Upgrading - Need Help...

[william8mitchell]

Hi guys, about a year and a half ago i bought a Siemens Scaleo 600 prebuilt system and now im in the process of upgrading it as i feel its getting a little weak in some area's and though i don't want a super computer, i would just like to be able to run games and have them look nice and run good FPS with all the particle effects etc really. (mostly MMO's and the occasional FPS.)

I just upgraded my RAM by sticking in a stick of 512MB PC2700 DDR beside the 2 default 256MB PC2700 sticks and will swap them all to 512MB's at some point (1.GN Max), so thats my RAM problem/solution out of the way.

I have a AMD Athlon XP 2800+ which i've been told is pretty good so i think i'll leave that where it is.

So now the main thing i want to get at the moment is a better GFX card because currently im using a Gefore FX5200 128MB and that just doesn't really seem up to scratch these days, i get bad FPS and have to play most games on low settings and im real finickey about my GFX, i like a game to look pretty damn good when im playing them, which again, are usually MMO's so thats usually texture/particles/loading etc.
So anyway, ive been browsing about and glancing at what other people have said about certain cards and i think this seems pretty good value for money (im not rich...) http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/produ...duct_uid=81923
So i was real tempted to go buy that but i saw guys talking about PSU's (which) i totally forgot came into the equasion, and what i would like to know is if the PSU supplied with my Scaleo will work when i stick the GFX card in or will i have to upgrade it? If i do, how do i know the right size or whatever to buy?

I'm gonna shut up for now too and hope you guys can answer my Q's so far.

Thanks

Will

[sr71000]

the 5200 is crappy (don't feel bad..i have one too...lol) First of all...how many harddrives and such are in your system (so we can figure out how much power you will need!). Second....you're looking for an agp 8x card, correct?, third What type of psu is currently in it (brand and wattage please!) lastly, that's a good card....not the best but i'd say upper end of the mid-range cards for today. if you want something a little more futureproof I'd look at the 6800's . can't tell you about the price cus i only know usd .

[william8mitchell]

Yo SR, i only have 1 80GB HDD in at the moment, will probably upgrade one day also, but 80 is ok for now.
The PSU, hummmm i think it says Delta Electronics Inc, then its got loads of numbers and jap letters and 200W max, but then under that, same sorta set of letters and jap stuff, then 290W max.
The 6600GT is right in my price range, well spot on, dont think i can afford any more.

[RamonGTP]

You need to look at the +12, +5 and +3.3 votages and tell us the current ratings for each one.

[william8mitchell]

12V = 15A Max, 5V = 30A Max and 3.3V = 20A Max

Thats what it says i think.

[bwcc]

I upgraded from a 9600 to a 6600GT and have been very happy with it - but in reading from a number of folks, and doing some digging at other sites, it looks like going with an x800XL would be better off for not too much more $.

Either way, you would be very content with the 6600GT.

290W max. Wow. You will want to check the actual voltages, as Ramon mentions. **Edited mistaken content, as shown below!**

[SoloCamo]

he doesn't NEED 30A on the +12v rail for his hardware, but he will atleast need a good 18A psu.

[RamonGTP]

Quote:

Originally Posted by bwcc

I upgraded from a 9600 to a 6600GT and have been very happy with it - but in reading from a number of folks, and doing some digging at other sites, it looks like going with an x800XL would be better off for not too much more $.

Either way, you would be very content with the 6600GT.

290W max. Wow. You will want to check the actual voltages, as Ramon mentions. Plan on upgrading your PS to one that can carry ~30A on the +12V rail.

30Amps on 12v rail??? Umm, not qutie that much... Not even a high end SLI setup would draw that much power, let alone a single midrange card. 30amps on the 12v rail would give the PSU 360watts just on that rail alone. 350watts TOTAL from a quality PSU would be all he actually needs, but he can go for a 400 watter for good measure if he wanted to.

If you're willing, able and wanting that much power, by all means go for it, it defiantly won't hurt your PC. But from the sounds of it I don't think he's looking for anything extra to spend money on needlessly. PSU's are definatly important, but i've found that many people tend to over exaggurate the power requirments of PC's. Case in point... My main PC has the following

A64 3700+ (2.2GHz OCed to 2.45)
2x1GB PC3200
2 Hard drives
2 optical drives
Radeon X800XL
3 PCI cards
7 case fans and a couple cold cathode lights
650watt Enermax PSU

Overkill on the PSU? Most definatly. I got it for a couple reasons. One was that I bought into all the PSU hype and trusted all those highly inaccurate wattage calculators (even by their standards though I didn't need nearly 650 watts) the other was that my parents generic PSU went out on them, so I gave them my 350 watt Enermax and just went all out and got the most expensive PSU Fry's had for myself. My computer under full load consumes WELL under 300 watts (i've measured it)

Now i've got a 2nd PC with similar power requirments:
A64 3000+ (2GHz @ 2.2GHz) <~ This CPU actually draws more power than the above CPU
2 Hard Drives
2 Optical drives
2x512MB PC3200
1 PCI Card
2 Case fans + 1 light
Radeon 9800 Pro

That system is running on an Antec 300 watter and runs perfectly fine... Even has enough juice to overclock the CPU and my video card with no problems

The nice thing about the 650watter, is that if I ever have issues with that PC, I can be 99.8% sure it is not PSU related (the .2% becuase they CAN go bad). I cannot say the same about the PC running with the 300watter. So basically my point is that if you want to go overkill on the PSU, by all means go for it. But you most definatly do not NEED to.

[bwcc]

You're both right - my mistake!

[william8mitchell]

So uhhh, kind of confusing, i've got what, a max of 290W? So i might not need to upgrade the PSU? I might at some point though just to be safe, but how do i know what will fit, i see on eBay they have categories like ATX Standard, AT, Mini ITX and others, so i just want to make sure i get the right one, as i have a bad habbit of ummm... not.