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A few computer part questions. (PLEASE HELP)
What's up guys, I'm 15 and I play video games, alot. And I also make videos for Youtube. But anyways, I have a Emachine computer that was built in 2009, the only thing we had changed is the power supply and the video card, I remember the video card but I don't remember what watt the power supply is, the video card is a NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GSO 512.
Apparently it's a decent card, but it's been running really slow lately, and after only getting 10-15 FPS on The Secret World today (with everything on lowest and at a lowered resolution) my cousin bought me a Zotac GeForce GTX 560, it was $219 so we figured it was a good card, will I notice a big improvement now?
I've tried installing it but the stock emachine case is too small, since this new video card is huge we're going to have to replace my tower case too.. I have 4GB of ram and my motherboard is a Pentium Dual-Core CPU E5400 @2.70GHz. What should I do? Do you guys think I have enough watts in my power supply to run this new video card? I guess I should go out and buy a bigger computer case? Will I need a new mother board?
This is costing so much money and I really don't have anybody to ask but you guys, please let me know what I should do! Thanks.
Comments
Is the video card a 560 TI? More than likely you will be ok with the current PSU you might have since that is a low power card. I hate to say it, but you might be lookin at a complete rebuild.
On the box there is no TI, just GeForce GTX 560. And I hope not, I'm not able to spend that kind of money.
Here's a page with charts on GPU performance. There are 4 models of GTX 560 with different ratings for each.
Thanks, how do I know which model I have though? All mine says is GeForce GTX 560
I think yours is the one without any letters following it. Here's specs from newegg. That is one beasty big card. It got good reviews too.
Thanks! Glad to hear something positive from this finally.. so do you think it will run with my specs currently?
Why do people do this?
The proper method for buying computer parts is:
1) Ask for help in a place where you're likely to get help from people who know what they're talking about and aren't trying to profit off of you.
2) Wait until you get good replies from such people so that you know what you should buy.
3) Go buy something.
You're starting with step 3 and then coming back to steps 1 and 2 later. I guess that's better than people who start with step 3 and never get around to steps 1 and 2. But you'll find far better results if you do the steps in order.
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"I have a Emachine computer"
That's your first mistake. Emachines is ultra-low end cheap junk. You're lucky that the computer hasn't completely died.
"I don't remember what watt the power supply is"
That's a big problem. The nominal wattage isn't what matters. What matters is which power supply you have. As in, the brand name and model. If you don't know, then find out. If you have to open up the case and read the label, then do it.
"the video card is a NVIDIA GeForce 9600 GSO 512"
That's a decent enough budget gaming card in its day. Of course, its day came way back in 2008 or so. But I'd be surprised if it can't deliver more than 10-15 frames per second at hard minimum settings. Maybe the game needs a ton of video memory or something unusual?
"it was $219 so we figured it was a good card"
That's a big mistake. If a card sells for $100 from one store and $200 from another, do you think that paying $200 for it will make the card run faster? Or do you think it will just mean you overpaid?
As it ends up, you didn't do quite that badly. Rather, you just paid $219 for a $160 card (or $145 after rebate):
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814162084
And it's actually a decent value at that price, too, which the GTX 560 wasn't for most of its lifetime.
"I've tried installing it but the stock emachine case is too small"
Which is probably a good thing, as there's no real chance that the case would have been able to handle the heat output from the card.
"my motherboard is a Pentium Dual-Core CPU E5400 @2.70GHz."
That's a processor, not a motherboard.
"Do you guys think I have enough watts in my power supply to run this new video card?"
It would help if you would say what your power supply is.
"This is costing so much money and I really don't have anybody to ask but you guys, please let me know what I should do! Thanks."
It costs a lot less to get a given quality if you get help before buying something rather than after.
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Another thing to consider is that if you're meaningfully restricted by your case and/or power supply (and you're probably severely restricted by both), it helps to get a card with better performance per watt. Some cards will need to use a lot more power (and hence put out a lot more heat) to give a given level fo performance. The card you picked is one of the worst at that, and will take about 70% more power to deliver a given level of performance than modern card (Radeon HD 7000 series or GeForce GTX 600 series).
If you can return the video card for a refund, then you probably should. You might be able to get away with a low power card like this:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814161403
But if that's doesn't work for one reason or another, then you'll probably need to replace the computer outright.
What power supply do you have?
Hi Quizz, I would NORMALLY ask for help before buying anything, but it's my cousin who's buying me parts. My dad isn't alive and my mom doesn't care about my computer. And me and my cousin aren't able to order anything online, so we have to take what we can get, and he's 2 hours away from me.
I don't know what the power supply is, it's in a really bad position and it's impossible to get the bottom two screws out without taking out the motherboard. I don't know anything really about computer hardware so I have no clue what my motherboard is either. Hope it will take the video card without a problem.
And taking back the card is not an option since it's the best one around. I'm thinking of just buying a new case.. getting a computer shop to put it all together and then just upgrading whatever I need to from there.. But from what I've been told the worst thing in my computer is my video card, which is about to be replaced.
And since my budget is virtually $0 I'm only able to replace 1 part at a time, I only came to ask if anything else in my computer will mess something up when I do get the video card in.
Yeah, the videocard will improve your gaming a lot. It wont affect the time it takes you rendering vids for youtube though, that usually is the CPU. Changing videocard is by far the best way to improve an old computers gaming performance.
I think it is likely that your old PSU can run the card but I also think it is likely that it is a crap PSU that will pull up your electricity bill and in worst case can blow the entire computer. I recommend you to change it as you change the case, changing it later will be a lot of more work.
