI - $42.90 - Centre Com

Geforce G 210 is a stripped down version of the already low end GT 220. And the GT 520, though newer, is sort of a compromise of the G210 and the GT 220, its faster than the G 210, but slower than the GT 220.



if this didn't have such a stupidly oversized cooler on it (these 220's don't need something like this on them period), it'd be what your looking for:

Gigabyte N220D2-1GI - $59.00 - Centre Com

But unfortunately its a dual slot width card due to the cooler it uses.


one of the Geforce GT 430's would be ok too, I totally forgot that they run on less power than the GT 220 does, and are almost double the performance usually.

You'd definitely be able to run Portal with decent settings with the GT 430, and your CPU shouldn't be that much of a bottleneck if at all on it.

from what I remember the GT 430 uses just under 50W of power to run.

it would be cutting it close with your Power supply, but it should work.

I wouldn't put much else into upgrades into the system after that though.

If you can find any of these, a Radeon 5550 or 5570 would be a better option, as they run on even less power and are at least comparable to the GT 430 in performance, sometimes a bit better.

some of the Radeon 6570's listed on that site are also fine, again use a bit less power than the GT 430 and should be better than it.

Originally Posted by chromeoxide

Ahahaha I have seen that thread with the PSU! When one of mine burnt out I tried to search for the part number, found they weren't making them any more and no other power supply seemed to fit! That solution is not an option for me though, I suspect I'd destroy my computer in the effort.
I'm saving for a new/better one, so if i can't run a graphics card on the one I have now I'll just have to go without games for a little while.

*facepalm* the internet somewhere told me about the Windows 7/Steam thing, I don't know why I took that at face value!

In regards to new PCs, in my local area there just doesn't seem to be many good ones around in my price range, and I would have absolutely no idea how to go about building a new one, in regards to compatibility, etc. D= That particular PC I linked to seemed the best of a rather bad bunch, I was told they listed 2 CPUs of differing types as if it was the same one so I guess there's no way to know what kind of monster it is XD

a low end Geforce GT 220 card, or similar, you say? I will have a look around for one thank you!

First of all, we need to clarify that those are NOT CPU's. CPU's, Central Processing Unit, is the Processor, in that case the AMD Phenom II X3 it listed.

GPU, Graphics Processing Unit, is what you are referencing. There's a BIG difference between the two.

...are either of these compatible/any good? I'm sorry i still really have no idea what I'm looking at:
Gigabyte N210D3-1GI - $36.30 - Centre Com
Gigabyte N520D3-1GI - $42.90 - Centre Com

Ahahaha I have seen that thread with the PSU! When one of mine burnt out I tried to search for the part number, found they weren't making them any more and no other power supply seemed to fit! That solution is not an option for me though, I suspect I'd destroy my computer in the effort.
I'm saving for a new/better one, so if i can't run a graphics card on the one I have now I'll just have to go without games for a little while.

*facepalm* the internet somewhere told me about the Windows 7/Steam thing, I don't know why I took that at face value!

In regards to new PCs, in my local area there just doesn't seem to be many good ones around in my price range, and I would have absolutely no idea how to go about building a new one, in regards to compatibility, etc. D= That particular PC I linked to seemed the best of a rather bad bunch, I was told they listed 2 CPUs of differing types as if it was the same one so I guess there's no way to know what kind of monster it is XD

a low end Geforce GT 220 card, or similar, you say? I will have a look around for one thank you!

its just missing the duct tape, LOL.

funny thing is, I have an old MicroATX case from years ago, a slim desktop case (not the dinky near miniITX slims we have now, but a full microATX slim case). And it never occurred to me to do something like that with it.

I modded a Laptop CD Drive for it years and years ago, since it needed a laptop optical drive in its bay, but the PSU wasn't enough to power the Motherboard and CPU (Athlon XP), was a crappy PC Chips or something like that mobo, with a chipset that was known to need a good 300-400W PSU to run the damn thing.

Think I could mod it to run with a smaller MicroATX unit in a similar fashion now. pop in a newer MicroATX board, low profile GPU and more modern Dual core or something and run that.

That could be the smartest (Red/Green style) fix I've seen... and totally doable in the event you dont want to try the move to a new case...
Buy the parts for a new PC with our help and assemble it yourself... youll thank us in the long run..

um.... why wouldn't it be compatible.

Steam is a major force to be reckoned with in PC gaming, and Portal is one of their more popular titles, so why would there be compatibility problems?

I've been running Windows 7 since one of the Beta's and steam and portal work perfectly fine here, same goes for thousands of other users out there.


as to the system, its a little messed up in specs and looks like a low barebones crap system.

its got an A6 designation and a 6610 graphics listing which are usually the AMD Fusion "Llano's" CPU's, but as far as I know there is now Phenom Models, only an Athlon II based Fusion, which actually lacks the on CPU Graphics of the regular Llano's chips.

Dual 6610, I don't think so. In order for that to happen, you'd need a Motherboard with it on it, which I know of none, and the CPU, add to that I have never seen a 6610 Graphics card.

2nd they list the Phenom II as an X3, a Triple Core, there are no Fusion Triple Cores.

So I have no idea what the deal is with this system, but I'd steer clear of it.

and $500 for that is a joke, if that.

although I see this is Australian Dollars, so... thats like $530+ US Dollars which is even worse yet.

You'd be better off selecting the parts and building it yourself.


Your Power supply in your current system is actually a good brand.

with that in mind, you might be ok with running a low end Geforce GT 220 card, or similar.

it should run the game, but not on really high settings.


otherwise, if you feel up to it, you could resort to something similar to what this one dude did to his, using a regular PSU.

What the heck type of power supply is this? - Overclockers Forums

Last post in that thread shows it.

The PSU says "FSP Group FSP2535GBA"
I think I'm just going to give up on playing games on this PC and save up for a new one :/
Problem is all the new ones come with Windows 7 and I don't know if Steam/Portal is compatible.

I wonder if the graphics in this one would be good enough? Centre Com - Cheap Notebooks & Computers
(yes I know it lists 2 different CPUs for some reason :/)

There are none worth getting, that don't need at least a 350.
If you get a Quality brand name, that can go down to a 300watt.
Recommendations are made, with crappy power supplies in mind.

A quality 300w, will have about 20amps 12volt, and a quality 350 will have about 25amps 12volt.

I have an old Allied/known junk power supply.
It is a 400watt, with 17 amps on the 12v rail, so that is why we ask for the 12v amps.

What is the brand of you power supply?

PSU has a sticker that says, among other things, +12v 16.0A
If I put in a video card and it over-taxes the PSU, will it seriously damage the computer, or just shut down?

The CPU is Pentium D 3.4GHz if that makes a difference.
My problem has been finding graphics cards that don't require 300watts or more

ok, so you have a riser card then. any full height, single slot width card should fit, though you'll want to keep it short front to back due to space limitations.

Take a look at the power supply stick and see if it lists what your +12V Amp rating is. the Video card uses the +12V Power rail of the PSU and need to know that before suggesting anything.

Those old Pentium 4's weren't known for power sipping either, and with a 250W PSU in there, its hard to say if adding in a video card will over tax the PSU or not.