Video Card Compatibility?

I have an HP a6230n computer from 2007, 2 years ago i upgraded my video card to 8600GT and my PSU to 430W. Now I'm planning on upgrading my video card into at least a GTX 260. is my motherboard able to take that? I probably have to upgrade my power supply too, but my main concern is the compatibility of that card. thanks in advance for the advices.|||lilrapkid is way off base. You can use a pci-e 2.0 x16 card in a standard pci-e x16 slot. The 2.0 is a data transfer rate improvement that, even though your system may not be able to take advantage of the improvement, is backward compatible with a standard pci-e x16 slot. I know, I've been running a 9600GT that is a pci-e 2.0 x16 card in one of my systems that has a standard pci-e x16 slot for over a year now. Also, you don't need "at least a 600W psu", a decent 500W~550W psu will work so long as it meets the cards requirements. You'll need to check the cards specs, some say they need at least a 500W psu with two 6 pin pci-e power connectors with a 36A 12V rail and some say you need at least a 525W psu with two 6 pins and a 38A 12V rail. On this link click on the Specifications tab for each card and you'll see what I mean.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/ProductLis…

A good choice for a power supply upgrade would be Corsair or Antec.



You'll need to make sure that you have enough room inside your system for a GTX 260, these are large cards that measure 4.5" (114mm) tall x 1.5" (38mm) wide x 10.5" (267mm) long. It only uses one slot but it's a double wide card that will most likely block the slot below it, and because of it length, you may need to move your sata cables to other ports. I have two GTX 260's in my game rig, but it has right angle sata ports so it didn't affect my cables but I did have to move my hard drive bay over a little to accommodate them (mid tower case, ATX board).



Edit

Yeah, there's absolutely no problem with using a pci-e 2.0 x16 card on a motherboard that has a pci-e x16 slot, like I said, the 2.0 card is backward compatible with a standard x16 slot.

Don't forget to measure the inside length to make sure there isn't a conflict with your hard drive bay, that card is 10 1/2" long.|||it depends on your motherboards card slots. the gtx260 is a PCI-E 2.0 card so if your mother board doesnt have that then it will not work period. also you will want a power supply that is atleast 600watts. as far as i know any mother board that supports a video card's slot type will support the card, though i could be completely wrong.