Quick help plz.

[rustam]

Hi i am planing to buy a new pc but thats only in half a year, so until then i am stuck with my old one.

So i wanned to buy some cheap graphic card which could run with my rig for these 6 month or so.
i have a 3ghz intel processor 1g ram and ati radeon x300 card. so i wanned to replace the card but the problem is my power supply is only 305w.

so could anyone recommend a good graphic card i could use-buy for now.

 

[rustam]

any ideas?

 

[Dangman]

Some questions that needs to be answered:
- What is your budget?
- What model 305W PSU do you have? Take a picture of it if you can.
- What size monitor do you have?
- What is your goal for this graphics card upgrade?

 

[rustam]

Some questions that needs to be answered:
- What is your budget?
- What model 305W PSU do you have? Take a picture of it if you can.
- What size monitor do you have?
- What is your goal for this graphics card upgrade?

my budget is around 50-100 euro

its dell computer, (DC power supply:
Wattage
305 W
Heat dissipation
434.6 BTU/hr
Voltage (see the safety instructions located in the Product Information Guide for important voltage setting information)
90 to 135 V and 180 to 265 V at 50/60 Hz
Backup battery
3-V CR2032 lithium coin cell)


i got 19"wide
i wanna be able to play some games like maybe oblivion would say bioshock/cod4 but thats maybe to much. I am gonna buy new comp in around half a year so wanned to get some cheap graphic card that would let me play some newer games, without upgrading anything else like psu or mobo.

here is more info on my comp

http://support.euro.dell.com/support/edocs/systems/dim5000/en/sm/specs0.htm#wp1052310

 

[nej_k]

Dell Power Supplies are under rated a 305Watt power supply is more like a 350-370 watt power supply... I'm guessing you have a Dell 5150 and that intel processor is a Pentium 4 630... Almost all the cards that are in the market right now will bottleneck your processor... So I would suggest buying an older card such as a 8600GTS http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16814121069 and upgrade your MEMORY to 2gb or 3gb and if I remember correctly those Dells come with PC2 4200, so you can pick up 2 sticks of ram, 2 gigs total for $40 http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16820145527

Thats a ~$100 upgrade that will keep you have for the time being... NOTE: this doesn't mean you can game the very best since your processor is holding you back...

 

[Dangman]

my budget is around 50-100 euro

Which country are you from? Do you happen to know of any online stores that you can use?

@ nej_k
Where did you read that Dell PSUs are underrated?

Considering the age of the PC, I'd say it would be rated about right.

 

[rustam]

mine is dell 5000

I live in belgium but here prices are high, way to high, 9600gt is still 160 euro so thats why i am buying stuff from germany or holland. here are the 2 sites i buy electronics from.

snogard.de or koplett.be

and btw someone told me i cant use higher ram and and the only way i can get some is buying those 400mhz from dell.

 

[rustam]

here is a site i am probably gonna buy it from its a bit more expensive than the other 2 but its close and i dont wanna go to germany just to save 10-20euro. plus petrol and time wasted going there makes this kinda even.

http://www.pctools.be/

also i was thinking maybe getting 1g ram there. 23eu for corsair seems reasonable if its gonna fit with my mobo ofc.

So could anyone advice me what to do, it would be nice if i could get it today or tomorrow. weekends i need to help my friend move and then i am working full time so kinda tight schedule.

sorry for bothering with my little problem but I wanna do it right. had bad expirience with buying hardware without planing.


thanks

 

[nej_k]

@ nej_k
Where did you read that Dell PSUs are underrated?
.

I was on Dell Forums and a moderator told me and its true, at work I'm powering a 7600GT with that 305watt PSU... and a 7600GT requires 350watt

 

[Dangman]

I was on Dell Forums and a moderator told me and its true, at work I'm powering a 7600GT with that 305watt PSU... and a 7600GT requires 350watt

Oh great thats how you got that idea.

Look man, the reason why your 305W PSU is capable of powering the 7600GT is because it has high amount of amperage on the +12V rails. In fact, the 7600GT only requires 18A on the +12V rail. So a quality 250W PSU would be enough to power the 7600GT. That 350W requirement for the 7600GT is actually over-specced by Nvidia to cover their asses since there are a shit-ton of crappy PSUs out there that can't provide 250W of power cleanly.

