Ok so I'm very careful when it comes to my money cause I'm not a big spender. If your wondering what type of gaming I will be doing, its mostly older games such as COD2, CS:S, UT04, SA-MP/MTA (or GTA SA), Doom 3, etc. So basically I wont be playing many newer games (if any at all), especially not the ones that come out for 360/PC. If anything, I'm willing to spend up to 100 bucks but if its less it would be better. So I been looking at these cards, 8500GT, 8600GT, 8800GS, HD 3450, and the 9600GT. Although the 9600GT is offered at the store, its way too expensive there but there having it for 70 bucks at Newegg (maybe its 9500GT and I don't have anything needed for online shopping). If anyone can help me decide on any of these cards, I would appreciate it. If you want the link, go here. Feel free to suggest if theres a better card on that list if I missed it. Here are my specs: HP Pavilion Media Center PC Intel Pentium D Dual Core 2.80GHz 1GB RAM (Hopefully it will be 2 soon) ATI Radeon X300 SE
either the 8800GS or 9600GT. go with XFX brand; eVga quality has been iffy. but you will need a new power supply. the corsair 450VX will work just fine, but make sure it will fit in the pc.
Agreed on that. Your stock PSU won't be able to take any of the good cards from that list, which are exclusively the 8800GS and 9600GT. Don't bother with the 9500GT if that's what it turns out to be, get the 8800GS instead. If it genuinely is a 9600GT for 70 dollars though, that's pretty amazing, buy it. Oh and for the love of god, replace the PSU with something decent, i.e. the Corsair VX 450W. Cheap PSUs will only make things worse, much worse.
Argh, I wasn't hoping in buy a new PSU, well that probably means I'm going to get an older card if thats the case or save up money for it. If thats the case, whats the highest end card this PC can take?
if you plan on adding a graphics card, a new power supply is a must. never use the one supplied; it won't handle even older cards without fully stressing it. worst thing is the power supply going poof, and potentially taking the whole system with it. i think sam is the one with that experience. if you're going for the best bang for the buck, the HD4850 is the card to look at. but that means you'll have to step up to the corsair 550VX.
Well the main reason that I didn't want to upgrade the PSU cause the one I have right now is energy efficient. The Corsair website says its energy efficient but how much exactly?
Far more so than any stock HP/Dell PSU will ever be. Corsair PSUs are 85% plus efficient, most PSUs are 75-80 at best.
make sure to get the evga version uses the 1ns memory and uses the same pcb as the 8800gt and has a 3 pin fan controller that can control the fan speed instead of being at 100% all the time
Oh well, I guess I'm gonna drop the money for the Corsair PSU, but this won't explode or spark or anything right?
