Video card suggestion

[thedocta45]

Hey I am helping my little bro build a computer for school this year. I'm giving him my old dell xps 410 case.

So far I'm going to put a Q6600, 4gb of ddr2 800mhz, and a 640gb hard drive. The only thing missing is a video card. I know about the high end cards, but he doesn't need anything that powerful.

He is getting a B-ray drive so it needs to to HD video. I used to run an 8800gts (320mb) in the case, so it can support anything that heavy in power consumption, I was thinking 9800gts, or mabey a 4850 but even that I would think would be overkill.

He does Photoshop stuff no 3d rendering or anything, and may be doing some auto cad down the line.

 

[Zero82z]

If he won't be gaming, he can get by fine with a 4650 or 4670.

 

[hossdaddy]

psu?

 

[thedocta45]

The psu is a Dell stock one, 375W with 18A on the 12V rail.
It could basicaly handle a 8800gts (320mb) 2 HD, 2 Optical drives and 4 case fans before it would freak out under heavy gaming usage.
So its not a bad PSU but not a great one.

4650 or 4670 I will look in to those.

 

[hossdaddy]

are you sure about that? I wouldn't trust anything stock in a psu to run that setup. Especially with the age it has.

Here are a couple suggestions. As you know the psu is the last place to skimp. With that in mind,

OCZ ModXStream Pro OCZ600MXSP 600W $69.99 - $20 mir + fs
HIS H485QT512P Radeon HD 4850 512MB $99.99 - $20 mir + fs
Total: $169.99 - $40 mir

 

[thedocta45]

The computer was only used for a year before I built my own, I use if from time to time as a test system for computer hardware.

As far as getting a new PSU I would be limited to PC Power and Cooling's compatible Dell 425W PSU. As Dell still uses BTX and also the odd size of the Dell PSU, so the OCZ is out.

As it looks the 4650 and 4670 do not have much of a power draw. But he might like having the power of the 4850.