there's a new nVidia 6150 driver out, just last October 2011.  hoping this will help my PP12 problemos.

Here's a handy linkie if you're using nVidia GeForce.

http://www.geforce.com/Drivers

mine is built into my m/b and my case is slim, so i can't upgrade my card unless i leave the top off. 

many graphics cards aimed for the HTPC crowd come with low profile brackets.  you can just swap them to make the card fit slim cases.  just about any of them will be an upgrade over an onboard 6150. 

if youre on a budget, watch for rebates especially now around xmas - i picked up a 1GB geforce 220 for free after rebate,  specifically to replace a friend's onboard graphics and free up the memory it was using.  not a high performance card by a longshot, but still much better than an onboard 6100/6150.  GT 430s can be had as cheap as $20 if you keep an eye out and dont mind mailing a rebate.

change brackets?  hmmm.  do i even need a bracket?  my pc is stationary.

my pws is 250w. 

You're gonna have a problem with a newer graphics cards and only a 250 watt processor. Of course, it would depend what you already have attached to your power supply. The motherboard, the dvd drive...it all adds up. Most cards these days suggest that you have at least a 350-400 watt power supply. Hopefully you don't have too much already connected to your power supply. I have had a PS that small for a long, long time...lol.

Laurie

if you have a dual core pc/3gb ram and an I7/8gb ram,

which machine is better to run the renderQ; while using the other to set up the scene?

a gt 430 only draws ~20 watts at idle and ~49 watts at full load.

although a 250 watt PSU could be pushing it, so youre pretty much stuck with the onboard. what kindof pc is it? one of those tiny mini-ITX bookshelf thingies? :P

Well, if it was me, I'd use the workhorse to do the main render and use the less powerful one to help. Opinions may vary ;).

Laurie

on the upside, if you have a regular case you can get a 350 watt PS starting at 25 bucks if you shop around.

Laurie

^yeah, maybe its not too late to ask Santa for a full size case and PSU :)

Never too late. Santa even delivers after Christmas...lol.

Laurie

it's a lil Dell inspiron that was on sale at Bestbuy.  i removed the internal dvd, so that should save some power.

I'm looking at the Dell XPS 8300, I5, on sale under 800.  haz HDMI out.

Santa may be an option, but so far, he pretty much has his heart set on giving me a new pair of floggers.

Quote - there's a new nVidia 6150 driver out, just last October 2011.  hoping this will help my PP12 problemos.

Here's a handy linkie if you're using nVidia GeForce.

http://www.geforce.com/Drivers

mine is built into my m/b and my case is slim, so i can't upgrade my card unless i leave the top off. 

What's wrong with topless?

if it was on me, I would draw and render on the workhorse but give the render processes a low priority tag (via Task Manager). Unless... 3gb is fine for your scenes AND your dual core is hyperthreading AND your i7 is dual/quad core at low speed. It's not the drawing but the test-rendering whcih counts IMHO.

Succes