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Uograde Advice needed

horseunderwater

horseunderwater

horseunderwater

Associate
Joined
31 May 2008
Posts
1,011
My present system is struggling to play games (rpgs mostly)
what graphics card would be a good upgrade from an 8600gt 1gb

current system is
AMD 64x2 2600
2gb mem
Gigabyte M61SME-S2
Enlight 350 power supply

yes i know the powersupply is crap i bought the system secondhand for £25 a year ago

budget is about £60

Thanks mark
 
Thing is 8600gt is about the most powerful gfx that psu can handle as it doesn't require any pci-e 6 pin connector. So if you want to upgrade you'll need to upgrade both and 60 quid is really not enough.
 
What res do you game at? Will you consider 2nd hand part?

For PSU I'd probably go for the Corsair CX430 at the very least. As for GFX there are quite a few bargains to be had in the members market if you look. If you must get brand new then the GTX460 768mb for 114 quid is easily the best value for money card out there at the moment, even though it's a bit too overpowered for your system. By that I mean the card's performance will be limited by the slow CPU and 2gb ram in your system.

The Gainward "Green" edition 9800GT for 58 quid is another option if you can't spend that much, it doesn't require any 6-pin PCI-E connector but a PSU upgrade is still highly recommended. An oem PSU such as the one in your system often doesn't deliever its rated wattage and is a lot more likely to fail and take out the rest of your system when it does.
 
the res is 1360X768 native monitor res

i have no problem with buying secondhand equipment
and a new power supply
why do people keep on about powersupplies blowing?
i have never had a power supply blow in 30 years
are they built of lower quality components?
 
go with the 9800gt green the psu likely be fine. if it isnt just pick up a cheap psu. for what you're after there's no point in spending heaps.
 
something like a hd5670 would be a nice upgrade also and you wouldn't need to replace the psu i think as it only uses 20w more than your 8600gt.
 
horseunderwater said:
are they built of lower quality components?
Click to expand...

Yes.. Like anything you get what you pay for, you don't sell a 20 quid 700w psu without cutting A lot of corners. You might not have one blown up on you yet but when a cheap psu goes, it's very likely to fry other components with it as it offers no protection. Its not such a problem for you I suppose when the whole rig only cost you 25 quid.

But as you upgrade its always a good idea to invest in a decent psu. It will last you a very long time and sees you through many upgrades so the investment is worth it IMO.
 
horseunderwater said:
the res is 1360X768 native monitor res

i have no problem with buying secondhand equipment
and a new power supply
why do people keep on about powersupplies blowing?
i have never had a power supply blow in 30 years
are they built of lower quality components?
Click to expand...

Unfortunately they do go and it's pretty common of the lower specced ones. Your lucky to never have had one go on you. I see PSU failures regularly.
 
The cheapy low powered power supplies you get in generic systems are nearly always awful. I'd never seen any blow up either until a year ago, and 2 oldish systems both died with one killing the motherboard and everything else, and the other just causing instability and constant reboots.

TBH though as others have said, for £25 you haven't got much to lose so it may not be too much of a worry.
 
horseunderwater said:
I would like to know what corsair did to those power suppplies on that video?
Click to expand...
It was written in test own screen...all they did was put the PSU under 75% load of the rated watts (335W output on a 450W PSU), and the PSU already gave up and going kaboom.

Replacing the PSU would be the least of the worries, as if it take the CPU, motherboard and other hardwares together with it when it dies, you'd be looking at practically replacing the entire system. For the sake of saving couple of ten quids on the PSU, it's hardly worth the risk. As people say, PSU is the most important component in a computer, which people should skim on...
 
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