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Need a gaming Vid card for a 300 powersupplied HP

joojoo1975joojoo1975 Member UncommonPosts: 275

Greets, my old comp just kicked the bucket last night, and I went out and grabbed this comp:

 

HP Pavilion p7-1423W Desktop PC:

Key Features and Benefits:

  • Intel Core i5-2320 processor(quad core)
    3.00GHz, 6MB Cache
     
  • 8GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory
     
  • 1TB SATA hard drive
     
  • SuperMulti DVD Burner
     
  • 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
     
  • Intel HD Graphics 2000
    With up to 4GB graphics system memory 

Additional Features:

  • 15-in-1 memory card reader
  • 2 x USB 3.0 ports, 1 x headphone-out, 1 x microphone-in, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x microphone-in/line-in/line-out, 1 x VGA-out, 1 x DVI-out
  • 1 x MiniCard, 3 x PCI Express (x1) slots, 1 x PCI Express (x16) slot, 2 x external 5.25" bays, 1 x external 3.5" bay, 2 x internal 3.5" bays
 

Software:

  • HP Windows 8(64-bit)  Desktop Operating System


A good buddy of mine from a certain "Mart" got this for me for round 400$(he used his discount) The thing is brand new and has a year warrenty on it from HP.  I called HP and they said installing a vid card on her won't void my warranty, but if i upgrade the powersupply, it will.  the power supply is 300 watts

 

Is there a Good Vid card out there for Gaming that still uses a 300watt powersupply comp?  I would like the vid card to be at least a 1 gig vid card, but I know nothing bout vid cards and what not.  Hence why I'm asking you fine Folks.

 

 

TL;DR?  need a good gaming vid card that can be used with a 300w power supplied HP comp.

To Protect The Helpless From The Heartless

Comments

  • karmathkarmath Member UncommonPosts: 904

    You got ripped off mate.

    For one, that 300watts is incredibly underpowered, but the fact being its prob a no name nasty so it will not even put out the max 300. Also those have a real risk of damaging hardware even under normal non oc'd situations.

    Take it back and buy parts from newegg.

  • stayontargetstayontarget Member RarePosts: 6,519
    Well if it was me I would just go ahead and just buy a good 650w PSU and videocard.  You could probably find a low budget videocard that has a low power draw but it probably would not be worth it in the long run gaming wise. You should always keep below 50% of the rated PSU's power (150w in you case), and remember thats all system power draw and not just the videocard.

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  • phantomghostphantomghost Member UncommonPosts: 738

    300W is not enough for anything.  Even my old gaming video cards would eat through 500-600W Power supply.

     

    If you know how to put a video card in you pretty much have the capabilities of building your own PC for much much cheaper... for performance.

     

    Although, the computer you got isn't terrible, it could be better.  But like somebody else stated your best bet is just void the warranty upgrade the power supply.


  • GrayGhost79GrayGhost79 Member UncommonPosts: 4,775
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    Greets, my old comp just kicked the bucket last night, and I went out and grabbed this comp:

     

    HP Pavilion p7-1423W Desktop PC:

    Key Features and Benefits:

    • Intel Core i5-2320 processor(quad core)
      3.00GHz, 6MB Cache
       
    • 8GB DDR3 SDRAM system memory
       
    • 1TB SATA hard drive
       
    • SuperMulti DVD Burner
       
    • 10/100/1000Base-T Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n Wireless LAN
       
    • Intel HD Graphics 2000
      With up to 4GB graphics system memory 

    Additional Features:

    • 15-in-1 memory card reader
    • 2 x USB 3.0 ports, 1 x headphone-out, 1 x microphone-in, 1 x RJ-45 Ethernet port, 1 x microphone-in/line-in/line-out, 1 x VGA-out, 1 x DVI-out
    • 1 x MiniCard, 3 x PCI Express (x1) slots, 1 x PCI Express (x16) slot, 2 x external 5.25" bays, 1 x external 3.5" bay, 2 x internal 3.5" bays
     

    Software:

    • HP Windows 8(64-bit)  Desktop Operating System


    A good buddy of mine from a certain "Mart" got this for me for round 400$(he used his discount) The thing is brand new and has a year warrenty on it from HP.  I called HP and they said installing a vid card on her won't void my warranty, but if i upgrade the powersupply, it will.  the power supply is 300 watts

     

    Is there a Good Vid card out there for Gaming that still uses a 300watt powersupply comp?  I would like the vid card to be at least a 1 gig vid card, but I know nothing bout vid cards and what not.  Hence why I'm asking you fine Folks.