As for the case, the larger the better. The smaller case you pick the more fans it should have. GFX cards performs better in a cool enviroment and last longer, the more air in the case the better.
As for PSU I would probably go for a OCZ supply, they are a lot of bang for the buck. Corsairs better PSUs are the best but they are very expensive. I would say that 550W is enough (Nvidia have 500W as min reqs on the card).
Of course actually checking what PSU you have might save you the problem since you might be lucky. i suggest googling the model you own to find it, that is the advantage of brand computers.
I called a local computer shop here, they have some cooling master case for $90 + a $60 fee for changing the parts into it.. plus I'm going to need a new power supply, which the best one here is for $100 which will need to be installed too and then I need a new motherboard and a new processor, and I don't even want to know how much one of those will cost me, and they have to be atleast upto par with my video card I guess..
Stop, stop, stop. Don't just go off buying things at random.
Is it really so much easier for you to pay $250 than to pull out a screwdriver to get into the power supply well enough to read the label?
If you need to replace the power supply and case, then here's what you do:
First, you return the video card for a refund.
Then you buy a new video card which is perhaps 80% as fast, but much cheaper, and will only use about half as much power:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814127664
And then you use the difference in price to pay for a new case and power supply, both of which are much better than you need, and could handle a future build if you want to replace things piecemeal:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.976562
Is that the best route to go? Not necessarily. But it would sure beat throwing good money after bad.
Heya poly,
Boy, I wish I could be 15 again, lol. And I never had a cousin spend $200 on me, either.
I hope you take Quizzical's advice; don't let frustration make the decision for you.
And if you need money, take a look around and see who needs lawnmowing, garage clean-up, weeding, painting, anything. Just ask for minimum wage +1 and in a two or three weeks of hard work you will be able to afford what you need. And if your nice cousin helps out, it will be even faster.
Best of Luck!
Thanks!
Hi Quizz, thanks so much for the tower + power supply. Does that order in Canada though? And does it come right to my door? I'm thinking about ordering it, we can't take the card back but will that tower work good for the video card? Also I checked the the card needs 450W power supply which is what you linked with the tower, and it's the color I wanted too. So if they can make it to Canada then that'd help so much.
Hello?
I am pretty sure newegg can deliver to canada through UPS and as for the rest it should be good for now but another problem is putting the motherboard in a new tower most emachine boards are case by case so it might not fit check the screw set up to the open case pic if you can this will help. Also a complete pc froom Cyberpower and ibuypower there low end ones around $400 can be upgraded real easy for alot less and will last you a good few years, just another thought. You can also check a few other places like newegg for prebuilt systems which should be as low as $400 and upto $2k to $3k for top end. But if you learn your stuff you can build a decent system your self for that much.
Thats the
Case
Powersupply
Motherboard
Ram
CPU
Harddrive
Videocard
Thats all you should really need cause the more you add the brigger powersupply you need so if you shop around online you can build a system for alot less then buying one at a store or if you can do it post on a local free site looking for used pc parts to learn to build computers you can sometimes find alot of people getting rid of some older stuff and sometimes only like a year old and you can piece it back with other parts and then all you need is a windows operating system and your set. Just some ideas though you can choose.
Sherman's Gaming
Youtube Content creator for The Elder Scrolls Online
Channel:http://https//www.youtube.com/channel/UCrgYNgpFTRAl4XWz31o2emw
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.976562&nm_mc=AFC-C8Junction&cm_mmc=AFC-C8Junction-_-na-_-na-_-na&AID=10446076&PID=4176333&SID=xg91e8ufmcl - That's what I need. But it only shows a ZIP Code, and there isn't enough room for my Postal Code..
Maybe you should try: http://www.newegg.ca/
Here's the product you were looking at: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16811147153
Here's the Power Supply: http://www.newegg.ca/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817182261&Tpk=Rosewill%20CAPSTONE%20Series%20CAPSTONE-450%20450W
Didn't see a combo deal though, but I'm not looking very hard.
If you're stuck with the GTX 560, then you should probably get more wattage on the power supply. If you're in Canada, then it's better to buy from New Egg's Canadian site, or perhaps a site that actually ships from Canada such as NCIX. Anyway, here's something you could get:
http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.976568
But this time it's about $18 in shipping, rather than free shipping. And yes, they'll ship it to whatever mailing address you give them.
Ouch, $90 was something I can do, but not $54 + $99 + shipping..
Ok thanks so much Quizz, so that's what I should be getting then? http://www.newegg.ca/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.976568
And that will work with my current motherboard and processor and all of that confusing non sense?
Possibly. Another option would be to get both of these:
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=29812&vpn=THREE%20HUNDRED&manufacture=Antec&promoid=1048
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=67324&vpn=HCG%2D520M&manufacture=Antec&promoid=1048
That's a little better case, and not as good of a power supply, but I'm not sure what they charge for shipping. They're based in British Columbia, in the Vancouver area, so they don't have to ship across the border like New Egg would. New Egg will generally ship items from either California, Tennessee, or New Jersey, as that's where their warehouses are.
Assuming the motherboard is a standard form factor, yes. But I wouldn't be entirely certain of that. Emachines is an ultra-low end cheap junk brand that will cut costs any way they can. My guess is that you probably have a Micro ATX motherboard, in which case, it will work with either case just fine. But you should probably check to make sure. The name of the motherboard is presumably printed on the motherboard itself.