I have a small form factor pc with bad video. Can I add a video card to an available PCI slot ?

Answer 1

You bet! Disable onboard video in the BIOS and add a PCI video card.

Answer 2

Yes, a video card is easy to add but don't assume you have to use a PCI slot. Some motherboards with integrated graphics have a video card slot and some do not.

Open your case and find the 3 to 5 PCI slots near the bottom rear edge of your motherboard that are closest to the "expansion slots" in the back of the case that have the removable covers. Just above these, there may be a different slot for the graphics card. The long lower slot is PCI-express. The slot which is the same height as the others but further away from the back of the case is AGP.

If you don't have either of these, you can only use a PCI Graphics card. They will free up the "shared memory" being used now and allow your computer to run faster.

Try to use the best interface available in your computer. If your motherboard (web seach for the model number printed on the board for details) has an AGP8x or a PCI-Express slot, get a graphics card with the correct interface.

Most stores will just try to sell you a PCI graphics card because they will work in any computer (without knowing what your motherboard supports) but they are slower and you won't get maximum performance

Answer 3

Does that small form factor have a built-in video card? If so, then you will have to disable that card from the BIOS and then install PCI card. You should have no problem.

However, most of these new versions of BIOS pick up the new card automatically and would not require you to disable the old one.

Good Luck!

Answer 4

you should be able to. There are a few pci video cards out there and they are generally only about $30-$40. Once installed, the bios should default to the pci slot so if you can't even see the screen currently you might not even have to disable your integrated video first. One of these cards would be worthless for games, so hopefully you don't want it for that.