Is there a list of compatible video cards somewhere?  I’ve had my system for three and half years and have sufficiently run it into the ground.  I need the video card list because with Maya 8.5 some of the marquee selections won’t show up, actually none of them will and it’s rather annoying.  More when I’m trying to use the Cut Faces tool and I can’t see that line that allows me to cut the faces.  I can guess pretty accurately, but a new video card couldn’t hurt.

Also, I mentioned that I’ve run my system into the ground.  The fans are so loud I can’t hear my music or anything over them without headphones.  First I’m wondering if replacing the fans will help at all, and if so, how do you know what kind of fans to get and how to install them?  If fans won’t help with the sound problem, what will? 

Computer:
Dell Dimension XPS Gen 3
Intel Pentium 4 CPU 3.4GHz, 3.39GHz (hyper threaded)
2 GB RAM
ATI Express 128MB

I don’t know much about video cards at all so any help there would be appreciated.  I know in a new one that I’ll need the availability for two monitors one “blue” port and then the other can be either “blue” or “white”.  I know they have official names, but I really don’t know what they are.

Thanks!

1) As I understood you comp is notebook or lapTop. To solve the problem with maya: download new driver for video, try to reinstall OS (XP better). Why don’t you use Maya 6.5 I installed it on different notebooks and the difference was the time of render
2) Don’t replace your fans. The only way is to change it’s speed thrue bios or using special Dell programs.
3) If you nave ‘white’ port you can use small device to attach ‘blue’

Bad boys - Bad games!
Intel 2x2.67;2gb ram;Nv 8800 GTS 320mb;WinXp sp2

I knew I forgot to mention some things about my computer.

OS: Windows XP
Desktop Computer

I currently have dual screens, so any video card that would be compatible with Maya 8.5 would need the two ports, I didn’t realize there was a way to hook a blue port up to a white one.  That’s cool. 

As for changing my fans, I’m trying to make my computer less loud.  I can’t hear myself think the fans on this thing are so loud.  And they rev up when doing something intensive (like for Maya) but then when I finish...they keep on going in their super-loud mode.  Something’s wrong there, don’t know if it’s the processor fans, or which fans it is, but it’s stupidly loud.

For desktop you should know what type of video you need- Agp or pci-express
AGP is old to connect new power videocards, so you need PCI-Express.
I like Nvidia something about 7 or 8 series (difference in price). I bought my card for 400$ and I like It. All new games,progs and rendering time works fine.

Fan is not a problem for desktop. Maybe there is much trash in there?
Try to disconnect video card, then fan from HDD, and central cooler to check which one is the loudest. I think there are so many dust inside them. You should clean them handly or get it to the service. Good Luck!

Bad boys - Bad games!
Intel 2x2.67;2gb ram;Nv 8800 GTS 320mb;WinXp sp2