Comp help please! (in Off-topic)

I have a Dell Dimension C521. I have bought 2 graphics cards for it, neither of which fit, but Dell Support says they are the ones that it needs. The last one i bought was a ATI Radeon X1300 256MB PCI Express x16 Video Card. The card is wider than my tower. I gather it has to be a PCI card and needs to be 256MB please someone tell me the kind of card i need for this since when i talk to dell they've had me get the wrong one twice now.

I think that PCI and PCI express are different, express being much faster and a bit newer... how old is the motherboard? I think that if it is a year or two old it probably won't be using express... I'm not an expert, but was just discussing this a few days ago with my room mate.

just got it for x-mas not even a year old yet.

i think there was a pci express "half height" card or somesuch. that may be what you need.

after googling the term seems to be "low profile" rather than "half height".

According to this page your computer only supports half-height cards. Keep in mind that it only supports PCIe x16, not AGP. and I wouldn't get a regular PCI card either. Overall a decent machine, but not sure where you get "half height" video cards.. hmmm

hey, i have "some" experience in building computers. (meaning i have built a few :P) i just looked up your Dell Dimension C521 and it says it has:
Expansion Slots
PCI: 1 Slots
PCIe x1: 1 Slot
PCIe x16 (Graphics): 1 Slots

meaning the card you have should work. it says it has a PCI express slot but just to check take a look (normally the big one above the white PCI slots) if it has then the card should fit then check to see if the card fits into the slot. If the slot is a different size to the card then its probably not a PCI-E in witch case complain, but if the card is wider than the case dell are pretty stupid putting that motherboard in such a small case, again complain.

in other words they told you it is the right one, the internet says its a right one so unless you can get different versions of the Dell Dimension C521 it should be the right one, but if it doesn't fit it doesn't fit, tell them and say they are wrong get them to sort it out and for the inconvenience they can buy you a GFX card ;)

anyway im done and there are many reasons in there why i don't like dell. :)

update me if you get it sorted :)

Why not Froogle it?