new and needing advice please

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 09:28

Hi everyone

i just a pc and i need some advice on what graphic card would be a good upgrade from the current x1800 ati heres what the computer is

ASROCK G31M-S

CORE 2 QUAD Q8200

1x2 DDR2 800 2048MB/400MHz

ATI 256m All In Wonder X1800.

im just learning the ropes at the moment so go easy guys lol

would a 1 gig pcie graphic card fit in it ?

ty for any advice up front

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 09:43

Sorry forgot to mention its running on xp pro too if that makes a differance

mp260767 · 12 Jul 2011 at 10:00

should be no problem, BUT keep a couple of things in mind, you need your psu to have the power to cope with the new graphics card, and your case needs to be big enough to have the card fitted.

size wise most graphics cards should fit but better to check first than find out it won't fit when you get it.

did you have a particular card in mind ?

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 10:47

thx for the help mp

its a jeantech aqua case so there looks quite a bit of room as the x1800 is quite big

and the psu is a 550w

i think i would prefer a nvidia as i seem to find the drivers are easier to instal and was looking to spend around £70.00 Any recomedations?

Marine-RX179 · 12 Jul 2011 at 10:56

pickster said:
i think i would prefer a nvidia as i seem to find the drivers are easier to instal and was looking to spend around £70.00 Any recomedations?

Your best bet is the HD5770 around this price:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-185-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515
Nvidia doesn't have a card with compariable performance around this price range.

I'm guessing the PSU you got is a generic one...as much I would like to recommend you to get that ticking time-bomb out of your PC, you don't seem to have the budget...the 5770 should HOPEFULLY doesn't stress the PSU too much consider its power consumption is only around 110W under load and require only one PCI-E 6pin connection.

Ideally you should overclock your CPU as well, but considering your PSU it might not be such a good idea...

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:11

whoa a bomb in my pc o oh , i cant see any names on the psu but i can see it all lights up like green and amber inside the psu , i do have a spare psu at hand that maybe better its a raidmax 600atx would i be better changing them ?

the last thing i want is a fried pc

mp260767 · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:20

quick look around doesnt recommend it.

i know you won't like the idea, but if it's possible i'd consider getting a reliable psu first then saving up for the gfx card.

main reason being the psu could have serious problems trying to cope with a more powerful graphics card.

daveash · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:24

mp260767 said:
quick look around doesnt recommend it.

i know you won't like the idea, but if it's possible i'd consider getting a reliable psu first then saving up for the gfx card.

main reason being the psu could have serious problems trying to cope with a more powerful graphics card.

I second this. Although a PSU is a much less exciting upgrade, it would actually be far more beneficial to you right now. Cheap PSUs aren't worth the hassle, and will often take out components when they go bang.

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:26

Well given that you guys on here are the experts and yes as much as i dont like parting with my hard earned cash lol , i would be a fool to ask advice and not take it !

Having said that what am i looking at for a psu that is reliable?

Marine-RX179 · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:35

Yea...I use to be ignorant about PSU as well, and was like the average joe that bought generic 500W for like £20 or something. Think it was around 6-8 months down the line, the PSU went pop not once, but TWICE within like 5 seconds, and then burn smell follows.

That PSU was obviously dead, and luckily...VERY luckily the rest of my hardware didn't get taken down with it, but I don't think everyone can be that lucky. I did my homework and do a bit of research on PSU, and only stick with reliable brand PSU every since.

Generic PSU is 'probably' ok for system that use onboard graphic, but generally it would be a bad idea to use them with dedicated graphic card, particular those that are high power consumption and it might stress the 12V rail more than that cheap little PSU can handle and make it go pop.

Jay85 · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:38

Corsair, Antec, Enermax all do decent mid range and high end psu's which would suit your needs and possibly future proof you for a few years if you're not going to be upgrading to anything that draws a lot of power anytime soon. How much are you willing to spend on a new psu?

