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| rjisinspired |
| Posted: Jan 30 2012, 05:05 AM |
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A friend of mine has a Dell Dimension 2400. I believe he said it is a 2004 computer?
He is looking into buying an HD web cam. He won't be doing any high-tech gaming nor any HD video editing. I have been looking around but I have no idea what would be compatible with his old Dell. My best guess would be an older 7 series card by Nvidia maybe?
He's using Windows XP, 2.4Ghz processor, 1GB ram, not sure about the power supply at this time. |
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| evropej |
| Posted: Jan 30 2012, 06:36 PM |
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They still make agp cards and the video card helps old PC even more than newer ones. Shop around, find should something for 60-80 bucks. |
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| rjisinspired |
| Posted: Jan 31 2012, 10:59 PM |
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Thanks evropej.
My friend is now undecided. He was looking into the Logitech QuickCam Pro 9000. He will most likely use it in 480 mode.
Been looking at a few AGP cards. I've been reading that a 500w power supply would be needed. According to the spec of his computer, it came with a 200 or 250w supply.
From another web forum someone recommended a Radeon X1950Pro agp. There was also the XFX 7950GT agp thrown out there but it doesn't seem to be recommended and it looks to be discontinued anyway.
I'm guessing he should be all right at 480 mode and not use any of the extra, fancy, add ons like special effects and live avatar faces, lol. Who uses those things anyway? |
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| phaeron |
| Posted: Feb 4 2012, 09:21 PM |
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If it's for plain old 2D on Windows XP, I don't think there's a need to get a powerful 3D card, as the 3D half isn't going to help and there's little differentiation in the 2D core performance. Besides, with a 200-250W power supply the choices are going to be quite limited. Probably anything with an additional power supply connector is out. You might even need to look for a passively cooled one (no fan).
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| rjisinspired |
| Posted: Feb 4 2012, 11:47 PM |
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Thanks Phaeron.
I wish my friend would update to a newer computer. I offered to build one for him. I had built my own a while back. I need to upgrade my system some time soon. My computer is slow compared to what's currently out now. Trying to get things piece by piece. I'm still stuck in the P4 stage, lol. |
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| freedomdwarf |
| Posted: Feb 12 2012, 08:36 PM |
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Apart from this machine (which is an aBit Tigerforce IX48 made in 2008), most of my machines are certainly older than 2004 and 2 of them are P3's!!
Any nVidia 6 series will be more than adequate for his needs.
In one of the older P3's I've got a nVidia 5700GS and it works brilliantly!
The best bit about using nVidia cards is the driver download pretty much covers most models from 5-series upwards in 1 install file which is great for me because I only need 1 install for all the machines here.
I've tried various ATi cards and I really don't like the drivers; so I stick to nVidia.
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Sometimes, intelligence means the obvious flies over your head! |
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| rjisinspired |
| Posted: Feb 12 2012, 10:25 PM |
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Thanks freedomdwarf.
My friend will be happy to hear that. He received the Quickcam Pro 9000 cam the other night and it is working good. Quality on my end from viewing his cam is a little bit blocky and on lines you can see degradation but it is much clearer than from the one he had which he said was about 12 years old. Might had been the connection maybe. I have DSL plus for some reason skype taxes out my CPU when I load it up.
There was no lag at all and the focus worked well on it. Tried it on Yahoo and Skype. |
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| freedomdwarf |
| Posted: Feb 12 2012, 11:12 PM |
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I bet he paid a fortune for that webcam too!! $60~ish??
My webcam is a 20-Mpixel (tho not HD) and cost me a mere $5!!
It's crystal clear most times and we usually use it at 640x480 resolution.
Can't fault it at that price!
I don't see why he needs a HD webcam on his setup - beats me. lol.
I'm betting the blocky effect is because his internet (or yours) can't handle the 720p data stream fast enough and hence drops the resolution to maintain the connection.
As for your CPU usage with Skype, that's nothing to do with your DSL connection.
Skype can be CPU intensive if you have a slow processor or slow/insufficient Ram or a slow FSB (or any combination of any of these).
I can run Skype on one of my P3's perfectly well with less than 10% CPU utilisation. That's a 1GHz P3, 1GB SD Ram at 133MHz FSB on an old 2001 Foxconn mobo. If your machine is newer or faster then there's something wrong with the way your machine is setup to slow it down to that degree.
Last time I tried Skype on this PC it didn't go above 0% CPU usage.
Incidentally, all my machines here are WinXP SP3.
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Sometimes, intelligence means the obvious flies over your head! |
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| rjisinspired |
| Posted: Feb 13 2012, 01:15 AM |
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He doesn't care much for HD but I guess he thought to have it just in case. The cam has 720 down to 240 mode. He paid $41.00 for it, used. It's an older cam.
At 360 and 480 mode, on my end, the video looks slightly degraded. He has cable, I have DSL. 720 video is difficult for me to view and stream online. Other modes aren't a problem.
My computer has 2GBs of ram, CPU is an Intel P4 (Cedar Mill) 3.0GHZ with hypertheading. It's fast for some things but by today's standards it's really outdated.
When I had Skype a few years ago with this same computer I never had the CPU rise before. I don't know what's causing it. It happens once Skype messenger shows, just after signing in to Skype.
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| rjisinspired |
| Posted: Feb 13 2012, 01:21 AM |
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He sent me a WMV sample from his cam, damn that's crisp! Has to be my connection gumming up the works. |
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