windows tip: Which Graphics Card?

> Here's a PC question for you: I've been looking into updating the video
> card on my PC ( a Dell) but it looks like I have to figure out whether I
> need a PCI, PCI Express or AGP card....
>
> What's the difference? How the heck do I tell which one my machine has in
> the first place?


AGP is probably what you want, unless you have a brand spanking new dell you probably don't have PCIe (express) which is pretty new. It's basically all just speed difference. PCI was first, then they made one slot dedicated to just a graphics card, AGP, then they speeded up that slot and made it universal for any type of card PCIe. AGP is still a good cheap buy for 95% of the people out there. But PCIe will be the next thing to get. But you can't get the card unless your computer already has a PCIe slot. :(

DELL SUPPORT
That link should take you to the dell support site and should tell you what you've got.

Geeks.com has well explained tech tip newsletters which talk about it too:
http://www.geeks.com/pix/techtips-16JUN05.htm

PCIe info:
http://www.geeks.com/pix/techtips-031005.htm

AGP info:
http://www.geeks.com/pix/techtips-030305.htm

Geeks.com is a great site for cheap stuff! And I would recommend their Tech Tips newsletter.