Low profile GPU for old HP Pavilion slim.

[David_VI]

I've got an old HP Pavilion Slimline s3260. It had a low profile ATI Radeon HD2400 which died due to the fan seizing up.

I was thinking of using the PC as a media pc until I build a more up to date one.
It's a pretty old system, I think it was bought around 2007 but would be decent enough to stream media to.

I need to find a replacement GPU. Now there's not much power to work with. I could find a second hand HD2400 as a straight replacement but I thought i'd post here to see if there are any other options that have been available in recent years but still have a low power requirement. Maybe I can run a few old games..

Looking at the specs for the ole Pavilion (See here for specs) It says the PSU is 180w. It dealt with the 2400HD so there must be other more upto date options without much requirement for power?

Cheers
David

 

[demon8991]

I am in a very similar situation to you.

My advice would be to pick up a Nvidia 750 low profile which is due to be released very soon, they use the new Maxwell Architecture have a very low power draw and pack quite a punch.

http://www.guru3d.com/index.php?ct=news&action=file&id=5913

** No hotlinking please **

 

[David_VI]

Bumping this as I put off the idea but now i'm in the position where I'm going to go ahead...

Maybe more options now?

Ideally quite cheap as it's only for gaining a HDMI connection but possibly could run a few indie, low demanding games as a testbed to see if i'll go ahead with a new build.

 

[Tyrion2]

interested in suggestions to this one too as i also have an old hp slimline. hd died in it a while back so hasn't been used since but i'd also be interested in beefing up the graphics options (i.e. better card) - 1080p video would play but it wasn't the smoothest.

 

[Aretak]

The HD 6450 would be a good option. Uses around the same power as your old card, is a decent step up in performance and costs around £30. You could also go cheaper with a HD 5450 or GT 210 for around £20, which would offer similar performance to what you had. All are available in passively-cooled low profile configurations.

 

[David_VI]

Would the HD6450 be overkill for such an old system? I'm only really hoping to be able to run a few platformers/indie games on the TV, thinking like Beat Hazard, Audiosurf, Spelunkey, Pinball games etc. The rest I hope to stream from the main PC.

 

[Marine-RX179]

Would the HD6450 be overkill for such an old system? I'm only really hoping to be able to run a few platformers/indie games on the TV, thinking like Beat Hazard, Audiosurf, Spelunkey, Pinball games etc. The rest I hope to stream from the main PC.

Not overkill at all.

The HD6450 is a entry level and generally a "media card" for a media PC...but it should still be enough to run indie titles.

 

[David_VI]

Not overkill at all.

The HD6450 is a entry level and generally a "media card" for a media PC...but it should still be enough to run indie titles.

Ah good. I just wondered if the age of the old Pavilion would bottleneck it. It doesn't even like playing youtube videos 1080p without jerking about. Would a GPU improve that (Sounds like a novice question I know).

 

[David_VI]

The Pavilion only has an Intel Core2Duo E4500

 

[Marine-RX179]

Ah good. I just wondered if the age of the old Pavilion would bottleneck it. It doesn't even like playing youtube videos 1080p without jerking about. Would a GPU improve that (Sounds like a novice question I know).

A stock clock Core2Duo CPU wouldn't be faste enough for smooth 1080 video playback...my dad's old PC which had a E5200 if I don't overclock it to like 4.0GHz, it will get slow downs on FullHD video playback as well.

One on the main purpose of media cards such as the H6450 is to allow PC that don't have fast enough CPU to play FullHD contents smoothly, but offloading the workload from the CPU onto the GPU. You just need a player software that uses hardware acceleration.

One think you should check though is to make sure if you PC's motherboard has a PCI-E Express X16 slot for the graphic card, not a AGP slot.

 

[David_VI]

A stock clock Core2Duo CPU wouldn't be faste enough for smooth 1080 video playback...my dad's old PC which had a E5200 if I don't overclock it to like 4.0GHz, it will get slow downs on FullHD video playback as well.

One on the main purpose of media cards such as the H6450 is to allow PC that don't have fast enough CPU to play FullHD contents smoothly, but offloading the workload from the CPU onto the GPU. You just need a player software that uses hardware acceleration.

One think you should check though is to make sure if you PC's motherboard has a PCI-E Express X16 slot for the graphic card, not a AGP slot.

Ah thats comforting as I was trying the system out without a GPU and Netflix is a bit choppy. That would solve that problem yes?

I might just grab the 5450 from OCUK @19.99 as its mainly to trial the idea of a media/lightgaming/streamingPC thing... Will look into the 6450 though, if I can find it sub £30 i'll probably go with it.