Graphics card for a computer im buying

**TheUsualSuspect** · February 2nd, 2012, 07:53 AM

OK I found this forum and hoped you guys could help me out. in the next month I am planning on replacing my computer. I'm planning on buying a dell refurbish most likely one without a graphics card and then buying it separate. I'm a semi-gamer, sc2, dota2, diablo3 WoW and stuff like that so I don't need a card that can run skyrim on ultra or anything but I would like one that if I ever decided I wanted to I could play games like skyrim, Cod, ect maybe not on high but atleast run decently you know. So what would you guys recommend? My budget for the card will prob be like 100 or a bit more depending on if I gotta buy a bigger power supply or not.
here are sample specs off 1 I found in my price range to know around what it would go with.

Intel Core i5-2320 processor(6MB Cache, 3.0GHz)
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
8 GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz (2 DIMMs)

Thx for any help.

**stroyal** · February 2nd, 2012, 08:14 AM

Welcome to TechIMO!

The 2 biggest problems with your plan are, like you said, power supply, and the other is the case.A $100 video card is going to need a 400watt power supply, and you future plan could use as high as 600watts.
SLI, or Crossfire will probably never be an option.

A Dell Motherboard will have very few options in the BIOS.
If you are just gaming, you only need 4gig of RAM.
That CPU, is probably good enough, for any game out today though.

The cooling will suck, with a Dell case, and you will have problems, with large cards, and high end cards, are large.

We need the whole specs, and price to make any kind of a real opinion.

**TheUsualSuspect** · February 2nd, 2012, 08:54 AM

Ok here is the full specs on 1 that has a video card in it that I would be replacing if it cant do what I need, there site is garbage for giving specs though so stuff like power supply are not listed, reason i'm assuming ill have to buy a new one.

Processor: Intel Core i5-2320 processor(6MB Cache, 3.0GHz)
Genuine Windows 7 Home Premium
XPS 8300
1 TB SATA II Hard Drive (7200RPM)
6 GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1333MHz, (2X2G/2X1G)
16X DVD +/- RW Drive
AMD Radeon HD 6450 1GB DDR3

Would there be a certain dell that has a good case for what im trying to do? Basically the ones I see are either Inspiron 620 or XPS, Also would a 100 dollar video card be able to run like skyrim or stuff even if its just like on medium or low graphics? To your price question Im looking to build this computer for like 700. 800 would be my absolute max. Like the specs I linked was from a $550 setup then add in 100ish for video card and then the power supply and im prob around the 700. I'm a college student on a budget sadly, just getting a refund from a scholarship and figured it was time for a new comp instead of playing games on ultra low on a 2yo laptop.

ps. sry if I sound a bit computer naive im actually a computer programming student, just I know more about what you can do with a computer than what you need to do it.

**stroyal** · February 2nd, 2012, 09:53 AM

I'm not a gamer, they will be on later, but 6770 is about 110 to 120, and that should play most games pretty good.
For $700, you can build a brand new computer, better than that.
You could get a video card, that would play most games on pretty high setting.

**stroyal** · February 2nd, 2012, 10:46 AM

A quick check
$69.99 Hard Drive
Newegg.com - Western Digital Caviar Blue WD1600AAJS 160GB 7200 RPM 8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive
Win 7-64 home premium $99.99
Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems
RAM $36.99
http://www.newegg.com/Product/P$roduct.aspx?Item=N82E16820231422
Motherboard $69.99
Newegg.com - ASRock H61M/U3S3 LGA 1155 Intel H61 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard
CPU $189.99
Newegg.com - Intel Core i5-2400 Sandy Bridge 3.1GHz (3.4GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics 2000 BX80623I52400
Case $89.99 +9.99 shiping
Newegg.com - Thermaltake V9 Black Edition ATX Computer Gaming Chassis with Dual Oversized 230mm Ultra-Silent Cooling Fans VJ400G1N2Z Mid Tower
video card 6770 $129.99 +6.98
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE Vapor-X 100328VXL Radeon HD 6770 1GB 128-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card
450watt power supply 39.99 +5.99
Newegg.com - Antec VP-450 450W ATX 12V v2.3 Power Supply
DVD burner $15.99
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER Elite Power RS-400-PSAR-J3 400W ATX12V v2.31 Power Supply

$765.87

To improve on this,you would spend more on a video card.
You could even spend less on memory, CPU, , and spend more on the video card, and still have a better gamer

If you spend much more on a video card, you would need a bigger power supply, also.

I can't recommend any Dell case, but if you have a pic, we can tell you what will fit.
You will still have the cooling problems though.

**stroyal** · February 2nd, 2012, 11:37 AM

For $691.46 swap out these parts.
Better video card, slower CPU, less memory, but should be a better gamer.
It is also upgradeable to faster AMD CPU, when the price goes down, and the speed goes up.