     

     

    TL;DR?  need a good gaming vid card that can be used with a 300w power supplied HP comp.

    The only graphics card really worth getting with that PSU is a 9600gt. I agree with others overall. You should really return that and buy parts and build your own. You can come out cheaper or at least around the same with better parts and end up with a more powerful rig. 

  • eye_meye_m Member UncommonPosts: 3,317

    I'd say screw the warranty or pick up a different hobby, but if you really wanted to put a videocard in, you could go with a low end card like a Radeon HD7750. I wouldn't go any higher than that.

    With your current configuration (taking a few assumptions) you are running around 185W, and if you added that card the increase would be around another 50W.  I definately wouldn't push it past the 235W

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  • KryptyKrypty Member UncommonPosts: 454

    You could always upgrade the power supply anyway, and if god forbid you have to make a warranty claim, just put the original back in. There's no way for them to know.

     

    But as other said, the 'best' method is to not be using a HP computer in the first place and roll with newegg/custom parts.

  • joojoo1975joojoo1975 Member UncommonPosts: 275

    thankyou friends for the advice.

     

    Problem is, I don't know Jack About computers.  I been gaming for years but other than puttin in the CD or DVD into the drive, that's about it.  So building my own comp is a No Go, in fact I would have someone putting in the Vid card.  Is there someway to look on Win 8 to see exactly what powersupply I have?  your probally right, but I need a comp for my hobby job as well as for gaming.  So i really can't wait 5+ days or so to have one replaced or built.  and the retail on this comp is 600$  So i thought my buddy was gettin me a good deal, guess not :(

     

    again thankyou for the replies.

    To Protect The Helpless From The Heartless

  • PoporiPopori Member UncommonPosts: 334
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    thankyou friends for the advice.

     

    Problem is, I don't know Jack About computers.  I been gaming for years but other than puttin in the CD or DVD into the drive, that's about it.  So building my own comp is a No Go, in fact I would have someone putting in the Vid card.  Is there someway to look on Win 8 to see exactly what powersupply I have?  your probally right, but I need a comp for my hobby job as well as for gaming.  So i really can't wait 5+ days or so to have one replaced or built.  and the retail on this comp is 600$  So i thought my buddy was gettin me a good deal, guess not :(

     

    again thankyou for the replies.

    I was going to say that if you bought something like this chances are you wouldn't know enough about PCs to replace a PSU (Not a dig on you, just saying).  I'd recommend you take it to a local shop and have them replace the PSU with something slightly beefier, then upgrade the GPU when you can.

    While it's not -super- easy to destroy a motherboard replacing a PSU, it is easy enough for someone not to risk doing it if they're not comfortable doing so.  Better to take the 25-50$ hit then to short out your PC and have to replace more parts.

    I'd recommend finding a GPU in your price range, noting its wattage draw, and get a sufficient PSU to cover that plus 200watts base.  Have the tech replace the PSU for you and place the GPU yourself.

    You essentially got a bargain workstation, nothing resembling a gaming system and those are usually lacking in the components that will cost you the most to replace.

  • phantomghostphantomghost Member UncommonPosts: 738
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    thankyou friends for the advice.

     

    Problem is, I don't know Jack About computers.  I been gaming for years but other than puttin in the CD or DVD into the drive, that's about it.  So building my own comp is a No Go, in fact I would have someone putting in the Vid card.  Is there someway to look on Win 8 to see exactly what powersupply I have?  your probally right, but I need a comp for my hobby job as well as for gaming.  So i really can't wait 5+ days or so to have one replaced or built.  and the retail on this comp is 600$  So i thought my buddy was gettin me a good deal, guess not :(

     

    again thankyou for the replies.