Anyway, OP. just get the cheapest DDR2 533, 667 or DDR2 800 RAM you can find. The higher speed RAM will downclock themselves to the max supported speed. So you don't have to buy DDR2 533 RAM explicitly

Video card wise, get the 8600GT for 65 euros from that PCTools website. The 8600GT should provide a nice performance boost over your current X300.

 

[rustam]

Oh great thats how you got that idea.

Look man, the reason why your 305W PSU is capable of powering the 7600GT is because it has high amount of amperage on the +12V rails. In fact, the 7600GT only requires 18A on the +12V rail. So a quality 250W PSU would be enough to power the 7600GT. That 350W requirement for the 7600GT is actually over-specced by Nvidia to cover their asses since there are a shit-ton of crappy PSUs out there that can't provide 250W of power cleanly.

Anyway, OP. just get the cheapest DDR2 533, 667 or DDR2 800 RAM you can find. The higher speed RAM will downclock themselves to the max supported speed. So you don't have to buy DDR2 533 RAM explicitly

Video card wise, get the 8600GT for 65 euros from that PCTools website. The 8600GT should provide a nice performance boost over your current X300.

thanks for help and advices everyone, i decided on 8600 gt but they were out of stock so he sold me hd3750 for 70.
on the box it says need at least 450wat but so far it works fine and temperature is fine, the seller advised me not to overclock it or play new games on high setting so it doesnt break. I also got 2x500mb ram.

you think its risky using it?

 

[nej_k]

Oh great thats how you got that idea.

Look man, the reason why your 305W PSU is capable of powering the 7600GT is because it has high amount of amperage on the +12V rails. In fact, the 7600GT only requires 18A on the +12V rail. So a quality 250W PSU would be enough to power the 7600GT. That 350W requirement for the 7600GT is actually over-specced by Nvidia to cover their asses since there are a shit-ton of crappy PSUs out there that can't provide 250W of power cleanly.

Anyway, OP. just get the cheapest DDR2 533, 667 or DDR2 800 RAM you can find. The higher speed RAM will downclock themselves to the max supported speed. So you don't have to buy DDR2 533 RAM explicitly

Video card wise, get the 8600GT for 65 euros from that PCTools website. The 8600GT should provide a nice performance boost over your current X300.

Dude.... 7600GT has no pin connectors or anything... I'm running it straight off the board....

7600GT > 8600GT performance wise

and dont even care about dx10 cuz 8600GT isnt even powerful enough to run it...

 

[nej_k]

thanks for help and advices everyone, i decided on 8600 gt but they were out of stock so he sold me hd3750 for 70.
on the box it says need at least 450wat but so far it works fine and temperature is fine, the seller advised me not to overclock it or play new games on high setting so it doesnt break. I also got 2x500mb ram.

you think its risky using it?

Well idk to tell you the truth, what I know is that nvidia cards usually give you a warning if your not giving the video card enough power... now if your video card is fine then I don't see a risk...Anyways I doubt you can set games on high with a 3850 so ya and even if the game isnt very demanding the card is still going to try to pull as many frames as it can, so power consumption is still the same I believe...

Btw your cpu is a bottleneck to that video card, if you get a better processor you will notice a nice performance boost... but i dont think your motherboard will support that kind of an upgrade

 

[cannondale06]

Dude.... 7600GT has no pin connectors or anything... I'm running it straight off the board....