AMD quad 3.6 $109.99
Newegg.com - AMD FX-4100 Zambezi 3.6GHz (3.8GHz Turbo) Socket AM3+ 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor FD4100WMGUSBX
Mother board $59.99
Newegg.com - ASUS M5A78L-M LX PLUS AM3+ AMD 760G Micro ATX AMD Motherboard
500watt power supply $39.99
Newegg.com - COOLER MASTER eXtreme Power Plus RS500-PCARD3-US 500W ATX12V v2.3 Power Supply
Memory $22.99
Newegg.com - G.SKILL NS 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) Desktop Memory Model F3-10666CL9D-4GBNS
$164.99 +7.56
Newegg.com - SAPPHIRE 100314-3L Radeon HD 6870 1GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 HDCP Ready CrossFireX Support Video Card

**ShyguyXPC** · February 2nd, 2012, 12:38 PM

though the hard drive is really low end in your first list, 160GB won't go far after installing Windows 7 and a few games.

but for the Dell Refurb system, a 6770 or Geforce GTX 550 Ti should play Skyrim at good settings. To everyones surprise last year, Skyrim unlike Oblivion was much more scalable and efficient with GPU's. Not needing a really high end one to really enjoy the game, though still recommended, but a good lower mid range, upper budget range card is all one needs to get the game to play decently.

keep in mind, most likely a new PSU would be needed, and you'd be looking at probably $40-50 at least for a replacement.

Building one yourself is still the way to go, especially with a $550 budget on the PC and another $100 or so on the GPU.

$700 can get you a lot really.

DVD: Newegg.com - SAMSUNG CD/DVD Burner 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 48X CD-R 24X CD-RW Black 1.5Gbps Model SH-222AL/BSBS LightScribe Support - CD / DVD Burners

Case: Newegg.com - Fractal Design Core 1000 Micro ATX Computer Case w/ 1 x 120mm fan

HDD: Newegg.com - Refurbished: Western Digital Caviar Black WD7502AAEX 750GB 7200 RPM 64MB Cache SATA 6.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive -Bare Drive

GPU: Newegg.com - EVGA SuperClocked 01G-P3-1363-KR GeForce GTX 460 (Fermi) 1GB 192-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video Card

PSU: Newegg.com - Antec NEO ECO 400C 400W Continuous Power ATX12V 2.3 / EPS12V 80 PLUS Certified Active PFC Power Supply

RAM: Newegg.com - CORSAIR Vengeance 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Low Profile Desktop Memory Model CML4GX3M2A1600C9

Mobo: Newegg.com - GIGABYTE GA-Z68MA-D2H-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 HDMI SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Micro ATX Intel Motherboard

CPU: Newegg.com - Intel Pentium G860 Sandy Bridge 3.0GHz LGA 1155 65W Dual-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics BX80623G860

OS: Newegg.com - Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-bit - Operating Systems

Subtotal: $694.91 Before Shipping.

Motherboard is a Z68 Chipset, which is preferred since it has Overclocking Options (not the greatest Motherboard cooling for OCing, but it can OC, you could always invest in aftermarket Mobo heatsinks later on if needed), can use Intel Smart Response to use a SSD to speed up regular drive performance, this board supports 3 Way Crossfire or SLI (2 way for Dual Slot Cards), and has 4 RAM Slots to expand more on that. Add to that the USB 3.0 and 3rd Gen SATA Ports, and its a good choice for MicroATX to fit that case.

PSU is enough to run that system, with a single Video card, have run the same PSU with a Intel Celeron Dual Core 2.4GHz CPU, 2GB RAM, Geforce GTX 260 video card (uses more power than the GTX 460), one hard drive and DVD Drive, just fine before.

will need to use a PCI Express 6 Pin Power Connector adapter (converts one or two 4 Pin Molex connectors into a single 6 Pin connector) but the video card should include at least one of those if needed.

The RAM is rated for 1600MHz Clock speed at 1.5V (which is stock DDR3 voltage, so no voltage increases needed to bump the RAM to 1600Mhz in the bios), will run at 1333MHz on stock settings, and will need to be increased to 1600MHz in the Bios, but 1600 is intended for CPU overclocking anyways.

the CPU, though a Dual Core, is still actually pretty good for Gaming, and a better option than AMD's Quad cores usually in this price range.

You could read through this article: AMD Or Intel: Which Offers Better Gaming Performance? : Picking A Sub-$200 Gaming CPU: FX, An APU, Or A Pentium?

Thats the conclusion page for the article, and you can see why its recommended.

the Pentium G860 even bests the FX 4100 Stroyal listed above.