Hello everyone! I have a very old, but nonetheless great, HP Pavilion
6645c. It has an Intel Celeron 533MHz Mendocino processor, and the
Intel 810 chipset. Although it was designed to run Windows 98, I've
been able to put Windows 2000 on the machine with no problems at all.
The computer has three PCI expansion slots, on an old TriGem Cognac
motherboard. The graphics it uses are integrated, provided by the Intel
810 chipset. While the system is running great, the graphics really
slow it down. I want to use this computer for basic IM/email needs -
not expecting even good Flash support (i.e. Youtube, other online
video), however, some graphics-heavy, yet non-video-centric sites (i.e.
Tom's Hardware) run a quite slow.
Basically, I want to ask if adding a simple PCI graphics card (I'm
thinking of maybe a 32MB ATI RAGE) would work well despite the 100W
power supply that comes with the machine. The PSU is also very
limiting, but if the possibility of adding a simple graphics card is
available and worth it, then I'd like to take advantage of it. I just
don't want to install it and then start encounterin power/random
shutdown problems, which I know are a pain and have the potential to
mess up other components severely.
The manual for the TriGem Cognac motherboard that is in the
machine acknowledges PCI graphics cards (in one part, it states that
the onboard graphics will automatically be disabled upon the insertion
of a PCI video card) so I know that it was a possibility. But I'd like
to know how far I can go with that 100W PSU.
Thanks in advance for the help,
Kyalami
