Video card advice?

[johnridley]

Since I don't play games on my machine (not even Solitare) I know nothing about video cards; mainboard video has always been plenty good enough for me. The family PC does get used for games a bit, and the card in it died a while back. It is a Dell with PCIx16 - and I ordered it with I think an nVidia 8400 card. That's good and dead. They've been using mainboard video but it's going downhill and chokes a lot when being stressed.

I'd prefer to stay with nVidia. All I have to go by is prices and wikipedia's explanation of card numbers. I don't really want to spend a ton on this card since it really doesn't get used for super-demanding games - things like Harry Potter and such. The 8400 was actually fine. I don't think there's any reason at all to spend more than $70 or so.

Right now it's looking like I can get an nVidia 9600GSO based card for about $35 after rebate:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121320
and it's pretty well reviewed.

Any opinions on that, or hints for the clueless?

EDIT: that card needs external power, which is not available on this machine. Time to rethink.

EDIT #2: How about this one:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162019
9500 based, no external power required, still not too expensive but seems reasonably well powered and well reviewed. It has a fan but one reviewer says it's quiet. Might be a good one to upgrade the media center to also since the same guy says it'll play 1080i smoothly.

Comments

[kevinnickerson.livejournal.com]

No real hint, or clue, but it reminds me I need to find out what card I have and if there's a new driver. PS CS4 has a live preview of the clone stamp, and some other things, but doesn't like my card/driver.

[bwittig.livejournal.com]

I got a Nvidia GeForce 9400 integrated in the motherboard when I built a new Mythbox this spring. That works fairly well.

Not really helpful but at least a 9400 data point.

MB:
GIGABYTE GA-E7AUM-DS2H LGA 775 NVIDIA GeForce 9400 HDMI Micro ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
Item #: N82E16813128363