    The only way I know of is to physically look at it, or since its a prebuilt computer possibly looking at their papers to see what it is. 

    For $400 it is not terrible, the power supply is very low.  I remember when I use to try to get away with 500W power supply.  They would work, but they died out quickly.  I even tried 650 on a higher end computer, until one day it literally blew up, thankfully nothing went out with it sparking and smoking lol. 

     

    Processor at 3.0Ghz (4 cores is it?) is not bad.  Anything 4 CPU and 3.0 or higher will do fine for most games I can think of.  You are trying to upgrade the videocard which is really cheap anyway, unless you want the video card that is being released 10 seconds from the time you read this and want to pay top dollar.  Ram is so cheap you can easily upgrade, I can't remember how much you said it had but 8g is enough for anything really, I got 32g which does me absolutely nothing other than being able to say... I have 32g ram. 

     

    Not to mention you got your OS legally too so that alone takes a large chunk of peoples money.


  • MasterChaosXMasterChaosX Member Posts: 52

    AMD HD7750 is the best card available for a 300 PSU. The power runs of the PCI-E slot so you dont even need to the 6 pin adapter. 7750 is actually quite good. Ive heard of people playing BF3 on ultra at 1600x1200 resolution getting 30+ fps. This card is the most efficient card for the price.

     

    Here are some links to the card

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161403

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814103206

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814131461

  • joojoo1975joojoo1975 Member UncommonPosts: 275
    Originally posted by Popori
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    thankyou friends for the advice.

     

    Problem is, I don't know Jack About computers.  I been gaming for years but other than puttin in the CD or DVD into the drive, that's about it.  So building my own comp is a No Go, in fact I would have someone putting in the Vid card.  Is there someway to look on Win 8 to see exactly what powersupply I have?  your probally right, but I need a comp for my hobby job as well as for gaming.  So i really can't wait 5+ days or so to have one replaced or built.  and the retail on this comp is 600$  So i thought my buddy was gettin me a good deal, guess not :(

     

    again thankyou for the replies.

    I was going to say that if you bought something like this chances are you wouldn't know enough about PCs to replace a PSU (Not a dig on you, just saying).  I'd recommend you take it to a local shop and have them replace the PSU with something slightly beefier, then upgrade the GPU when you can.

    While it's not -super- easy to destroy a motherboard replacing a PSU, it is easy enough for someone not to risk doing it if they're not comfortable doing so.  Better to take the 25-50$ hit then to short out your PC and have to replace more parts.

    I'd recommend finding a GPU in your price range, noting its wattage draw, and get a sufficient PSU to cover that plus 200watts base.  Have the tech replace the PSU for you and place the GPU yourself.

    You essentially got a bargain workstation, nothing resembling a gaming system and those are usually lacking in the components that will cost you the most to replace.

    i take it PSU is powersupply unit  but what is GPU?  Also i have 8 gigs of DDR3 ram, is that not good(my old comp had 8gig DDR2

     

    once again, thanx again for the help folks.

    To Protect The Helpless From The Heartless

  • HeroEvermoreHeroEvermore Member Posts: 672

    In most package deals they truly skimp on the bare minimum PSU. Like others have said. Go buy a real power supply. gold rated/silver at least. 800w and up. It will last you for 5-10 years. I spurged and bought a 1200w silent pro gold and it should last me near a lifetime even using 2 gpus.

     

    I learned my lesson the hard way. I overclocked a GPU and shot 2 inch flames out of the back of my computers PSU. No joke. 2 inch flames, fire alarm went off n everything. i just laughed at myself beause it was a cool max psu (not to be confused with similar brand that is decent)

    Hero Evermore
    Guild Master of Dragonspine since 1982.
    Playing Path of Exile and deeply in love with it.

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    and the retail on this comp is 600$  So i thought my buddy was gettin me a good deal, guess not :(

    It's very, very important to understand that some companies will make up a nominal price that they never intend to charge anyone, so that they can claim that their real price is at some huge discount as compared to the fictitious nominal price.  If something is 20% off or 30% off or 50% off or 90% off, that means absolutely nothing.  I once saw a laptop that was claimed to be 99% off, and still not a very good deal, as the nominal price was more than a hundred times what it was reasonably worth.