Edit:

Forgot to mention coolermaster aswel, they do decent psu's now.

rankftw · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:42

I can't stress enough how important the PSU is to your system, if it goes it has the chance of taking everything with it.

I once used a cheap ass PSU back in 2007 when GPU's started becoming really powerful. I had SLI 8800 GTS' running on some no name 550w PSU that actually exploded and took one of the cards out with it, the bang was so loud my family came running up the stairs to see what had happened lol.

Marine-RX179 · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:45

For around £40~ you'd probably be looking at the Corsair CX430 V2 430W (£39.98):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-059-CS&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1084

or the BeQuiet Pure Power L7 530W (£44.99):
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-042-BQ&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1083

But if you can pay a little more, the Antec High Current Gamer 620W currently on "this week only" is a very good option at £56.99:
http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=CA-148-AN&groupid=701&catid=123&subcat=1088

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:51

Theres me thinking made in china was a good name too lol

I,m in two minds to turn it off now and go on the laptop the way my luck has been going

So anyways i can proberbly find about £150 if i beg steal and borrow maybe i can get a new psu and a half decent card second hand off ebay ?

mp260767 · 12 Jul 2011 at 11:59

i'd go with the bequiet psu marine listed and get the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-185-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515

just under £132.

Marine-RX179 · 12 Jul 2011 at 12:06

mp260767 said:
i'd go with the bequiet psu marine listed and get the XFX ATI Radeon HD 5770 :

http://www.overclockers.co.uk/showproduct.php?prodid=GX-185-XF&groupid=701&catid=56&subcat=1515

just under £132.

Yea...I actually considered recommending Sapphire 5850 Extreme together with either the Corsair or the Be Quiet PSU which would comes to a total of £160-£165...but after having a look at the motherboard, it is as I feared it is cheap low end one, so overclocking the CPU would probably be out of question as the bios would most likely have the overclocking featueres, so a new PSU and the 5770 would seem to be the best option to go for.

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 12:13

Yes i was just reading the reviews on the be quiet psu that looks like the best option for me , its defo sunk in that psu is more important

I just wish i had come to this site for advice before i bought this system

Will this hd 5770 play the new games ok then , or will something else bite me on the ass

Marine-RX179 · 12 Jul 2011 at 12:25

pickster said:
Will this hd 5770 play the new games ok then , or will something else bite me on the ass

I would say it'd probably be best to stretch for the Sapphire 5850 Extreme if you can (and go with the Be Quiet PSU). However you should note that there WILL be some bottleneck occur due the CPU running at stock speed and some games not using all 4 cores.

Even my Q6600 overclocked to 3.6GHz would bottleneck my 5850 in games that don't use all 4 cores during CPU intensive scenes (GPU usage drop from 100% down to around 60-70%, frame rate drop from 60-70fps down to 23-25fps). But hopefully most of the new big game titles would use 4 cores...so your Q8200 might still JUST BARELY able to cope at stock speed.

Also, another thing to consider is that if you do have money to spare and can upgrade your system to something faster in the future, the 5850 would still be a reasonbly fast card, whereas the 5770 would be consider too slow by then.

pickster · 12 Jul 2011 at 12:36

thx marine i think i understood most of that and overclocking is something i need to learn about , theres a program in this pc called asrock oc tuner what i had a look at earlier but too much atm for my head to take in lol

one job at a time me thinking

ill do some homework and report back with how i went on thx for all the help guys

mp260767 · 12 Jul 2011 at 12:58

what sort of games are you looking at playing pickster ?

Marine-RX179 said:
Yea...I actually considered recommending Sapphire 5850 Extreme together with either the Corsair or the Be Quiet PSU which would comes to a total of £160-£165...but after having a look at the motherboard, it is as I feared it is cheap low end one, so overclocking the CPU would probably be out of question as the bios would most likely have the overclocking featueres.......

not too sure on the mobo , fairly certain the g31's could overclock okay, definately worth a look/try.

and yes if he could afford it i'd go with the 5850 over the 5770, age old problem of "well it's only £10-15 more...." but its where to stop

.