Question about Mobility Radeon 9600 video card

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I found what looks to be a good deal on Newegg- a Mobility Radeon 9600 card open box for sale cheap. I'm running an old 64 mb card that won't do pixel shading. I have a Dell Dimension 4450 desktop which does what I want and am not anxious to replace and I'm unsure if the power supply is up to a fan driven 9600 or better card. It supports AGP 4x/8x only.

My question is this- is there any difference between a Mobility 9600 and a regular 9600? Will a Mobility card run in a desktop PC?

Thanks!

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That is a bargain basement card. You can get a real 9600 Pro for under 60 bucks, you would be a lot happier with that, it's got higher clock speeds. The Dell PSU can handle it.

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Thanks. They have a GeForce 6200 on sale too. It's got passive cooling, so I assume my power supply should do well with it. I'm not sure my dinky power source will run a fan cooled carg like the 9600 pro. Dell tells me my mother board is limited to a 128 mb card. Any opinion?

[glc]

The Dell power supply may be dinky, but it's high quality. It will run a fan cooled card - I've run a GF4 Ti4400 on a Dimension 4100 with no problems.

You mean a Dimension 4550? A GF4 Ti4600 and a Radeon 9700 were both factory options on that machine - those both need a decent power supply to run.

That model Dell uses a standard ATX power supply. The only issue with upgrading it is you may have to cut away a bit of case material to clear the power socket or rocker switch on the new unit.

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Oops, yes 4550!

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Thanks for the advice.

Newegg has a 9600Pro open box offer that looks good. What's an OEM?

By the way, anyone know a good tutorial for replacing a video card. I ried one and the display was all messed up. Would that come from not removing the driver from the old card first?

[Science_guy]

OEM = Original Equipment Manufacturer. Newegg commonly sells both "retail" versions and "OEM" versions of parts and components. The retail version is exactly what you would find on the shelf at a computer store, and will include cables, connectors, manuals, brackets, free software, etc., depending on the component. The OEM version is intended for system builders, and will not include anything but the part itself. You will get the part in an anti-static bag, and that's it. You will have to supply your own accessories as necessary.

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Thanks !

[glc]

I don't trust open box video cards. You don't know the reason they were returned.

OEM cards usually do come with a basic driver CD - and sometimes a DVI to VGA adapter and a S-video to composite adapter cable. The pictures at Newegg show what they come with.

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I went to Dell tech support and they linked me [url]http://www.tigerdirect.com/applications/SearchTools/search.asp?keywords=agp+card&lowprice=0&highprice=0&mnf=0&cat=876&priceStr=0&key=&image12.x=5&image12.y=10
as cards my system would support.

I'm starting to think they don't know what they're talking about.

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This card http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16814170092 is also rated for a 300 watt power supply, but is passively cooled. Is it comparable to a 9600/9600 pro and would I do better powering it as it's fanless.

I'm walking a fine line- I want a card that my system can support/power, that will give me noticably better performance than my NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 in now, without spending a big chunk of change and upsetting my spouse! I think I need divine intervention.