Need help with picking video card. (UPDATE - getting a new MB now)

[Elrynon]

Hey everyone, I pieced together an older computer for my son to play around on (he's six) and I need help choosing a video card. The motherboard I have is the ecs 945gct-m3, with an E6700 2.6 dual core cpu and 2gb of ram(the max this board can handle). I have a *cough*tier 5 deer 500w*cough* PSU.

Right now we're using the integrated grapics to play minecraft/flash games/Guild Wars but I would like to get him a dedicated graphics card. I would LIKE to be able to get something that is on par with the other parts. I've seen people recommending the 8800GTS, GT450, and HD7xxx series for this CPU. I'd like to stay as close to $50ish as possible (If there's a rebate that brings it down to that price range I'll consider it). I THINK I need to stay with a PCI-e x16 1.0 but MAY be able to go to PCI-e X16 2.0 (I've contacted ECS about what version this slot can handle as I've seen a LOT of people saying that not all PCI-e 1.0 slots can handle 3.0 cards)

I was about to get the R7 240 ($70ish with $20 rebate) but A)it's PCI-e 3.0 and B)I worry that it would be a waste. I saw one person that worded it perfectly, "Why have a GPU that can render 1000 trees if the rest of your parts can only handle 100?". Thanks for any help.

****Breakdown for those that don't like to read***

*ECS 945gct-m3 Motherboard
*2gb of RAM(max allowed on board)
*Tier 5 500W PSU
*$50-$75 budget (as close to the $50 as possible)
*Need to stick close to PCI-e x16 1.0 (Not sure if board can handle 2.0 or 3.0 as people go back and forth about it)
*Best card without being a waste

Edit: We are on a tight budget. If your response is "Man, that stuff is old/sucky. Just buy something new" then please don't bother responding. That's not an option for us. I KNOW it's old/sucky. Trust me. I KNOW. I know this sounds harsh but I get tired of reading threads where someone is looking for REAL help and they get snark remarks about how old/sucky their stuff is. Some of us do the best we can afford even if we can't afford the best. If you feel like you can help with advice about a graphics card then I greatly appreciate the help.

 

[freeracercolin]

I took the chipset that you are looking for from the mobo that you were looking at. G31 and G33 are the only that seem to have DDR2 support. G33 only had one result with one star on pcpartpicker.com. So I went with G31. Doing a bit of research, I found out something that you might not be confortable with. I have not looked to see if the mobos that are linked below have BIOS updates to recognize 3.0 cards, but g31 only has a PCIe 1.1 slot. I will continue doing research, but here are the motherboards that I found so far that fit the description. there are probably more, but this is just what I found on pcpartpicker.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131615
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813138132
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813135232
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128357
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813153119
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813500033

G31 PCIe thing: http://www.intel.com/assets/pdf/prodbrief/317838.pdf

Wow......didn't expect all of that. Honestly, unless there's something you know that I don't, the chipset doesn't matter to me. That's just the easiest one I could find new on newegg to use as a "starting point". I found this one too. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121372 It has the G41, As long as the board takes my E6700 cpu, pcie-3.0 card and ddr2 800 ram *shrugs* I don't care. lol Obviously I don't want to go BACKWARDS from the 945gt I have. Until all of this came along I've never even LOOKED at chipsets before. So this is a whole new world to me.

That looks good. I will continue looking, but it is getting late were I am (US eastern time), so don't expect a response till tomorrow.

We're in the same time zone then! That's cool man. I'll continue to look tonight when I have time. Don't put too much of your time into this though. I appreciate the help, but don't kill yourself over me. Have a good night.

*Edit* Well, I'm yet again at the point where I REALLY didn't want to spend this much, HOWEVER, I think in the long run it'll be beneficial. I think this is the board I'm going to get. http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813157359

Unless someone knows of one better for the same-ish price or cheaper? I found a couple that would be sweet. Like this one http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131336 but I could only find a used on on Ebay. Don't really feel like paying $100 for a used board when there's no telling what they've done with it. Especially when I could just put that $100 towards a newer type board/parts. (I'm not doing that. lol)

Your first one looks OK spec wise, but the reviews would worry me. Not only that, but you wold need to get new RAM too, as it supports only DDR3-1066/1333(OC). Your second one looks good, but your right about having to get it used.

Also, not to be stalkerish, but what state do you live in? You don't have to tell me, but since we're in the same timezone, I'm a bit curious.

 

[Elrynon]

Not stalkerish at all. lol I live in central Florida. It's not out in the open, but the first one does support DDR2. It has two slots for DDR3 and two slots for DDR2.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/G41C-GS/

I've also e-mailed them about the PCI-E slot on the board. lol

Reading through the reviews it looks like most of the bad ones have to do with either random DDR3 not working (which the company even says to use RAM from their QVL) or people not liking the layout of the board. Which I could care less about.

 

[freeracercolin]

Not stalkerish at all. lol I live in central Florida. It's not out in the open, but the first one does support DDR2. It has two slots for DDR3 and two slots for DDR2.

http://www.asrock.com/mb/Intel/G41C-GS/

I've also e-mailed them about the PCI-E slot on the board. lol

Reading through the reviews it looks like most of the bad ones have to do with either random DDR3 not working (which the company even says to use RAM from their QVL) or people not liking the layout of the board. Which I could care less about.

Oh, I didn't see that on Newegg. Other than the reviews then, I would say that it is a solid board. Also, I live in Ohio

 

[Elrynon]

Yeah, once I get an e-mail back from AsRock I'll make the decision. I THINK I should be ok because I found a video on youtube of a guy with that MB using an R7 250 which also gets it's power from the board and not a 6-pin plug. The TDP on the 250 is double of the 240.