Hey guys,
So I bought this rig about a year ago for a reasonable price. I was pretty impressed with the specs for the price I paid, with the video card being the only component that raised a red flag for me. I bought the system as it was though, with the intention of upgrading the video card after about a year or so. Well, it's about that time, and am looking to finally get a new one. Thing is though, I'm totally out of the loop of what I should invest in. Any help/recommendations would be appreciated.
I have an HP Pavilion Elite e9230F:
http://www.tigerdirect.ca/applications/S...No=5325310
I haven't decided how much I want to throw at a new card either, but I'm ball-parking $300 as a ceiling.
First,
make sure your power supply can produce enough juice for a new card. Chances are you'll be ok if you're still just using one card though.
Anyways, it kinda depends on what resolution you play your games at, and what sort of games you want to be able to play. For nVidia cards, the
GTX 460 is the best bang for your buck. I linked the ASUS one, but the other are generally pretty good too. You should probably talk to someone else, especially if you're considering ATI *lights the spore signal*
EDIT: Disclaimer: I run 2x EVGA GTX460s in SLI. Everything runs like butter since nVidia's recent driver release, but I had power issues at first.
I'm running a Radeon HD 5870 and love it, but I bought mine for a little over 400 when the demand was really high. Not sure how much they are now.
GTX 470s are more reasonably priced right now. But it might be worth it to wait a bit though. The release of the GTX 580 should soon cause a drop in the 4 series. Especially with the 570 coming out (or maybe it's already out)
Wait a month for xmas sales. =(
(11-29-2010, 04:32 PM)Kirby, the AxeHammer Zealot link Wrote: [ -> ]Wait a month for xmas sales. =(
Ya, this is pretty much what I was planning to do. I wanted to be informed in advance though, so I know what I'm doing when the opportunity arrises.
What's the best way to find out if my power supply has sufficient wattage for a potential card?
From what I am seeing on
HP's site it's 350w power supply.
However you will need to consider what power connections you have available for bigger cards such as 4pin/
6pin (The black connector) and quantity of them. My guess is that you have none, but you might be lucky and have one.
Your current cards requirements are
here.
If you want a beefier card you may need a bigger power supply. This in theory shouldn't be an issue... but you would need to check if your motherboard has "normal"
ATX power connections or if they are proprietary connectors. I know Dell is a well known culprit of proprietary crap.
Once you know your limits you can start looking for cards in that range.
That PSU is overkill for that card, but I suppose it'd be nice to have for the future. For reference, I ran that exact same card on a 550w just fine from CoolerMaster with a decently power-hungry CPU. Not a bad price too, though you have to deal with a mail in rebate to get it.
Speaking of which, I am selling that exact same card. It was going for $149 but in light of dropped prices over the month I'm willing to part with it for $130 with free shipping, all original packaging/connectors, and I'll even throw in a SB Audigy from 2004 for free. It's in like-new condition. The warranty still has 2.5 years left on it (it's determined from date of manufacture, not sale), and all you need is a the serial number on the card to get the warranty should something go wrong.
If there is any interest, let me know.