New, and need help, want to turn family compy into gaming machine

[senghing27]

Hi. I'm new to this site. But i need some of your guys help. My family has a compaq 6320us desktop pc. Not really a gaming pc. Now, my freind has offered to sell me his geforce 6600 card for about $100. I was researching and i saw that they run about $200 ish. The only problem is, his is a pci express card. The only ports that i know of, are the pci ports. Can a pci express fit into a pci slot?? Cuz, i just wanna make sure, cuz, if i buy it, and it doesn't fit, there goes my money. Also, i'm not all that good with the gaming hardware stuff. But, is agp cards fit into agp slots right?? If so, what kind of computers do have an agp slot?? Cuz, i checked out compaq.com and looked for my compy's specs and mentions nothing of an agp slot. Only 2 open pci slots. Please help me, i want to play games like half-life 2 and etc. But i can't really with a 32mb shared,intergrated card. Thank you all.

[r1c3_808]

no it wont fit. you would need to get a new mother board that has an agp or a pci-e slot.

[senghing27]

SO there is no way to make it fit?? are there any pci graphic cards?? I need a graphics card. SO long half-life

[diabloII]

1.) it's impossible, there's no way you can turn that into a gaming machine
2.) your friend has the 6600, he probably wants to sell it to you because he knows that he made a bad decision; the 6600 is the crappy marked down version of the 6600gt that doesn't perform well
3.) what games do you plan on playing? there might be hope for that compaq..

[hu_xu]

Originally posted by senghing27
SO there is no way to make it fit?? are there any pci graphic cards?? I need a graphics card. SO long half-life

PCI is crap. AGP is better unless you have a mobo that has PCI-Express cause that is better although there are some who will argue that but in time it will be better if not already.

[senghing27]

well, i was wanting to play games like half life 2, counterstrike source, starwars kotor 2, republic commando, battlefield vietnam. I just want to be able to play them, any ideas how?? How much would it be for a new mobo and stuff, i don't really have a high spendable source.

[HAVOC]

Well, I'm very sorry to have to tell you this, but there is no way possible to turn that PC into a game rig. It's just not going to happen. You could turn it into a giant paper weight in the next few months though...

[DJ-CHRIS]

Originally posted by senghing27
well, i was wanting to play games like half life 2, counterstrike source, starwars kotor 2, republic commando, battlefield vietnam. I just want to be able to play them, any ideas how?? How much would it be for a new mobo and stuff, i don't really have a high spendable source.

You probolly have to replace more then a mobo since compaq are propertiary PC's

Nothing is built to standards, and if you replace the motherboard you will most likely have to replace case and power supply as well.

Someone can doubble check to see if that compaq is propertiary

And no that PCI-E card wont fit, but you can buy really crappy PCI graphics cards like a PCI MX440 that will just get you by. And I doubt graphics are the only thing stopping that compaq from playing, how much ram and what kinda processor?

EDIT: You also need a ram upgrade for games, and your CPU is bare minimal.

Better bite the bullet and get a custom pc \ learn to build your own.

[senghing27]

Well, i probably gonna have to save up and buy a nice gaming pc. too bad for my compaq. it has a amd athlon processor at 1.6, i got 256 ram, and a 60 gig hard drive. Now , is there any chance i can buy two crappy pci cards and use their combined power?? Or maybe i should just save and get a nice gamer pc?? and whats a good cheap one that i can buy?? Thanks for help guys.

[SkyHi]

I'd just purchase a custom from www.newegg.com