[sugashane19844]

hi there my name is shane im from detroit mi usa, this is my first post here and im looking for some advice, i have a very limited knowledge of computers so bear with me please. first ill start with telling you guys my computer purposes, im a gamer not a heavy gamer but i do enjoy games, i usually play age of empires 3, and grid. other than gaming and web browsing i really dont do much downloading so ya, lol
the computer i have was givin to me for free and i put a few hundred in a friends pocket to make it a little better. which i did notice a difference after he was done.
these are the specs as far as i can figure out, i dont know what most of them mean and i dont really care to be honest as long as it works and has good graphics and isnt slow.
the computer is a e machine t6410 3200 amd athelen 64 processor, 160 gb hard drive, 2.2 ghz?, 512 kb l2 cache?, 1600 mhz fsb, bestec power supply model atx 300 300 watt max out, the monitor is a hanns g 19 wide screen

now back to the friend part, i gave my friend like 300 bucks i think it was he put in a 8600 gt nvidea card, 2 gig ddr sdram, a soundblaster 32 hd card, and a philips dvd burner with light scribe, which i never used.

ON TO THE PROBLEM: well i play grid the most i have a steering wheel and i really enjoy the game especially the graphics recently the game seems to lag bad both online and offline and the car darn near freezes mid race, well i have a program called nvidea monitor view and the card seems to run extremely hot. its 230 degrees right now according 2 the program but the smart status what ever that is says healthy. so i took the side off hte computer and felt the video card and its hot **** hot like painful to touch hot thats gotta be bad right? the fans still spinning on it and everything seems to work fine until i fire up grid and mand i hear all kindas of fans or somethin start spinning and it doesnt stop until a few minutes after grid closes.

so what i want to know: is the video card most likely my problem? is this computer worth putting a new video card in? is it a decent computer according to specs? ? if so what kind ,i want something with equal or better graphics and of course i dont want to spend a fortune, also i do have plans of eventually using a 46 inch samsung aquos tv as my monitor so keep that in mind with recommendations please.

[yzmxer608]

230*F right? That's about 110*C, which is not healthy at all. Make sure you have no dust blocking the air vents and fans on your case. If your computer is in one of those small shelf type things try to see if you can get in on top of your desk or out in the open. Those small cubys can trap heat and make it harder for your system to cool down.

If the game lags you might have to turn down your graphics settings some. See what the temperature is after you've cleaned some of the dust out and make sure you have good airflow.

[sugashane19844]

hey there thanks actually it was cleaned about a week ago i cleaned it out and its a bigger desktop id say about 18 inches tall 20 inches deep and maybe 10 inches wide.

actaully ive seen it at 252 degrees farenhiet. and its out in the open probably 2 feet on all sides of it and its not in any case or anything just sits on the side of my desk.

[yzmxer608]

That's weird that it gets that hot. Can you check to see what your cpu temps are to see if it's everything in your case that's getting warm or just the gpu? Might have had the heatsink installed improperly at the factory or bad thermal paste or something.