    -----

    If your goal in getting the computer was to get a reasonably fast processor and a good bit of memory capacity, but not much graphics performance and you don't care much about reliability, then you made a pretty good choice.  That you're looking to add a video card to the system now would seem to indicate that that wasn't your goal.

    Buying a cheap junk computer and trying to upgrade it is a very bad idea, as it will be loaded up with a ton of cheap junk parts.  If you buy a $400 cheap junk computer and want to upgrade it to a respectable $500 budget gaming machine, then one would normally expect to spend about another $400 or so on upgrades, as so many parts would have to be tossed and replaced outright.

    -----

    Building a computer is easier than you probably think.  Even if you hired someone to install a video card for you, what would you do with the computer when you got it home?  Keyboards, mice, speakers, monitors, and power cords don't magically plug themselves in, you know.  If you're capable of plugging things into USB ports and ethernet ports and DVI ports outside of the case, then why not SATA ports and memory slots and PCI Express slots inside the case?  Different ports are shaped differently, so trying to plug everything in is roughly on the level of putting a round peg in a round slot and a square peg in a square slot rather than the other way around.

    In order to assemble a computer from parts, all that you really need to do is to read the instructions and do what they say.  You'll need a screwdriver, and an anti-static wristband can be a good idea, but no other tools are relevant.  If you don't know what parts to get, then you can get help here.

    -----

    One big problem with power supplies is that the nominal wattage doesn't mean much.  It's a marketing number, not an engineering one.  It's basically the power supply vendor's promise that the power supply can deliver some particular amount of power.  But some power supply vendors are basically lying with their wattage claims, or have power supplies that can only deliver the nominal wattage under very artificial conditions that aren't at all similar to real-world usage.

    How much power can that power supply deliver reliably and safely while keeping everything well in spec?  The equipment you'd need to find out costs several thousand dollars.  If it's really 300 W, then you could buy a Radeon HD 7750 and it would probably work.  But if the power supply can only handle 200 W under a real-world load, then trying that would likely mean frying things.  The problem with a power supply dying isn't just that you have to replace the power supply.  It's that power supplies that die sometimes take a lot of other hardware with them in the process.

    Furthermore, power delivery isn't the only issue.  Heat is another major issue, and in the pictures, I don't see any case fans at all.  If it's relying on a single rear case fan plus the power supply fan, that will be more or less adequate for the stock configuration.  Add a video card putting out a lot of heat and you could easily get overheating problems.  Even if that doesn't kill the computer immediately, it could easily cause big problems a year or two down the road.

    Now, that's fixable by upgrading other components, of course.  But if you're buying a new video card and also replacing the case and power supply, then you're looking at about $200 in upgrades already.  That would still leave you with an ultra-low end cheap junk motherboard and probably low end memory and a cheap hard drive.  The hard drive is 7200 RPM, at least, so that could be worse.  At that point, you'd be far better off returning the computer for a refund and spending the $400 plus what you would have spent on upgrades to get something sensible in the first place.

  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    I'd spring for a refund and build a system from scratch. Hell, buy 1-2 parts a month if you must!

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  • VendettaDFAVendettaDFA Member Posts: 72
    If you are hung with the system ..... My comp is an older HP w a 300 watt power supply. I currently run an Nvidia gt430  from galaxy which will work in a 300 watt system. Like I said ... if you are stuck with that system. If not, do some research and maybe return and get a system that can handle gaming  specifically instead of multimedia. Of course adding a beefy power supply that can handle a better card is also an option.  If the current vid card or sound card are on board , I would opt to get a whole new system
  • joojoo1975joojoo1975 Member UncommonPosts: 275

    well, after looking at the posts, and then doing research on other comp and gaming sites, i descided to goto newegg and this is what I bought.

     

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229364

     

    it's a lil more than 400.00  but It's actually better than my origional computer(that broke down last friday night.

