Video card upgrade?

[cybrsaylr]

Need some help here.
Have a 4 yr old Dell XPS 8000, as shown in sig below and am thinking to upgrade GeForce GTS 240 OEM Graphics card.

Dell gives these choices on their website for upgrade when you scroll down to Graphic Cards For Your Studio XPS 8000 view all:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/PfydFeaturedCategoryResults.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&mfgpid=203781&chassisid=8865&svcTag=37TRFK1&Tab=Parts&stype=2

All these choices are confusing.
My question is which is the best for less than $100 and why?
Also If if I decide to spend more than $100, which is the best and why?

Not really sure about what to look for in graphic card specs.
Not really interested in gaming use. Just want a solid video card with HDMI output that will hopefully make/view videos better than the OEM card that is getting a bit noisy. I am told this noise is caused by wear on fan bearings of the OEM card.

[Frogs Hair]

First of all clean the card you have because dust between the fan and heat-sink can cause noise on some Nvidia models. Based on the computers age I would consider the one linked if available because of the amount of memory for the money. Nvidia often changes series numbers of cards and only makes minor changes to the card in many cases creating the illusion that the hardware is getting old when very little has actually changed.

http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A6116822&mfgpid=203781&chassisid=8865

[cybrsaylr]

Thanks Frogs Hair.

So far I have cleaned the OEM card a couple times so far. It's a real pain because to give it a proper cleaning it must be removed to clean out inside the card fan blades. It runs cooler then but the noise remains. When I put a finger on the card fan to stop fan from spinning, the noise ceases completely. When finger is removed, fan spins up and the noise returns, a high pitched annoying sound.

Looked at that PNY card you linked but don't know what to make of it because the one review was hidden and only rated it 2 stars.

My OEM card has 1GB DDR3.
Saw some cards with 2GB DDR3 that run OK with my 350 watt power supply.
Others with more memory or DDR5 type memory require a bigger power supply.

Since I'm no gamer I'd prefer sticking with my OEM 350 watt PS since it still works OK.

[Frogs Hair]

The page you linked gives a list of supported cards for your model so if you go by that you shouldn't run into any power supply problems. If you shop elsewhere you will have to keep an eye on power supply requirements. You can find the same cards on other sites so don't be afraid to shop.

[cybrsaylr]

Yes it does pay to shop around.
Did a little digging and there are dozens of cards to choose from which makes things difficult.
Checked out Newegg my fav site and found this updated card from the Dell site a bit cheaper:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814133459&Tpk=VCGGT6302XPB&IsVirtualParent=1
This card looks identical to this Dell site card costing more:
http://accessories.us.dell.com/sna/productdetail.aspx?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&sku=A6116822&mfgpid=203781&chassisid=8865