NO, you got the wrong thing,I don't mean the mounting bracket on the mobo. On the heatsink itself

Use screwdriver , pulling them out gently through the heatsink fins, on where the plastic bracket fits itself on the heatsink

These instruction is useless without pics.... just use common sense. I remove it no more than 30 sec

You don't need the same brand, but it is recommended you get the same model, or at least same clockspeed if it's different brand

Get the same memory size

They don't simply put random numbers there, of course it tells the exact amount of pins there. Why don't you count them?

I been counting socket pins since socket 370, so I know them well good luck with pin counting

At least provide us with your budget, don't blame us if we recommend 8800Ultra

It's not socket 1, its socket 7 and it didn't tell how many pins were there, thats the only socket I know that don't tell the pin count, that and socket super 7 for AMD K6-II and K6-III

Try to look for HD3850 256MB if you play games at around 1280x1024 or lower, if any higher 512MB is the way to go. Make sure you have sufficient PSU and at least dual core CPU to match with the card

Always go with the bigger bits. Only higher end card have over 256-bit memory, while most mid-range cards have 128-bit.

And other question you might interest to is between more memory low speed vs low memory high speed like 512MB DDR2 vs 256MB DDR3 8600GT, always buy the faster speed with less memory

Edit: some typo

This post has been edited by Najmods: Jan 24 2008, 01:26 AM

You out of luck, PCIe graphics card cant be inserted to AGP slot and vice versa.

About brand, some chipset have guidelines, for example 7600GT MUST run at 560MHz core with 1400MHz memory to use the GT name. Some manufacturer might overclock or use different PCB/layout and might even use different HSF. All of this are unimportant if you don't overclock, just buy the cheapest one, brand is almost unimportant nowadays

And I don't know any AGP card that costs M500, I don't bother with AGP, sorry look at garage sales, you might get lucky there

You don't need to buy Sony, SanDisk is good enough

How many beep? And what's your BIOS type? Phoenix, Award or AMI?

No, normally it will just freeze and crash

I don't think FX5500 have thermal probe, so its impossible to monitor temperature via software

Duh, they just don't create something that not backward compatible, same like AGP 4X and 8X. If you don't believe me, I'm the living proof that 9600GT works on 'old' PCIe. Its pin compatible, and same length, its just the bandwidth thats the difference

There are motherboard that uses PCIe v2.0, but I forgot what chipset that uses it. The x32 is not PCIe v2.0, its SLi chipset that allow to use both high speed PCIe to use full x16 lanes on each slot

The problem is you, mate. You can Google before asking such ridiculously long question

Well, it already say it support 2GB max RAM so why you bother want to upgrade to 4GB? You think they lying on the spec?

1) Of course its possible, what kind of question is that?
2) Maybe, I never tried. Most card nowadays have two output anyway so you can use only the card for dual monitor without the need of integrated graphics

There is faster way to go to Computer Management, just right click on My Computer and select Manage, and double click storage and select Disk Management.

Actually that is halfway there, when it displays your drive, right click on it and select 'Change drive letter and paths' and click change to whatever drive letter you want to have. If the drive letter you wanted to use is already taken, change that beforehand

If whatever you change to have the same chipset (like from nforce to another nforce) you don't even need to do anything, even without removing the driver it will work fine. I've tried it from nforce4 SLi to nforce 570 SLi I currently use.

If you not, try to do the following:
1. Changed IDE driver to generic standard IDE device
2. Uninstalled relevant drivers
3. Removed all relevant devices from device manager
4. Reboot, go to safe mode
5. Driver cleaner
6. Change to new mobo (or even platform)
7. Reboot
8. Install drivers

For me, reinstalling/formatting Windows is the last thing I would do. Reinstalling a perfect Windows is not a good thing, you always forget to back up something

It depends on mobo and soundcard, most older one have 3, one for line out (speaker or headphone) mic out (for microphone) and line in (recording from CD player or such). If there is more, usually for surround setup