     

    I guess what supprised me most is the folks in here thinking i can build my own computer.  Really folks, i don't know jack about that.  Mayby it's easy as just followin instructions as putting a bike together, but I rather not find out.  In the past(i been gaming since 2000) I've tried myself to install a vid card or a new power supply unit and what not, heck i've even tries installing win 2000 back in the day.  I've had mixed results.  most times i had to have the wife's laptop on so i could check and recheck.  Other times I had to call my buddy and then just take it to his house.  Anyhoo Thankyou again for the replies.  As soon as my new comp from newegg comes in, i'll take a look at it, then take back the wal-mart one.

     

    thankyou again for your replies.

    To Protect The Helpless From The Heartless

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    well, after looking at the posts, and then doing research on other comp and gaming sites, i descided to goto newegg and this is what I bought.

     

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229364

     

    it's a lil more than 400.00  but It's actually better than my origional computer(that broke down last friday night.

     

    I guess what supprised me most is the folks in here thinking i can build my own computer.  Really folks, i don't know jack about that.  Mayby it's easy as just followin instructions as putting a bike together, but I rather not find out.  In the past(i been gaming since 2000) I've tried myself to install a vid card or a new power supply unit and what not, heck i've even tries installing win 2000 back in the day.  I've had mixed results.  most times i had to have the wife's laptop on so i could check and recheck.  Other times I had to call my buddy and then just take it to his house.  Anyhoo Thankyou again for the replies.  As soon as my new comp from newegg comes in, i'll take a look at it, then take back the wal-mart one.

     

    thankyou again for your replies.

    If the problem is that buying a computer at random resulted in a bad purchase, then buying a different computer at random surely isn't the solution.

    If you're going to buy that computer, then you'd best replace the power supply right away, as the one it came with is a piece of junk.  The video card is low end, too, and not any faster than modern integrated graphics.  If you're happy with that level of video performance, then so be it.  A number of other parts are probably cheap junk, too, but the power supply is the only one that is a real risk to fry your computer.

    If you can't or won't build your own, then the next best thing is to get one built to order from a site that lets you pick the exact parts.  That means you'll pay about a 10%-20% premium for someone else to use a screwdriver for you, but it does at least let you get something nice.

  • botrytisbotrytis Member RarePosts: 3,363
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    well, after looking at the posts, and then doing research on other comp and gaming sites, i descided to goto newegg and this is what I bought.

     

    http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16883229364

     

    it's a lil more than 400.00  but It's actually better than my origional computer(that broke down last friday night.

     

    I guess what supprised me most is the folks in here thinking i can build my own computer.  Really folks, i don't know jack about that.  Mayby it's easy as just followin instructions as putting a bike together, but I rather not find out.  In the past(i been gaming since 2000) I've tried myself to install a vid card or a new power supply unit and what not, heck i've even tries installing win 2000 back in the day.  I've had mixed results.  most times i had to have the wife's laptop on so i could check and recheck.  Other times I had to call my buddy and then just take it to his house.  Anyhoo Thankyou again for the replies.  As soon as my new comp from newegg comes in, i'll take a look at it, then take back the wal-mart one.

     

    thankyou again for your replies.

    If I can do it, anyone can.

    http://lifehacker.com/5828747/how-to-build-a-computer-from-scratch-the-complete-guide

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SsQNIP7cTYA

    http://www.kitchentablecomputers.com/index.php

    http://www.ifitjams.com/build.htm

    http://build-your-own-computer.org/

    Here is enough info to get you started building your own.

     


  • joojoo1975joojoo1975 Member UncommonPosts: 275
    Originally posted by Quizzicalthankyou again for your replies.

    If you're going to buy that computer, then you'd best replace the power supply right away, as the one it came with is a piece of junk.  

    It's 700Watts?  If you see what the name of the PSU is, pls fill me in. 

     

    The video card is low end, too, and not any faster than modern integrated graphics.  

    what's the 2GB for, though after lookin at the benchmark and what not, i'm kinda pissed.  What am i supposed to look for when i'm lookin for a graphics card, i thought the memory was a good indication.