7600GT > 8600GT performance wise

and dont even care about dx10 cuz 8600GT isnt even powerful enough to run it...

the 8600gt is not weaker than the 7600gt. please dont link me to those old benchmarks that show the 7600gt edging out the 8600gt in a couple games. the release drivers for the 8600gt sucked and the next set of drivers made huge increases in games like STALKER and FEAR. also in newer games the 8600gt is twice as fast so please get your facts straight. of course with his cpu even a lowly 8600gt wont get close to its potential.


http://www.gamespot.com/features/6182806/p-5.html
Crysis 1024x768 Medium Quality
8600GT 30fps
7600GT not playable at those settings

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6177688/p-6.html
Bioshock 1024x768 High Quality
8600GT 40fps
7600GT 25fps

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6183967/p-4.html
COD4 1280x1024 Max Quality
8600GT 36fps
7600GT 19fps

http://www.gamespot.com/features/6183499/p-4.html
UT3 1600x1200 Max Quality
8600GT 39fps
7600GT 19fps

 

[Dangman]

7600GT > 8600GT performance wise

No it isn't. Sure when the 8600GT was released, the 7600GT beat the living shit out of it. But since then new drivers have increased the performance of the 8600GT. In fact, in newer shader heavy games like Crysis, Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3, Flight Simulator X, the 8600GT will perform on par with or better than the 7900GS. Surprising yes but its true. In most older games however, the 7900GS will beat the 8600GT but with much newer games, the 8600GT will probably win.

thanks for help and advices everyone, i decided on 8600 gt but they were out of stock so he sold me hd3750 for 70.

Do you mean the HD3650 or the HD3850? There isn't a HD3750 card. If it's the HD3650, no risk. If it's the HD3850, not worth the risk.

 

[cannondale06]

No it isn't. Sure when the 8600GT was released, the 7600GT beat the living shit out of it. But since then new drivers have increased the performance of the 8600GT. In fact, in newer shader heavy games like Crysis, Oblivion, Unreal Tournament 3, Flight Simulator X, the 8600GT will perform on par with or better than the 7900GS. Surprising yes but its true. In most older games however, the 7900GS will beat the 8600GT but with much newer games, the 8600GT will probably win.

hey I basically just said that myself. even at the 8600gt release the 7600gt never "beat the shit out of" the 7600gt though. the 7600gt was only barely ahead in a 2 or 3 games and that was quickly taken care of on the next set of drivers.

 

[Dangman]

hey I basically just said that myself. even at the 8600gt release the 7600gt never "beat the shit out of" the 7600gt though. the 7600gt was only barely ahead in a 2 or 3 games and that was quickly taken care of on the next set of drivers.

Yeah basically the same but reinforcement never hurt

And yes in a couple of early reviews, the 8600GT did get the shit beat out of it by the 7600GT. Then again my definition of "beating the shit out of" might be different from yours.

Oh well.

 

[nej_k]

Alright, honest mistake I didn't see the latest reviews for the 8600GT I was just comparing to the time when the card was just released and they were comparing the two. But wow that's a big improvement.

 

[rustam]

im playing bioshock all on high 1440x900"wide, not a single lagg. im actually impressed.
i know with my cpu the card loses potential but replacing it will force me to get a new mobo and then ill need better psu and thats like making new comp.

now im gathering money gonna spend around 1000-1500euro. but thats not until 2009 for many reasons, one of them is i might spend to much time on pc instead of my studies . im gonna be 20 in 1 week btw and still no driving license thats because it cost around 1k euro here which im working on and its not ez.

anyway thanks for all the help and if you know of some tweaks i could use please tell.
Im gonna ask more help when i start making my new comp, cause it will be my first!

 

[cannondale06]

im playing bioshock all on high 1440x900"wide, not a single lagg. im actually impressed.
i know with my cpu the card loses potential but replacing it will force me to get a new mobo and then ill need better psu and thats like making new comp.

now im gathering money gonna spend around 1000-1500euro. but thats not until 2009 for many reasons, one of them is i might spend to much time on pc instead of my studies . im gonna be 20 in 1 week btw and still no driving license thats because it cost around 1k euro here which im working on and its not ez.

anyway thanks for all the help and if you know of some tweaks i could use please tell.
Im gonna ask more help when i start making my new comp, cause it will be my first!

on what card?

EDIT: after reading back through the thread I guess you mean the 3750. what the heck is a 3750? I have never heard of that.

 

[rustam]

on what card?

EDIT: after reading back through the thread I guess you mean the 3750. what the heck is a 3750? I have never heard of that.

typo i meant 3850hd