Video Upgrade

1) First Things  2) Stealth II S 220  3) Performance	Part 1	Rendition Ready
4) 3D Performance  5) Overclocking  6) Game Sampler	Part 2
7) Installation  8) Reviews  9) Related Links	Part 3

The first thing I had to do was to see what video card would work on my system.  I set up the Video upgrade Project for Packard Bell owners.  It is on this page if you want to see what video cards will work on your Packard Bell system.

Next, I did some reasearch to find the right card for me.  Check out the online computer magazines and also chack out some of the video web sites.  I found out lots of info at these web sites.  If you need some good sites try my buddy Pete's Website, Pappy's PC Help Links.  Go to his hardware section and look under video.

Now let me tell you my criteria for a video card and then that will let you know why this was the perfect video card for me.

I needed something less then $150, the cheaper the better.  I do not play a lot of games, but I do like one ocasionally so the 3D is only important when I play things like Tomb Raider.  I wanted something significantly faster then my Cirrus Logic video in 2D.  I also needed PCI video since the PB 640 does not have AGP.

I found that the Diamond Stealth II S220 would suit my needs just fine, also many of you that visited my web site recommended this card to me.

This card from Diamond gives great 2D, 3D and Video performance all at a reasonable price.  It may not be the fastest video card out there, but for $99* I think it is a good deal.  *after $20 manufactures rebate.

I have to say I am happy with this card, just look at my results.  I tested it at the setting I use all the time, 800 X 600 High color, large fonts.  Another interesting benefit I got from the new card was, the 1/2 inch black lines on the sides of my monitor have gone away.  This leads me to beleive that those lines were caused by the Cirus Logic chipset.  I can also finnally get the 800 x 600 True color setting that was not possible under the factory insatlled video, even with the 2 MB video upgrade.

  I was happy with my performance when I had 133 MHz process, but with my new Power Leap adapter and Intel 233 MHz MMX Processor I am even more happy.  It is nice to know that sometimes a new upgrade can enhance an old upgrade.  Read my review on my PowerLeap adapter upgrade.

Unfortunatly I did not see any additional improvement once I added the AMD K6-2, don't know if this was because of the New BIOS, CPU or different benchmark software.

Wintune Results - Before and After Install

You can also see how my addition of the 233 MHz MMX Power Leap Adapter increased the video speed.  I think this clearly demonstrates that the Stealth II S220 is CPU dependant.  The CPU upgrade gave me more performance increase then when I tried to overclock this card, of course now I need to try to overclcok with the new processor and see what happens.