     

     

    If you can't or won't build your own, then the next best thing is to get one built to order from a site that lets you pick the exact parts.  That means you'll pay about a 10%-20% premium for someone else to use a screwdriver for you, but it does at least let you get something nice.

    I give up.  I'm 37 yrs old and I work full time.  How you guys talk you make it sound like it's putting legos together.  I look in the computer case and i'm baffeled, as well as tryin to figure out how to install OS, not to mention drivers and what not.

     

    No thankyou.  the more I read all ya's posts, the more i wish I bought a console :(

     

    ok, well you saw what i'm willing to buy, is there any pre made computer any of ya's would had chosen?

     

    as always thankyou for your responces.

     

    what do you all think of an ASUS EAH4850 1GB vid card(it is still in my old comp)

    To Protect The Helpless From The Heartless

  • QuizzicalQuizzical Member LegendaryPosts: 25,347
    Originally posted by joojoo1975
    Originally posted by Quizzicalthankyou again for your replies.

    If you're going to buy that computer, then you'd best replace the power supply right away, as the one it came with is a piece of junk.  

    It's 700Watts?  If you see what the name of the PSU is, pls fill me in. 

     

    The video card is low end, too, and not any faster than modern integrated graphics.  

    what's the 2GB for, though after lookin at the benchmark and what not, i'm kinda pissed.  What am i supposed to look for when i'm lookin for a graphics card, i thought the memory was a good indication.

     

     

    If you can't or won't build your own, then the next best thing is to get one built to order from a site that lets you pick the exact parts.  That means you'll pay about a 10%-20% premium for someone else to use a screwdriver for you, but it does at least let you get something nice.

    I give up.  I'm 37 yrs old and I work full time.  How you guys talk you make it sound like it's putting legos together.  I look in the computer case and i'm baffeled, as well as tryin to figure out how to install OS, not to mention drivers and what not.

     

    No thankyou.  the more I read all ya's posts, the more i wish I bought a console :(

     

    ok, well you saw what i'm willing to buy, is there any pre made computer any of ya's would had chosen?

     

    as always thankyou for your responces.

     

    what do you all think of an ASUS EAH4850 1GB vid card(it is still in my old comp)

    Try this:

    http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/Gamer_Ultra_7500

    Swap out the processor for an FX-6300 and the video card for a Radeon HD 7770, and it comes to $674.  If you wanted to, you could chop a little bit off of that price tag by going with the stock heatsink and skipping the keyboard and mouse.  If 120 GB is enough capacity for you, then you could also save $20 by going with a Samsung 840 SSD instead of a hard drive.

    -----

    Look at the power supplies they offer.  They're lowest one is a Corsair CX430 V2, which is definitely a budget power supply, but decent enough.  They also offer a "standard" 700 W power supply that is cheaper than that.  You know why the "700 W" power supply is cheaper?  Because it's a piece of junk.

    The thing you need to know is that the nominal wattage on a power supply is a marketing number, not an engineering one.  If you have a physical power supply in your possession, there isn't any physical test that you can run to tell you what wattage the power supply is.  The nominal wattage is basically the power supply vendor's promise that you can pull up to that amount and it will work.

    Corsair has a reputation to protect, if they claim a power supply can deliver 430 W, then it probably can do so in the real world and without causing any problems.  Corsair isn't the only vendor with such a reputation to protect, but they are a reputable power supply vendor.

    But a lot of power supply vendors aren't trying to protect their reputation, and will put inflated nominal wattage numbers on a piece of junk to try to trick people who don't know any better into buying it.  That's the case with the "700 W" power supply that is listed (which is probably made by Xtreme Gear, since that's Cyber Power PC's house brand).

    For example, look here, where they test and compare three "550 W" power supplies:

    http://www.anandtech.com/show/3985/three-550w-psus-for-different-prices

    One of the three is a very nice product, one is decent enough, and one exploded when they tried to pull 275 W from it.  And if you want to see just how bad power supplies can get, try this:

    http://www.jonnyguru.com/modules.php?name=NDReviews&op=Story&reid=324

    That's not what you want in your machine.  The problem with bad power supplies is that when they die, they don't necessarily die alone; sometimes they fry everything else in the system as they die.

    Confused yet?  Basically, there are a few ways to pick a power supply.  One is to read a ton of reviews to figure out which web sites are good and then buy something they've given a favorable review to.  Another is to ask someone else who has done so what you should get.  You can also figure out which brands are good (e.g., Seasonic, Corsair, Antec, XFX), and just buy something from a brand that refuses to sell garbage power supplies.

    -----

    Video cards can be hard to figure out how they perform.  You can try reading reviews that compare cards, but it can be hard to get a good baseline and figure out what matters.  The model numbers don't necessarily help much, either, as they're really just ID numbers for different cards and mean whatever marketing decides they ought to mean.  In this case, a GeForce GT 620 is really just a GeForce GT 430 that Nvidia marketing decided to award an extra 190 naming points to in order to make the card sound newer and better.

    If you really want to dig into it, you can get a good idea of how a given card will perform from how many shaders, TMUs, and ROPs it has, how they're clocked, and how much memory bandwidth it has.

    Some marketing people have figured out that some people who know nothing about video cards can be convinced to overpay for low end video cards with stupidly large amounts of video memory, so they make and sell such cards.  Video memory is really just a case of either you have enough or you don't, and if you do have enough, then adding more doesn't help you a bit.  1 GB is enough for most people, though you may want 2 GB if you want to play at high resolutions (loosely, anything above 1920x1080) or are particularly fond of extra high-resolution textures and the few games that offer them.  On your budget, 1 GB should be plenty, as there are better ways to spend your money than getting extra video memory.

    For what it's worth, a Radeon HD 7770 offers about triple the performance of a GeForce GT 620.

    -----

    Legos are hard.  You can piece them together any which way and they fit, even if you're doing it wrong.  Assembling a computer is more akin to a 30-piece puzzle that can only fit together one way.

    But if you really don't want to try it yourself, it's better to get one built to order (as in my link at the start of this post) than to pick something prebuilt at random.  Prebuilt computers are usually loaded with cheap junk parts because they know that people who know enough to protest cheap junk parts aren't even going to look at buying a computer off the shelf.

  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    Video card RAM is important for multi-monitor setups and stuff. But, otherwise, most of us need help sorting out cards. This is a great site to figure out video cards: www.hwcompare.com

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  • joojoo1975joojoo1975 Member UncommonPosts: 275

    good info there, and it's official I'm tired of computers.  I've just looked at some of the power supply units in my old computers.  I'm not happy, not happy at all/

     

    thankyou all for your replies.

    To Protect The Helpless From The Heartless

  • MothanosMothanos Member UncommonPosts: 1,910

    Building your own system is like playing with lego - you cant go wrong with that since a long time.

    The price you pay for prebuild system is way out of line.
    When you build your own system you get at least 2 times the performance back for the price you would normaly pay.

    If you want to game on a PC i highly recomend building your own systems or at least learn how to build it.
    It only contains a few parts witha few bolts and wires sometimes a little cooling paste but nothing you need a geek or nerd for anymore.
    Those days a long past us :)


    Start with:

    Case + coolers
    Motherboard
    CPU
    GPU
    Memory
    hard-drive
    CD/DvD-rom

    Thats it :P

  • KenFisherKenFisher Member UncommonPosts: 5,035

    I found a thread on the issue of inexpensive low-power GPUs.  Some interesting suggestions.

     

    http://www.overclock.net/t/1236770/best-low-power-video-card


    Ken Fisher - Semi retired old fart Network Administrator, now working in Network Security.  I don't Forum PVP.  If you feel I've attacked you, it was probably by accident.  When I don't understand, I ask.  Such is not intended as criticism.
  • SouldrainerSouldrainer Member Posts: 1,857
    Originally posted by joojoo1975

    good info there, and it's official I'm tired of computers.  I've just looked at some of the power supply units in my old computers.  I'm not happy, not happy at all/

     

    thankyou all for your replies.

    Dude, you are only 38.  You ain't too old to start new hobbies!  Just think of this... your savings and quality in the long haul will be massive!

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